Duke finds defensive help from an unexpected source
Down the bench, watching his team sink farther and farther behind, everything going wrong, Jordan Goldwire started to lobby assistant coach Chris Carrawell to put him in the game. It was, to say the least, a bold strategy.
To that point, Goldwire had played all of 46 minutes in 11 ACC games, most of that in a comfortable win at Pittsburgh. You’d have to throw the Duke lineup into a blender to come up with a rotation that included significant minutes for Goldwire, a sophomore whose main claim to fame (erroneously, he insists) was that he was ready to commit to Eastern Kentucky when Duke swept in with a last-minute offer.
With Duke down 23 to Louisville, what did Goldwire have to lose?
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski would say later Goldwire had the “best look” of anyone on the bench.
At the point, what did Duke have to lose?
What happened next is now legend. Goldwire gave Duke a second on-the-ball defender to go with Tre Jones and help defend Louisville’s pick-and-pop ball screens and apply pressure. The Blue Devils mounted an improbable comeback to win 71-69. And Goldwire went from practice player and clean-up specialist to secret defensive weapon, one who could be vital for Duke in the NCAA tournament.
He was in the ACC tournament. Duke twice turned to Goldwire for defense, once against Syracuse in the quarterfinals and then in more desperation against North Carolina in the semifinals when Duke could do nothing right.
Goldwire was given the assignment of harassing the taller, lankier Cam Johnson, who got off to a hot start – and shut him down almost completely. Krzyzewski rarely changes his starting lineup at halftime, but he did that game. Goldwire, who has plenty of experience guarding taller perimeter players in practice, earned the right to stay in over his more heralded peers.
For his neighbors at the end of the Duke bench, the group that often functions as a 38-minute cheering section given Krzyzewski’s penchant to play a very short bench, watching Goldwire assume this status has been somewhere between celebratory and surreal.
“That Louisville game kind of sparked everything for him, and now it’s clicking,” walk-on Mike Buckmire said. “We’re happy.”
When Goldwire got his first shot, Antonio Vrankovic wasn’t next to him on the bench but back at the team hotel in Louisville, sick. After Goldwire got into the game to spark the comeback, someone from hotel security knocked on his door. Vrankovic had been yelling and cheering so loud, there were noise complaints.
Vrankovic would get his turn, against North Carolina in the ACC semifinals. His pass to Goldwire for a layup at a critical moment of the game may have been the most improbable basket of the entire ACC season. Goldwire would score another critical bucket in that game, a would-be North Carolina steal bouncing directly to him for a layup.
“I don’t even remember who it was that picked that ball up off the floor and laid it up. Who was that?” North Carolina coach Roy Williams asked.
Goldwire, he was told.
“Goldwire? That’s a pretty big play. All right. That’s a pretty big play right there. Goldwire was important too. I told them that as we went through the line shaking hands, he was important to their team. I don’t want to talk for Mike’s team, but I would think he would probably think the same thing.”
Praise from Williams isn’t necessarily what Goldwire expected when he came to Duke, but no one expected the three-star recruit to come to Duke, either. While the Atlanta-area native says he had offers from UNLV and Arizona State among others, he was on a visit to Eastern Kentucky when Duke reached out. That’s how he says the story got started that the mighty Blue Devils somehow stole a recruit from the Colonels.
Seen as a four-year depth player, he has become a key role player in his second year. While ninth on the Blue Devils in terms of minutes, never seeing the floor at all in three games this season, he’s first on call in certain very specific situations.
“I always felt I could help the team, especially defensively,” Goldwire said. “I know I’m capable of providing offensively as well. It didn’t surprise me. Things didn’t necessarily go as planned at the beginning of the year, but I always stayed ready, and my pops always said they were going to need me at some point. It was something I was ready for.”
It was something Goldwire would talk about with Grayson Allen last season, the latter having been buried on the Duke bench for almost all of his freshman year before exploding late in the season. Goldwire’s potential impact isn’t quite the same, but his role could be just as important.
Apparently, all he had to do was ask.
This story was originally published March 21, 2019 at 4:37 PM.
