Goodwin, entering senior season, not buying into lower expectations for Tigers

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Shaq Goodwin will never forget the conversation. It occurred during his sophomore season, just before the University of Memphis was to play Gonzaga at FedExForum in a nationally televised meeting of ranked teams.

Goodwin asked ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas why Memphis doesn’t get the recognition that some other programs get. The Tigers had won 31 games the year before, advancing to the third round of the NCAA tournament. Had they not won enough to be considered one of the nation’s toptier programs?

“We had just come off the 31win season, so we asked him, and he was like, ‘Y’all don’t get impressive wins. Y’all don’t get big wins,’” Goodwin said. “That showed me that they’re gonna count you out until you do something big. So be prepared, because you’re going to get the opportunity to do something big, and you go from there.”

Goodwin recalled that conversation with Bilas in response to a question this week about expectations for the Tigers this season. With junior forward Austin Nichols, the team’s best player last season, having announced plans to transfer to Virginia this summer, it’s now up to Goodwin, who’s entering his final season with the program, to lead a new-look Tigers team that some, such as ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, believe won’t make the NCAA tournament.

Is Goodwin buying into the underdog narrative, especially considering he’ll be leading a frontcourt that, without Nichols, now features just two other true big men in freshmen forwards Dedric Lawson and Nick Marshall?

“I think we should tell everybody in Memphis, ‘Don’t pay any attention to being counted out because we get counted out every year — at least since I’ve been here,’” Goodwin said. “I remember the same question last year, the underdog thing, after the (senior) guards had left. I don’t think it’s an underdog or Cinderella (thing) because they count us out every year.

“For one of our best players and a player who’s been here the longest to leave, I think it’ll bring us closer together. We have young players on the team, but we have vets, too. We’ve got seniors. So (Nichols’ departure) has to be an eye-opener to them that they have to step up and be bigger parts of the team. I know that’s what they’re getting out of it because that’s what I get out of it, and I emphasize it to them every chance I get.”

Make no mistake, though, if the Tigers are going to get back to the postseason, which they missed last year for the first time since 2000, they will need Goodwin, who’s averaged 9.5 points and six rebounds over his threeyear career at Memphis, to be an all-conference-caliber force for an entire season — something he admits he hasn’t done.

While he averaged a careerhigh 7.1 rebounds and ranked second in the American Athletic Conference in league play in two-point field-goal shooting (61.1 percent) last season, the former McDonald’s All-American was noticeably ineffective in many of the Tigers’ biggest games. Goodwin had four points and six rebounds in Memphis’ season-opening loss to Wichita State. He had two points and four rebounds in a loss to Baylor in Las Vegas, four points and four rebounds in a home loss to Oklahoma State, and no points in a road loss at Gonzaga.

But the 6-foot-9, 230-pound forward has demonstrated he’s capable of putting together dominant stretches. As a sophomore, he was named Old Spice Classic MVP, averaging 14 points and 6.7 rebounds over the three victories, which included a win over No. 5-ranked Oklahoma State. Last season, after a lackluster first half of the year, he put together back-to-back rebounding performances of 23 and 12 against Temple and East Carolina, and hit the winning shot in a win at UConn that gave the Tigers a regular-season sweep of the Huskies.

But now, more than ever, Memphis needs those kinds of numbers from Goodwin for an entire season. It needs the Goodwin who has carried the Tigers at times with his passion, athleticism and enthusiasm to be the backbone of this team.

“I’ve been saying the key thing for Shaq is consistency. I’ve been saying that from the beginning,” coach Josh Pastner said. “I gave him off Summer 1 (in June) so he could be mentally fresh, and to his credit he was so good in Summer 2 workouts (in July). And for the first time, when I’ve come in the gym to get my own workout in, he’s been in the gym shooting, working on his game, coming at night or in the mornings and getting extra shooting in.

“I’m really proud of him on that because, to me, that means he’s taken the next step. I love Shaq. I think he’s gonna have a really good year. He knows he needs to be a stud from the tip of (the exhibition game against) LeMoyne-Owen to the very last game of the season. What he did (last season) in that first half against Temple or that game at UConn — that’s a description of Shaq’s competitive excellence and where he needs to be.”

Goodwin, who will graduate in May with a degree in human services and likely will finish his career ranked among the program’s top 20 scorers and top 10 rebounders, said he’s ready for the challenge. It’s his final opportunity to help Memphis do something big.

“Where I am now is I know what all I can’t do and what all I’m not supposed to do. I can’t say I know what to do because I haven’t put a whole year together,” Goodwin said. “It’s not pointing fingers because I can recall each of those times (I’ve struggled) and it’s been something that’s in my own head.”