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Notre Dame Basketball New Guys: Dane Goodwin

By Mychal Hunter

LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 10: Basketballs are shown in a ball rack before the championship game of the Western Athletic Conference basketball tournament between the New Mexico State Aggies and the Grand Canyon Lopesat the Orleans Arena on March 10, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 10: Basketballs are shown in a ball rack before the championship game of the Western Athletic Conference basketball tournament between the New Mexico State Aggies and the Grand Canyon Lopesat the Orleans Arena on March 10, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images) /
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Incoming Notre Dame basketball freshman Dane Goodwin is the type of shooter that defines the new age of the sport.

It seems like forever ago that in order to be a successful program in the NCAA or franchise in the NBA, you needed one thing: a dominant big man. When I grew up in the 90’s, we had an embarrassment of riches at both levels. Shaq, Hakeem, Ewing and David Robinson were in their prime in the league. Bryant Reeves, Tim Duncan, Christian Laettner and Antawn Jamison were dominating college basketball. Notre Dame basketball never had a player like those guys.

The tides have turned as far as style goes and the new philosophy is simple: A triple is worth 1.5-time a dunk.

Dane Goodwin comes to the Irish ranked 90th in the country in the 2018 class. He provides qualities that are ideal for the way the game is played now. Quite frankly, he can shoot the hell out of the ball.

A 6’5, 190-pound shooting guard, Goodwin averaged 24 points per game his senior year at Upper Arlington, totaling 597 points. He was also named Ohio’s Mr. Basketball. During his junior campaign he was actually a little better, tallying 648 points and averaging roughly 26 per game. He’s a scorer through and through.

The shooting is there, no doubt about it. This recruit will eventually be a sniper for Mike Brey’s Irish. The one concern I have — and it really isn’t a concern as much an observation — is that Goodwin really likes to get into the lane and score. That, in and of itself is never a bad thing, obviously. If the defender has to respect your ability to get into the lane, it opens up that perimeter jumper a little bit. Goodwin has the little step back in his arsenal to exploit that situation as well.

My concern is that he has never faced the level of athlete that resides in the paint like the ones he will face in the ACC.

Before Goodwin becomes an effective and legitimate threat in the ACC, there will be a time of adjustment needed.

What to expect

I do not expect Goodwin to receive a heavy dose of minutes during his freshman campaign. Then again, injuries do happen. If that were to happen again this season like they did last season, Goodwin provides quality depth.

Dane is a player that is going to be a long term building block. He’ll be an upperclassman who appears and everyone wonders where he came from. Currently, he is somewhat buried behind future All-Conference guard TJ Gibbs, Rex and presumably Prentiss Hubb.

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I can not stress enough how good of a shooter this kid is going to be, though I do think that he will have to work on how quickly he gets the ball out of his hands. He doesn’t have great handles either, but through work and repetition, these things are easily fixed. As we all know, development is Notre Dame’s specialty. I would not expect too much early on as he develops, but in the long term, this is a great signing for Notre Dame basketball.