Watching a player grow and contribute like Goldwire did is why I watch college basketball.
Q "Why do you like Duke, you didn't even go there." A "Because my art school didn't have a basketball team."
Stay gold, Jordan...stay gold.
He's given us four solid years and outplayed all recruiting expectations.
I couldn't be happier for him to try a new team and get a chance to be THE MAN.
I'll be rooting for him until that team plays Duke.
Either that or it took Coach K a little while to get over tall-developing-center bias and having a star “opt out" to see what was standing right there in front of him all along. It’s like a romance comedy — now we can look forward to happily ever after. I’m joking of course so none of the sensitive folks get bent out of shape. Thrilled that we have a talented potentially dominating center with next years class — and he still has more upside. He’s got a great attitude and may be a good leader. Leadership and maturity are much needed. Those attributes were strong with Goldwire, so it’s a little sad he’s transferring. But he deserves the best outcome and so wishing him the best future. From a team / culture perspective however — something was really off with this team to see 3 key players leave and perhaps more to come. Hopefully not. Yes we should chalk it up to the pandemic. But I hope the entire program comes into next season with something to prove and a chip on the shoulders to compete for championships. They’ll have the individual talent to do it. But ball handling / passing (limiting turnovers) — fundamentals — was this teams weakest link, and defense.
I definitely wish him the best...I'm just curious as to what he's looking for...more minutes? A better team? Only two guys on the Duke team played more minutes than JGold this past season...
Until he says, we can only speculate. Maybe he wants to be closer to his family. Maybe his GF is graduating and he wants to follow. Maybe allergies are killing him in Durham. Maybe he wants to live near fresh caught seafood. Perhaps he's tired of living in Durham.
I think we sometimes fall into the trap of assuming that EVERYTHING has a basketball reason. Especially for someone who likely doesn't have an NBA future, it is quite possible that the actual thought process involves other factors that we aren't privy to.
Maybe Jordan would like to get into coaching and he is using this year as a way to get on a staff next year.
Well... I’ll throw another one out. Maybe he wants a school with a graduate degree not offered at Duke...
Absolutely agree . I want to actually feel like a little piece of me leaves when they graduate .
In years past my i have shed slight tears when we have had tournament losses.seeing our guys upset.
Wufe says im crazy .maybe i am .but i want to be emotionally invested in my team .
You know, I'm going to toss out the thought that maybe there is actually a school-related reason he wants to go elsewhere. Duke is a really good school in most things, for sure, but depending on what he wants to do with the rest of his life, maybe it actually makes sense for him to choose a different grad school. That's pure speculation on my part, of course, but so is all the basketball-related stuff we've seen in this thread. So just maybe Jordan has decided that he needs to count himself among the advertised 99% of NCAA athletes who "go pro in something other than sports".
However that may be, thanks, Jordan. I have little doubt you have great success wherever you go, and that includes things that aren't basketball. We will miss you.
I've come to love Goldwire. Maybe it's because he came in as a frosh who frequently missed wide open layups (yes, he did that a couple of times this year but nowhere near as bad) and improved to a defensive force as an upperclassman (and shot it pretty well too!). Maybe it's because it's nice to see true rotation players (6/7th men) stay all four years. Maybe it's because I loved his defensive abilities in a team that is usually offensive minded. Regardless, I like Jordan.
So I'm disappointed to see him go. But I can't blame him. Coach K, rightly so, has prioritized Roach and Steward as the starting backcourt. Goldwire would play, but we likely wouldn't be able to expand his offensive game. There are just too many good options for offense.
Goldwire probably wants to play professionally. And in order to do that, you need minutes. And he'd get minutes, but they would be bench minutes and he'd like be called upon for defense rather than offense. Why not go to a solid mid-major where you could start, be the #1 option on defense, and a top 3 option on offense? That sounds much more appealing.
The major downside is now a) we don't really have any backcourt depth. Yes, Griffin could play there, but we really have no idea. He's huge and may not be quick enough to guard college 2s. And b), we have no fallback option if Roach and Steward still suck at defense.
Sooooo...... Keels, come on down! Roach and Steward: please learn at least some defensive fundamentals.
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill
President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club