Gonzaga’s Demetri Goodson is transferring from the court to the gridiron.
by Jon Jaques / @JJaques25
Regardless of whether a star player is involved, it’s always intriguing when a college athlete changes course and switches sports midway through his eligibility. When the sports in question are basketball and football, it usually catches people’s attention. Gonzaga’s Demetri Goodson isn’t a household name, but the 6-foot junior point guard’s decision to transfer and pursue a career in football elsewhere (Gonzaga does not have a football team) should make headlines nonetheless.
Goodson will never be confused for former Bulldogs point guard standouts like John Stockton or Dan Dickau. And with Courtney Vandersloot running circles around defenders for the Bulldog women, it’s likely Goodson wasn’t even the most well-known point guard in Spokane this past season.
But Goodson, who started all 35 games for Mark Few in his last season and 68 of the final 69 games of his career, was no slouch. The Spring, TX native’s averages of 5.2 points and 2.6 assists per game in ’10-11 are mediocre at best, but we sometimes forget that a point guard’s main responsibility is to will his team to win. More often than not, Goodson-led Gonzaga teams came out on top.
At this point, it’s unclear where this sudden divergent path will take Goodson. Many expect him to return home to Texas and land at Texas A&M, where his older brother Mike starred at running back. Wherever Goodson ends up, he will have two years of eligibility remaining.
Goodson’s future as a legitimate football prospect is equally ambiguous. Though Goodson hasn’t played organized pigskin since his sophomore year in high school, Arizona State saw enough potential to offer him a football scholarship before Gonzaga came calling.
You won’t see Gonzaga fans spending too much time weeping over this roster attrition, but this does leave the perennial WCC contender without a proven starting point guard. There are promising options: former walk-on/John’s son David Stockton had a solid freshman season and the Canadian hoops hype-machine’s latest product Kevin Pangos has been heralded by some as the next Steve Nash. But with very few exceptions (John Wall, Derrick Rose), young point guards need a lot of schooling. We should know by next winter how much the loss of Goodson to the gridiron has affected the Bulldogs.
Jon Jaques is a former starter for the Cornell Big Red and current forward for Israel’s Ironi Ashkelon club.
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