Texas Tech basketball: Scouting incoming 7-foot center Vlad Goldin

Goldin had some ups and downs against Cushing Academy

The first game we will break down was a contentious affair between Putnam and Cushing Academy.  In this road contest, Goldin put up13 points and 3 rebounds.  Also, he drew a charge, was 5-7 at the line, and came up with one 1 steal.

However, he didn’t finish this game, a 78-76 Putnam victory, because he was disqualified late in the second half.  I use the term disqualified because I couldn’t tell if he was ejected or if he fouled out.

There was no play-by-play for the version of this game that I found online so I wasn’t able to keep track of his foul situation or receive an explanation as to why he left the game for good.  But what is clear is that there was an incident in which Goldin and a Cushing player were tangled up leading to the Cushing player shoving the big man.  The official assessed a technical foul on both players and after that, Goldin did not appear in the game again.

But while he was on the floor, he showed some impressive skills.  At the 3:00 mark of the video, the 7-footer is the first player on his team down the floor and he gets in position in the post where he receives the ball and hits a baby hook.

That type of hustle is going to serve him well when playing for Chris Beard.  Also, it was encouraging to see that he already has at least one go-to post move and that hook shot could be a weapon in the Big 12 though he’ll have to grow accustomed to shooting it over players as tall as he is.

Another interesting moment came at the 17:20 mark of the video.  There we see Goldin put the ball on the floor from the high post and drive to the basket where he draws a foul.  That’s an important play to watch because it shows some versatility in his game and makes us believe that he might be able to operate in Beard’s motion offense.

His hands are on display at the 30:00 mark.  That’s when he has nice over the shoulder layup plus an and-one after catching a laser beam of a pass from a guard at the top of the key.  So often, players of his size have trouble receiving the ball but there were plenty of times in both games where he was able to come up with tough passes that many other bigs might fumble away.

On the negative side, Goldin’s conditioning may need work.  In this game, he spent a lot of time with his hands on his knees, even early in the game.  What’s more, sometimes didn’t run the floor after a turnover.  But the good news is that conditioning is easily improved through hard work and Beard will make sure Goldin has plenty of opportunities to get better in that regard.

Maybe the most discouraging play from this game came at the 53:05 mark.  That’s when a guard blows right past him on the perimeter.  In the switch-everything defensive scheme of the Red Raiders, big men often have to check guards and until Goldin can prove that he’s able to do so, he won’t be on the floor much at all.