Jordan Goldwire will Grad Transfer to Oklahoma

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Thanks J-Gold. Best wishes for a successful transfer year. While at Duke you did yourself proud, and you did Duke proud.

[Kedsy]

Describe what you mean by a lower tier program. Any examples? What would you constitute as attributes that make programs lower tier?

I'm not CDu, but I believe he meant low-major or mid-major.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Unless something very unexpected is on the horizon, I think the only last piece to determine whether we’re a preseason Top 10 team versus a preseason Top 5 team is Matt’s decision.

Why does preseason ranking matter? We don't hang banners for preseason ranking. Where were we ranked preseason this year? At the end, we were not even in "others receiving votes." I certainly hope we have a high post-season ranking. I think there has been a preseason default to rank Duke high because Coach K. But I frankly would be disappointed to see us in the Top 5 or 10 pre-season. I would rather we earned it on the court.

And just to be clear, best wishes to Jordan. He "exceeded expectations" and then some. Without intending disrespect, he is what he is. So glad he played for us, will never forget the Louisville comeback, but he is not the reincarnation of Bobby Hurley. It would have been nice to have his experience next year. I really don't think this move says anything about Trevor Keels or anything else. I think it says Jordan Goldwire wants to go in another direction in the next phase of his life. Good for him. And I wish him well.[/QUOTE]

Thankfully, this isn't college football. Preseason rankings are a beauty pageant. In football, you have to start high to end high. Basketball is much more of a meritocracy. A high preseason ranking might assist you as a true bubble team trying to get into the tournament, but by the end, the last team standing has earned their way there.

[CameronBornAndBred]

A rare 4 year player in Cameron these days. I'll miss him, and will also enjoy following wherever his game takes him. One of the most memorable "sparks" in recent history. (Helps that he gave us so many memories.) Best wishes JG!

[kshepinthehouse]

Bummer. JGold played starter minutes for Duke so playing time shouldn’t be the issue.

It would have been next year.

[CDu]

Describe what you mean by a lower tier program. Any examples? What would you constitute as attributes that make programs lower tier?

Duke didn’t make the NCAAT this year and went 13-11 ...

This year’s Duke doesn’t matter to next year’s opportunity. We are not going 13-11 and 9-9 in conference next year. And honestly we weren’t that bad this year, just a bit unlucky in close games.

I meant either a lower/bottom-tier power-conference school (like a Wake, Georgia, Vanderbilt) or a mid-major.

[Music man55]

Good luck to JGold. A great defender who made himself an important rotation and sometimes starter for Duke for four years. I will miss him.

[CameronBornAndBred]

And honestly we weren’t that bad this year,

Yes we were. Honestly.

[CDu]

Yes we were.

We really weren’t. We played like a top-40 team, we just didn’t get the wins in a couple too many close games. Folks around here just around used to not being a 25+ win team I guess. But we were better than a lot of folks are giving credit.

We weren’t really good or anything, but we weren’t that bad. We were as good or better than, for example, Syracuse, who is in the Sweet-16.

Had 1 or 2 more of the nailbiters gone our way, I bet nobody is saying we were bad.

[CameronBornAndBred]

We played like a top-40 team

But we lost like a top 100 team.

But we were better than a lot of folks are giving credit.

We never proved it.

PS...don't mean to be hijacking J-Gold's appreciation thread.

[brevity]

I once asked this trivia question in DBR Chat: how many points did Jordan Goldwire score in Duke's 23-point comeback at Louisville on February 12, 2019?



Answer: zero. But he still got a Jordan Goldwire Appreciation Thread on DBR the very next day.

I know we're still in "post-game thread" mode, but I really believe that JG deserves his own thread given his performance last night. It's no coincidence that Jordan came into the game around the 8 minute mark, just when our unbelievable run began. When he missed his wide-open layup I could already read the "JG isn't good enough to be a Duke PG" posts coming... and then he turned in a virtuoso defensive performance. I've NEVER seen a guy impact a game so much while having such minimal impact on the box score.

No matter what happens going forward, Jordan earned his scholarship last night to be sure... and he's shown that, even if he's never going to be a starting caliber PG in a Duke uniform (a topic which has been discussed ad nauseum in the recruiting thread), he's got the heart and the grit to make an impact on the game however he finds his way onto the floor. He deserves a dedicated thread for praise and appreciation for his stellar effort last night that might get lost in the discussion considering our other stars that typically get the spotlight.

More from the DBR Archives:

2017 Basketball Recuiting Thread (May 1, 2017 at 2:46pm ET)

There's a new recruiting target on the radar: Jordan Goldwire. Based on his list of offers (Eastern Kentucky, Coastal Carolina, Hofstra, etc), Goldwire is a 4-year PG, i.e. do not panic and think this means anything about Duval or the 2018 targets like Tre Jones or Darius Garland (who project to be 2-3 year players).

I haven't dug into him enough to figure out whether he's more Andre Buckner or Tyler Thornton yet.

Goldwire has already been Crystal Ball'ed to Duke by the 247 guys.

I have no idea how serious Duke's interest is, but Goldwire does have a Duke connection -- he was Alex O'Connell's backup on Team Spirit at the Nike EBYL camp

I know that he is rated higher than Andre Buckner, who was going to Tennessee as a walk-on. He got a Duke offer when Will Avery unexpectedly turned pro. K wanted another point guard to give coming freshman Jason Williams somebody else to practice against. Buckner did his job well and earned a national title ring in 2001. He was never much of a factor in any game (actually, he did make a solid contribution to a Duke win at Clemson, when he came off the bench when Duke was struggling and provided a strong 2-3 minute stint).

Tyler Thornton was a MUCH higher rated prospect.

This will be interesting. Goldwire has several scholarship offers -- he was supposedly down to Eastern Kentucky or UNLV or maybe Hofstra.

We'll see (1) if Duke offers; (2) if he wants to come to Duke and be a practice player for at least a year.

Welcome to Duke, Jordan Goldwire! (May 1, 2017 at 8:52pm ET)

Is this the shortest Duke recruitment ever? Jim, Oly, and several other knowledgeable Duke historians will no doubt know. But this one seemed pretty fast. I just heard about his recruitment today and he already committed.

If you'd told me yesterday that today a point guard would commit to Duke, I would not have been surprised. But this is not what I would have expected.

Welcome to Duke Jordan!

Andre Buckner is the only analog I can think of for quickness. Even Antonio Vrankovic took longer.

(1) Quickest commitment/shortest recruitment that I can remember. No recruiting guru even linked Goldwire and Duke before today. Totally out of the blue. Has Coach K and/or his staff been monitoring Goldwire secretly? Who knows, but they could have seen him last summer while scouting O'Connell (who played on the same EBYL team). If there was a long-term contact there, nobody -- and I mean nobody -- even hinted at it before today.

(2) I think he's higher rated that Andre Buckner. But I do think he arrives as a practice player ... hopefully he can develop into a rotation player at some point in his career, especially if the comments about his defense are valid.

(3) I can't see that this has any impact on Duval's decision whatsoever ... Duval is not going to worry about losing any minutes at Duke next season due to Goldwire.

Goldwire is the ninth player signed for next year (Allen, Vrankovic, Bolden, DeLaurier, White, Carter, Trent, O'Connell and Goldwire)

There's still room to add Frank Jackson, if he returns, plus Duval and Knox. Heck, even if Bamba wants to come, there will be a scholarship for him.

The quick recruitment of Goldwire COULD mean that the Duke coaches think either Jackson or Duval will not be there next year, but I think that's a stretch ... he would be a useful practice player either way.

I'm calling it: Jordan Goldwire is Tyler Thornton 2.0 (November 15, 2017)

I had an inkling this might be the case when he committed, but after three games I'm convinced. Jordan Goldwire is gonna be our next Tyler Thornton, and TBH I couldn't be happier since TT was one of my favorites. Consider the similarities:

—Both were overlooked, 3* recruits who people didn't expect much of in their freshman years, if ever
—Both also came in a recruiting class including a top PG, making them even more overlooked
—Both were known as defensive specialists in HS, including shutting down many higher ranked PG recruits
—Both have surprised by contributing very early in their respective Duke careers

I won't jinx things by mentioning the big event that happened in TT's freshman year that we all hope Goldwire's doesn't have in common.

Nonetheless, I'm of the mind that nothing but good things can come if Goldwire continues to merit 5-10 minutes of run a game. Not only does this allow Duval some rest (we all know freshman can get a little run down, especially in a K 7/8 man rotation), it will ensure Grayson doesn't have to step over and run the point, allowing him to focus on refining his role as an off-ball guard that he certainly seems to be relishing. Plus, getting that little bit of PT each game will vastly accelerate Goldwire's development (for an example, take a look at recent Michigan basketball history and all the guys who took huge leaps between their freshman and sophomore years, helped by the experience they got playing some minutes as opposed to none as freshmen), to the point that he might be a major bench contributor in years 2/3 and maybe even a senior starter and leader in year 4.

Yes, this may be way down the list of important stories to come out of the first week of the regular season, but I'm a sucker for PG's who play great D and can run an offense. I'm psyched.

ALL ACC Awards (Hurt First Team, Goldwire Defensive Team, Steward Rookie Team) (March 8, 2021)

Congrats to Hurt, Goldwire, and Steward. An extra special shout out to Goldwire; the degree of improvement he made over his 4 years has been amazing.

That's a lot of hardware for a team seeded 10th in tomorrow's ACC Tournament. Well done boys! I echo the praise of Goldwire, he really outperformed his recruiting ranking.

He's such a great story. I was struck by Scheyer saying on a recent podcast that Goldwire's development at Duke from start to finish is as good as he's seen.

[CDu]

But we lost like a top 100 team.


We never proved it.

PS...don't mean to be hijacking J-Gold's appreciation thread.

You are putting way too much weight on the result of 2-3 possessions over the course of a season.

We played like a top-40 team. We got a bit unlucky and it deflated our record. We were not a bad team, like at all.

Even with the losses we were a bubble team. If 2 more possessions go our way, we are comfortably in the field. I think it is an incredibly pretty spoiled attitude to say we were a bad team.

[kshepinthehouse]

You are putting way too much weight on the result of 2-3 possessions over the course of a season.

We played like a top-40 team. We got a bit unlucky and it deflated our record. We were not a bad team, like at all.

Even with the losses we were a bubble team. If 2 more possessions go our way, we are comfortably in the field. I think it is an incredibly pretty spoiled attitude to say we were a bad team.

With that same logic we won a couple of games by getting lucky though didn’t we??

[CDu]

With that same logic we won a couple of games by getting lucky though didn’t we??

We were 2-6 in very close games. We got more unlucky than lucky. That is specifically why I said “2” instead of “5” or “6”.

[Kedsy]

But we lost like a top 100 team.

We never proved it.

KenPom ranked us #33 before the NCAAT. Torvik ranks us #32. Even the NET, which presumably would tell us the NCAA's opinion of what kind of team "we lost like," rated us #49. According to Pomeroy and Torvik, there were 25+ teams in the NCAA tournament that were worse than Duke.

Yes, this was Duke's worst season in 26 years but CDu's correct, we weren't that bad.

[SavDukeGrad]

Reading Brevity’s great post about Jordan, I was struck by how much I miss Al Featherston’s posts and contributions to this forum. RIP

Unfortunately, Brevity, I can’t spork.

[Steven43]

Jordan leaves having started 27 games and holding the Duke single-season record in steals percentage.

Hmm, I hadn’t seen that stat before. How is steals percentage determined? And who were some of Duke’s other single-season steals percentage leaders?

[SouthernDukie]

Anyone who didn’t see this coming wasn’t paying attention.

OK, I’m completely kidding about that. I totally did not see this coming! But a big “Thank You” to Jordan. I hope he succeeds wherever he winds up.

[Steven43]

Depends on what “basketball only” means. From an “I want to play as much as I can in my last year of college bball” perspective, he obviously made the right choice, as I suspect we will look to upgrade the guard rotation next year either with Keels or someone else, and he could go somewhere else and be a starter.

I don’t know. If it’s minutes he’s looking for he’d better choose carefully. Look what happened to Alex O’Connell after he transferred to Creighton looking for more minutes.

[Steven43]

Many thanks to Jordan for staying 4 years and best wishes for his 5th!

It was great to watch him grow over the past years and slowly silence, if not entirely, the many critics on this board.

Exactly. Goldwire is the type of player that so many of us lament not having enough of at Duke anymore. It is so rewarding as a fan to watch a pretty good, but certainly not great, player develop over four years. You really get to know and appreciate a player over 150-plus games. They become like your most comfortable pair of shoes or your old baseball glove. You just cannot get that from a one-year guy.

We’re going to miss you, Jordan.