Where does it come from? That poise at the end of the game, with everything on the line.
As the seconds tick down, the scoreboard reminds you – and everyone else in the arena – that you’re losing. And the guy in front of you? He’s got one irritating hand waving in your face and another swiping at the ball you’re trying not to dribble off your foot. That guy will do anything to disrupt your timing and throw off your last shot just one millimeter. Because that’s all it takes – he knows it, and you know it. One millimeter is the infinitesimal difference between losing and winning, miss or bliss.
Welcome to just another night for Andrew Goudelock.
Grace under pressure, according to Goudelock, cannot be the exception to the rule. It is the rule. His rule.
“You have to have courage,” Goudelock admits, “playing in front of all of those people. A lot of doubt creeps in and you don’t want to freeze up. You have to fight your brain because you have things in your head telling you that you might not be good enough.
“But,” he adds, “you have to have the courage to say to yourself, ‘Whatever, bring it on.’”
And there’s no doubting that Goudelock has brought it. This past season, he treated fans to an extraordinary display of shooting range and scoring prowess, launching three-point attempts barely one stride past the half-court line and breaking the College’s all-time scoring record, which had been held for more than 35 years by Gus Gustafson ’75.
“Andrew and I never met a shot we couldn’t take,” Gustafson laughs.
And Gustafson is right. Goudelock kept defenses constantly on their heels trying to defend his deep threes, his seemingly effortless mid-range jumper and the real dagger in his arsenal – the soft-touch floater in the lane. In many games, you could watch the opposing defenders turn to their coaches after giving up another Goudelock score, and the coaches would shrug back, “Just keep trying.”
By the end of his senior season, Goudelock had achieved pretty much everything an individual student-athlete can: All-SoCon, SoCon Player of the Year, All-America honorable mention and SoCon Male Athlete of the Year.
But Goudelock didn’t have much time to enjoy his many accolades. Just one week after dropping 31 points against eventual NIT champion Wichita State, Goudelock won the NCAA three-point contest and, the next day, led his team in scoring in the NABC Reese’s College All-Star game at the Final Four in Houston.
Ready for a breather? Nope, Goudelock’s tremendous season was now simply an afterthought. Things were getting busy.
Since his boyhood days of playing 21 with his mother and stepfather on their backyard court, Goudelock had dreamed of playing in the NBA. But most professional scouts considered him a long shot at best.
Goudelock then logged some major frequent flier miles in order to turn doubters into believers. He traveled to Portsmouth (Va.) and Chicago, showcasing his talent against other NBA hopefuls. He also took part in individual workouts for 16 teams.
Throughout the process, he heard the same thing: You’re too slow. You’re too small. You can’t play defense. You can’t play point guard. Your game will never translate to the pros.
Lesser players would have crumbled under that pressure, that “expert” analysis summing up their strengths and weaknesses (with the latter far outweighing the former). But Goudelock didn’t flinch. He smiled as reporters repeated the same criticisms, over and over.
“I believe in myself,” he told them time and time again, in city after city.
And with each workout, the tenor of the conversation changed, from what if to where in the draft. It was as if the world had thrown him a full-court press and, as usual, he deftly maneuvered past the obstacles and sank his shot.
Then came Draft Night. Forty-five names were called. Forty-five times Goudelock watched the television and turned away, the tension mounting. Perhaps that offer from the Harlem Globetrotters, which had “drafted” him two nights earlier, wasn’t sounding so bad after all. As the night progressed and he continued to wait, he Tweeted, “same old story, ppl pass on me and i gotta prove them wrong.”
But, finally – a lifetime it seemed to him and his family – NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver walked up to the podium and called his name. Goudelock’s next Tweet: “Lakers!!!!”
While his future in Los Angeles is still tentative, with the NBA lockout holding up next season and the general fickleness of the business for second rounders making the team, Goudelock is still confident about his prospects. In fact, he has already charmed many L.A. fans with his much-publicized comment, “Unless something happens, unless I get some type of disease where I forget how to shoot, I’m going to shoot until the day I die.”
And it’s that kind of confidence that will propel him onto one of the biggest and most celebrated stages in sports.
Whatever, bring it on.
