Charlie Maricle

If you could redo two minutes in your life, what would they be?

What would you like to do differently?

Chris Stoebner would simply move his foot.

Yeah, he would place his right foot just a few inches over and everything would be fine.

See, Chris Stoebner ended his career at SDSU with 1,096 points, 20th on the all-time scoring list.

But he also ended his career on the bench.

Chris Stoebner did not play his last game of basketball at SDSU.

Chris was forced to watch the men’s basketball team lose to top-seed Nebraska-Kearney, due to a severely sprained ankle.

A severely sprained ankle that came in the last minutes of an 84-78 win over Fort Hayes State in the first round of the Division II National Tournament.

Before the game, the team thought he might play. But after going through warm-ups Stoebner knew he would be watching this one.

The 86-85 loss was hard for Stoebner to watch.

“I was hurting but I knew I couldn’t sit there on the sideline and pout. I tried not doing that. I tried getting everybody going and involved before the game,” Stoebner said.

“He was sitting right next to me the whole game and every time I’d turn around he was standing there yelling at guys and cheering them on,” Scott Nagy, men’s head basketball coach said.

“When you go through a career like he had and then not to be able that’s a tough thing to deal with,” teammate Austin Hansen said.

Despite the bitterness of the loss, and his inability to play, Stoebner’s career has not been in vain.

Stoebner scored his 1,000th career point against Augustana College, Feb 20. His 20 points in that game made him the 35th member of the club at SDSU.

But the senior, psychology major, will not be known for his scoring ability. His knowledge of the game is what makes Stoebner a distinct player.

“He’s just got a great feel for the game. In terms of his basketball knowledge and his basketball smarts, he’s one of the top players I’ve ever coached,” Nagy said.

“He just knew the game really well. As a teammate, you want to be out there with four other guys that know how to play the game, that know who to get the ball to and when to get the ball to them. And having Chris out there just made the game easier to play,” Hansen, a fellow senior, said.

That ‘feel’ is something even Harrisburg Athletic Director Terry Fisher, remembers.

“He was a student of the game and understood the game better than most,” Fisher said.

At Harrisburg High School, Stoebner started all four years for the Tigers.

His numbers there were not gaudy but silently impressive, 1822 points, 675 rebounds, 570 assists and 229 steals.

Those numbers, coupled with what they saw convinced SDSU to get Stoebner in blue and gold.

“He’s just a complete player. The thing I liked most about him was his passing ability. He was one of the best high school passers I’ve ever seen,” Nagy said.

“I try to bring versatility to the floor. I just try to do the things that need to be done,” Stoebner said, of his style of ball.

His versatility produced solid numbers over his four years at SDSU.

“He played a valuable role for us his whole career. He just knew how to distribute the ball,” Hansen said.

Along with his scoring, Stoebner handed out 343 assists, good for fifth in SDSU history. He also grabbed 456 rebounds and ripped off 114 steals.

Unfortunately, he was unable to bring that versatility to the floor one last time.

But you won’t hear him complain, because he walks away from his career with something more than wins.

“I’ve created great friendships with the teammates I’ve had, life long friendships. And I was proud of the way the guys played. I saw how hard they played and that made me proud,” he said.