“20 in 60”: #10 Goldsbrough’s Junior Season

Trying to get to the bottom of why Danny Ainge gave Brian Scalabrine (then a fourth year power forward with a career shooting percentage under 40%) a five year contract worth $15 million in the summer of 2005, I reached out to a long-time Nets follower to see what I might have been missing.  His response in regards to what he does well?  “He doesn’t ever hurt you when he’s on the floor.”

It wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement at the time, and in hindsight a five year deal for an end of bench player like Scalabrine was certainly a stretch, but it was an accurate assessment.  Scalabrine knew what his defensive assignments were, knew where the ball was supposed to go, and when disregarded on offense was capable of knocking down an occasional jumper or two.

It’s difficult to glean much from the first two years of Lee Goldsbrough’s career at Providence.  He’s taken only 22 shots from the field and eight free throws in his two collegiate seasons combined.  Goldsbrough did start a handful of games early last season, and when asked by John Rooke about the 6’9 power forward’s role, associate coach Andre Lafleur gave what amounted to a similar scouting report to what I’d been told about Scalabrine seven years prior: he had a sound understanding of the offense and wasn’t turning the ball over.  On a team desperate for stability it got him solid playing time early.

Over the first six games of last season Goldsbrough played 112 minutes (20.3 mpg) and only turned the ball over four times.  Conversely, he wasn’t exactly creating offense for himself, or others — attempting only six shots and dishing out four assists.

The minutes disappeared for Goldsbrough once the team returned from a November tournament in South Padre in which he played a combined 29 minutes in losses to Iowa State and Northern Iowa.  He did not see the floor in nine of the 18 Big East contests, and played two minutes or less in four others. After seeing 112 minutes in the first six games he played only 67 the rest of the way.

Early playing time figures to be available once again in 2012-13, with the Friars featuring a mere seven scholarship players for the first semester.  Goldsbrough will look to crack a frontcourt rotation that will most likely include LaDontae Henton at power forward, along with Kadeem Batts and Brice Kofane.  While Henton proved to be a matchup nightmare at the power forward spot a season ago, he may slide over to small forward at times early to account for a lack of depth on the wings, as only Vincent Council, Bryce Cotton and freshman Josh Fortune will be available to man the 1-3 positions in the first semester.  This could open up frontcourt minutes early for Goldsbrough.

Key to Goldsbrough’s season could be his adjustment to the speed of the game.  He’s a sound, if not great, shooter in workouts.  He has a willingness to mix it up inside, but not the athleticism to be a factor on the boards.  The game has seemed a bit fast for Goldsbrough in his first two seasons on campus, but perhaps in his third it will slow down a bit and he’ll be able to flash the face-up game that he was brought in for by the previous coaching staff.

Goldsbrough may not hurt the Friars when on the floor in the early portion of the schedule, but in order to maintain that playing time he’ll most likely have to have more of an impact on both sides of the ball in order to keep a rotation spot once Kris Dunn and Sidiki Johnson return.

Over/under for the 2012-13 season:

Season high in points – 11

• Belhumeur – under
• Farrahar – under
• Leighton – under

Season high in rebounds – 9

• Belhumeur – under
• Farrahar – under
• Leighton – over

Games started – 3

• Belhumeur – over
• Farrahar – under
• Leighton – over

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