Feature: Max Landis Reflects on Pro Basketball Journey
2/27/2026 2:54:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The never-ending stream of professional basketball talent flowing out of the Purdue Fort Wayne men’s basketball program lost some strength this season, when former Mastodon great Max Landis chose family over free throws.
After nearly a decade of being paid to play the game he always loved, Landis elected to retire from the sport last fall, and he did so at - arguably - his peak.
“It was really tough,” Landis said of stepping off the court as an athlete. “I probably had the most lucrative offers during this past off-season.
“Around the time that I chose to retire, I had a couple of really good offers on the table.”
But he had several “good offers” sitting around his dinner table, which took precedent over his athletic interests.
Landis had spent the past six seasons playing spectacular basketball for FC Porto in the Portuguese Basketball League, and remaining in the scenic oceanside city was an option for Landis. However, with three small children (twin boys, who are eight years old, and another, who just turned five), he and his wife, former IPFW women’s basketball player Stefanie Mauk, decided to “come home” for the betterment of the children.
“It was more of a family decision,” Landis explained. “I didn’t want to live over there without the kids. The twins are in second grade.The more that I thought about it, I couldn’t get over the fact that I would be living apart from them.”
The decision could not have been an easy one, because Landis was in the midst of a fantastic experience in Europe.
After spending a season each in Belgium and Germany, Landis landed in Porto, and like the fields of Lavender, which carpet the rugged mountainsides of the Portuguese interior, his basketball career bloomed with beauty.
In his six seasons with FC Porto, Landis helped the club win the Portuguese League Cup in 2021, the Portuguese Cup in 2024 and 2025, and the Portuguese Super Cup in 2019 and 2024.
“We were there for so long,” Landis said, “that it started to become home.”
His older boys, McCoy and Creighton, were enrolled in “an international school,” where they became bilingual in English and Portuguese.
The youngest son, Briggs, who celebrated his birthday on Feb. 10, was actually born in Porto and will enjoy dual citizenship between the United States and Portugal for the remainder of his existence.
“That was a possibility,” Landis said. “That we were going to live in Portugal for the rest of our lives.”
Each offseason, though, Landis and his family would return to the Midwest (Max is from Indianapolis and Stefanie is from Lima, Ohio), and the feelings of melancholy would start to emerge.
“I wanted to get back to the (United) States,” Landis said. “There are a lot more opportunities for kids and Stefanie.”
Always valued it and never took it for granted! pic.twitter.com/Fuv9M1X5RB
— Max Landis (@MaxLandis) November 17, 2025
The fact that Landis, who was the 2016 Summit League Men’s Basketball Player of the Year, lasted nine seasons in Europe, before finishing his career with a brief stint last summer in Cancun, Mexico, was surprising to him, because when he and Stefanie landed in Belgium for his first season, he didn’t think he was going to make it nine days.
“I can honestly say,” Landis laughed as he recalled his rocky start. “If Stefanie wasn’t there with me, I probably wouldn’t have played.”
His first season was spent playing for a team in a small town, but whose fans had very BIG expectations of Landis.
Landis had averaged 37.2 minutes per game in his final season in Fort Wayne, as well as 19.3 points per game which helped lead the Mastodons to the 2016 Summit League Regular Season Championship and a trip to San Diego State in the NIT.
“Max had the most prolific senior year of any player that I have coached in my 26 years,” stated Mastodon head coach Jon Coffman. “He set the standard for our program, which has continued to pay itself forward. I absolutely love Max—and will be forever grateful for how he set the table for our program’s success. He could feel the temperature of practice and raise the intensity without being asked. He would go so hard that I would have to cut practice short because I was afraid he would get hurt.”
His shooting for the Mastodons was prolific. In his final season, he connected on 45.3 percent overall and even better from long distance (45.6 percent) and was second in the nation in both three point percentage and makes. The NCAA flew Landis down to the Final Four in Houston, TX to participate in the 3-Point Contest.
“Max set the bar for how we operate, and it has led us to become the winningest Mid-Major in the state of Indiana over the past decade,” Coffman said. “We’ve sold his development story on the recruiting trail for a decade.”
Landis scored a career and program-best 44 points at South Dakota with (11) 3-pointers, and also had the second-most points in Mastodon history with 37 against Omaha with (9) 3-pointers.
None of that was on his mind - at least initially - in Belgium.
“I remember being in tears and asking Stefanie, ‘What are we doing? '” Landis said. “I love basketball, but I don’t know if I love basketball this much.”
He eventually learned to navigate himself on - and off - the court, and then spent a couple of seasons playing in Germany, whose professional league is regarded as one of the best in Europe.
“There is a little bit of a cultural shock at first,” Landis said of adjusting to a professional career. “I struggled in that first year, just living there. It’s different.
“It’s hard for a 22-year-old kid, who is trying to figure out if this is really for him.”
As the story unfolded, however, the 2016 Summit League Player of the Year did “figure it out,” and he enjoyed tremendous success.
“I was able to connect with the Porto fans with my competitiveness,” Landis said. “The hard work. It is that type of town.
“I could feed off of that, and the fans really enjoyed me.”
Though Landis is no longer coming off of ballscreens, he hasn’t strayed too far from the basketball court. He is working with former college player Jonny Marlin, another Indianapolis-area native, who spent one season with the Mastodons, training young basketball players at a faith-based facility dubbed “The Ark.”
“I’m enjoying it,” Landis said. “It keeps me around the game, and I am around the kids a lot.
“So far, it’s been great.”
Though the Landis family is a couple hours away from Fort Wayne, Mastodon hoops are never far from their hearts.
Landis has a great amount of appreciation for the impact that playing for the program had on his life, personally and professionally.
“Meeting my wife was the best,” Landis said of being at Fort Wayne. “As for basketball, (Mastodon men’s basketball coach Jon Coffman) is a very intelligent guy and very detailed. I learned a lot from him, Xs and Os wise, and the right way to play.”
And the Mastodons have learned a lot from Landis as well. Landis has continued to give back after leading IPFW to their first league title in 2016.
“Over the last decade, no alum has been more active mentoring current players and counseling those that head overseas to play professionally than Max,” states Coffman. “I am so proud of what he has done with basketball and for our program and even more proud of who he has become as a father and husband.
“His impact has been so great that he has remained on my X avatar since 2016. And I’m excited to see him in the stands Saturday (at IU Indianapolis)---I might even sub him in for a quick 3-6-9.”
~ Feel The Rumble ~
