As our quick story yesterday indicated, we caught Goff as he was playing in the All-American JuCo Showcase in nearby Henderson. He looked a bit bigger than his high school days and confirmed that he's up to 6-foot-9 and 240-pounds. Goff had a game high 19 points in helping his team win one of the four games set for the event. The teams were arranged just for the two day deal, so there wasn't a lot of real offense being run. Goff showed the ability to run the court and rebound, just as he did back in his high school days. What was new beside the bigger body was some solid play underneath where he used his improved agility for some nice finishes inside. The Broad Ripple alum had only averaged 8.5 points per game the day before so this was his best game of the three played to that point. Indiana coach Tom Crean was at the game and reportedly at the two prior games. Goff told us afterward that Indiana was the main school he has noticed this week along with Oklahoma and Xavier.
Goff reeled off a quick list of Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Rutgers, Texas, Indiana and Xavier. His head coach at Hutchinson is Steve Eck and Coach Eck told us that it is looking like Goff may make a fall decision but the two will be meeting in the next few weeks to iron all that out.
We weren't so lucky to see McDonald have a big game. The 6-foot-9, 230-pounder from Battle Creek Central was held to two points in an afternoon tourney game yesterday that his Michigan Mustangs lost (78-68) to Colorado Chaos. We had hoped to talk to McDonald afterward but the big man was noticeable distraught over the loss that elimnated his Mustangs from the 17u adidas Super 64 gold bracket. While things did not go well for McDonald in the game he showed that he excellent athleticism for his size and a pretty impressive reach. He is a bit raw around the basket in that he had a difficult time figuring out when to go hard at the hoop and when finesse was called for.
One thing that Goff and McDonald have in common is they both are somewhat late to the game of basketball. We've heard both didn't get started with organized hoop until around their freshman season in high school. Since we didn't catch McDonald we weren't able to confirm reports he may have an Indiana offer but in the past offers have been reported from Iowa, Arkansas, Wake Forest, Marquette, DePaul and several mid-major programs. He lists Michigan and a Wolverine assistant was courtside for that game.
