LAHAINA, Hawaii – When Justin Coleman first set his career-high of 28 points last season, some 1,067 fans were on hand to watch him lead Samford over Chattanooga at the Pete Hanna Center in Birmingham, Alabama.
ESPN streamed the game on the internet for anyone else who cared to watch.
But when Coleman matched that number last Tuesday against Gonzaga, a rowdy crowd of 2,400 packed the Lahaina Civic Center while ESPN carried the game on its flagship platform.
It was a much bigger stage.
But Coleman was the same guy on it.
“First of all, I want to thank my Lord and Savior for this opportunity once again,” Coleman said to begin his postgame interview, as he always does.
Later, Coleman credited his teammates not only for finding him, but also for keeping defenders away from him.
“I just took the open shots that I had, and my teammates played a big part in that,” Coleman said. “They created shots for me and also, they had to guard (Brandon Randolph and Brandon Williams), so that just helped make my game a lot easier.”
But by the end of the Maui Invitational, it was pretty clear that Coleman’s teammates were the ones who probably owed him a bigger debt.
In three Maui Invitational games, Coleman averaged 20.7 points, while shooting 57.1 percent from the field and 58.3 percent from 3-point range.
Moreover, he hit shots when the Wildcats often needed them most.
Against Iowa State, after the Cyclones took a nine-point lead at halftime, Arizona cut it to 43-37 on a 3 from Coleman. Arizona later tied it at 56 with 5:02 left when Coleman drove inside for a finger-roll layup, and the Wildcats went up for good when Coleman hit a 3-pointer to make it 63-60 with 1:49 to go.
Against Gonzaga, Coleman had 17 points in the first half alone to carry the Wildcats to a surprising 45-37 lead.
The next day, Coleman hit three 3s within two minutes to keep UA within two, 50-48, with 10:14 left against Auburn before the Wildcats collapsed down the stretch.
Naturally, Coleman’s play earned plenty of buzz on social media. But when one poster said after the Auburn game that “Justin Coleman proved he’s one of the TOP PGs in da nation,” Coleman indicated it was not about him.
He retweeted it by adding only two words, “Colossians 3:23,” a motivational Biblical verse that says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not human masters.”
No matter the source of motivation, the fact was that Coleman made a big difference in every game the Wildcats played in Maui, leading them to victory Monday, then keeping them competitive on Tuesday and Wednesday.
UA coach Sean Miller said he wasn’t sure where the Wildcats would have been in any of the three games if not for Coleman.
“He was outstanding,” Miller said. “Just watching him play for 40 minutes is something I think that gives us a lot of confidence moving forward, because he did it against the best. Justin is an experienced player as well.”
He’s experienced on different levels, too. Coleman spent his first two years in the Southeastern Conference at Alabama, once scoring 24 points against Oregon as a sophomore, but averaged only 6.1 points over 67 games in two seasons with the Crimson Tide.
Coleman transferred to Samford in 2016, saying he wanted to be closer to his home of Birmingham because a younger brother was battling cancer, and sat out the 2016-17 season. Last season, he became a second-team all-Southern Conference pick when he averaged 13.5 points and 6.6 assists per game.
Then Coleman left Samford last summer with a degree and transferred to Arizona. That put him back on a bigger stage where, so far, he’s thriving.
Not that he’ll tell you anything like that.
