Stuckman’s world basketball tour to play next in United Kingdom

QUINCY (WGEM) – If Tanner Stuckman was a rock star, the back of his world tour concert T-shirt would be filling up with countries.

Stuckman, the former Quincy Notre Dame and Quincy University basketball standout announced today that he will play the 2024-25 season overseas in the United Kingdom, the fifth country the sport has taken him professionally in four years.

Stuckman will join the Caledonia Gladiators based in East Kilbride, Scotland. The Gladiators compete as the sole Scottish-based team in the British Basketball League, the UK’s top tier of domestic basketball.

The UK now joins Finland, Portugal, Canada, and Spain as countries the 6-foot-8 Stuckman has played professionally.

“The name of the band on the shirt would be ‘CHAOS,’” Stuckman said with a chuckle. “Because that’s what international travel is.

“There’s always something that happens … misplaced luggage, missing tickets or some other type of misfortune.”

Since graduating from QU after the 2020-2021 season, Stuckman’s professional career has taken him to Finland, Portugal, Canada and Spain.

Playing in Scotland means fewer language and cuisine differences than he’s experienced in other nations.

“Thank the Lord on that,” Stuckman said. “Especially with some of the language barriers. It will be fun to play in an English-speaking nation.”

Travel agreements between the United States will also make it easier for Stuckman’s wife Olivia to spend most of the season with him — unlike in other countries.

“Olivia can come for six months, has to leave for three days, and then can return for another six months,” Stuckman explained which is plenty of time for the season that runs September through April.

Stuckman said contract talks with Caledonia took a little longer than he had previously experienced.

“It was about a two-month ordeal,” Stuckman said. “Talks started about late May and in June my agent said this team would like to interview you.

“Then it went radio silent. I guess they were figuring out their roster and budget. Then they called in late July and I signed. Compared to previous years, it was a long process.”

Stuckman says he will learn more about his role on the team from the coaching staff when the team assembles for preseason workouts.

“I’ll play the 4 (power forward) but that looks a lot different in European basketball than in the U.S.,” Stuckman said. “It’s not really a scoring role.”

An All-GLVC first-team selection at QU in 2021 after scoring 1,275 points in his career, Stuckman started his overseas journey at KaU Koris Karkkilla in Finland, averaging 22 points and 10 rebounds.

After a brief stint in Portugal, he played two years with the Windsor Express of the National Basketball Canada.

During the 2021-22 season with the Express, Stuckman averaged nine points and four rebounds per game and during the 2022-23 campaign he averaged 13 points and six rebounds per game.

During the 2023-24 season, Stuckman averaged eight points and three rebounds for Oviedo Club Balencesto in Oviedo, Spain.

What really attracted Stuckman to Caledonia, which finished 23-13 last year, is its inclusion in the European Champions League.

In its first game, Caledonia plays Oradea from Romania in Turkey. The winners keep advancing.

If they fail to advance, though, the team still gets to play games in the FIBA Europe Championships, which means games against teams from Germany, Hungary, Croatia and France.

“At this point, there’s not a lot of practice, just a lot of games,” Stuckman said. “And that’s just how I like it.”

Besides hosting the second annual Tanner Stuckman Basketball Camp and holding individual workouts for youngsters this summer, Stuckman and three friends developed a podcast.

The “We Dem Boys” podcast features Stuckman plus Troy Potts, Mac Little and Jonny Bottorff, all athletes and close friends from their days at Quincy Notre Dame, discussing a myriad of issues involving athletics and other topics.

They have already produced two introductory podcasts which can be found on YouTube or on their respective social media sites.

Starting with the next podcast, they expect to have a guest on the show.

“I think it’s a great way for all of us to stay in touch and be able to connect with the Quincy area as we continue on our own journeys,” Stuckman said.

While Stuckman continues his career overseas, Potts took an assistant basketball coaching job at Frank Phillips JC in Texas, Bottorff is in his final season playing football at Northern Arizona University, and Little is a recent newlywed who works at Dot Foods and lives in Quincy after a successful soccer career at Quincy University.

“Podcasts are a big thing right now and the majority of them are all serious and about big topics,” Stuckman said.

“We’re just doing it to provide some entertainment and talk about old stories that can give people a few laughs. I think we have a decent following so far.”

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