![\"chad](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/stockton-basketball-reunion-chad-davis.jpg\")
<\/p>\nGalloway, N.J. \u2014 \u201cHey, did you guys raise the rims. Are these legal? They seem a little higher,\u201d
\n Chad Davis said with a chuckle as the former Stockton University basketball player
\n ran down Gerry Matthews Court on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Davis \u201909 was one of several members of the most successful men\u2019s basketball team
\n in school history who gathered at the Sports Center for an alumni scrimmage and a
\n chance to catch up with Coach Matthews. The 2008-09 team advanced to the NCAA Division
\n III men\u2019s basketball championship game before losing to Washington (Missouri) 61-52.
\n The team finished with a school record 30 wins and only three losses.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou pick up right where you left off,\u201d said Davis, of Vineland, who was a co-captain
\n of the team and now works as a prosecutor in Cumberland County. \u201cI played my freshman
\n year through my junior year, but my senior year (the 2008-09 season) was fun. It was
\n a brotherhood. Everyone got along. The trips were fun. It was a really special experience
\n that year.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chad Davis, a member of the 2008-09 Stockton men’s basketball team, goes up for a
\n rebound during an alumni scrimmage at the Sports Center on Jan. 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Several of the former players enjoyed being back on campus to remember an unforgettable
\n season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was fun to connect with guys I haven\u2019t seen in a long time,\u201d said Steve Scheck
\n \u201912, who played forward and center on the 2008-09 team. \u201cIt was a good turnout. Guys
\n who I haven\u2019t seen in years, we haven\u2019t skipped a beat. That group of guys, we will
\n always be tight no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scheck, who lives where he grew up in Absecon, credited the fact that most of the
\n team was \u201ca bunch of regular guys from New Jersey\u201d as one of the reasons why they
\n were so close.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that brought a lot of us together. We all hung out outside of basketball
\n as well,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody made each other compete in practice, and then we were
\n all friends off the court and still friends to this day.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that it was also great to see Matthews, 84, one of the greatest basketball
\n coaches in New Jersey history. Matthews, who also led Stockton to the NCAA Final Four
\n in 1987, finished his career with a 603-243 record in 30 seasons. Matthews\u2019 Ospreys
\n won nine New Jersey Athletic Conference titles and 16 appearances in the NJAC final.
\n His teams never had a losing season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spent 30 seasons here and there\u2019s an awful lot of memories, an awful lot of players
\n and an awful lot of games, and I don\u2019t forget any of that stuff,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cBasketball
\n was life for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not an exaggeration. For more than half his life, 43 years, Matthews coached
\n high school and college basketball from freshman to junior varsity to varsity to college.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tell some of the referees that they aren\u2019t allowed to run on my name (on the court).
\n They have to go around and not step on it,\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
He still makes it to six or seven Stockton basketball games a year, often sitting
\n in current coach Scott Bittner\u2019s office, which has a window overlooking the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just glad to see that Stockton\u2019s doing well and Scott\u2019s done a nice job when
\n he took my place,\u201d Matthews said.<\/p>\n
![\"Gerry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/stockton-basketball-reunion-matthews-workman.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Former Stockton men’s basketball coaches Gerry Matthews, left, and Nick Werkman.<\/p>\n
Bittner was an assistant coach on the 2008-09 team. He said Matthews taught him how
\n important it is to teach his players not only basketball skills but life skills, as
\n well.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe made me understand that if you care about the kids first, they\u2019ll really let you
\n challenge them and coach them hard,\u201d said Bittner, who became Stockton\u2019s coach in
\n 2016 after being an assistant for Matthews for 10 years. \u201cYou\u2019re trying to get them
\n to be great people. If you can\u2019t be a great teammate and you don\u2019t work as hard as
\n you can doing something you love, then how are you going to work hard at something
\n you don\u2019t love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bittner said the 2008-09 team was not only \u201cthe best team, but the most fun team to
\n be around.\u201d<\/p>\n
“The best group of personalities, they were the most connected group. And it\u2019s interesting
\n how important that is,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what you strive for in every group. I tell
\n my players that it\u2019s my goal for you to leave Stockton with 10 or 15 of your best
\n friends that you\u2019ll have for the rest of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
That camaraderie was evident Saturday as members of the 2008-09 team joined other
\n Stockton basketball alumni for a competitive scrimmage full of 3-point shots, no-look
\n passes, dunks and, of course, laughs.<\/p>\n
As Davis jogged up and down the court, he kept an eye on his young son, Barney, wearing
\n a Philadelphia 76ers jersey and dribbling a ball behind one of the baskets.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew he wanted to come and watch. He\u2019s playing basketball now,\u201d Davis said. \u201cIt\u2019s
\n a treat to come out here. I\u2019m a big proponent of Stockton. I\u2019m going to make it a
\n priority to make sure we get back for a few games every year.\u201d<\/p>\n
— Story and photos by Mark Melhorn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Galloway, N.J. \u2014 \u201cHey, did you guys raise the rims. Are these legal? They seem a little higher,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-395925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}