Xavier Season in Review: Quentin Goodin

Thanks to everyone who participated in our Banners on the Parkway postseason player report cards. We'll be breaking down each player's grades for the rest of this week and on into next week, where we'll reveal the top finisher according to the community. We'll also be assigning and explaining our own grades of each player. We'll start with the player who got the lowest community ranking and work our way up to the MVP.

Quentin Goodin essentially had two freshman seasons. The first began when the ball went up in the opener and continued until Ed Sumner came down against St. John’s. In that 21-game run, Q dropped a very freshman-like 3.5/1.2/2.0 line and turned the ball over 1.2 times per game in just a tick under 15 minutes of playing time.

Then Ed dropped and Q went from backup point guard to only point guard.

Offense: B+

Q served notice that same game that he wasn’t in over his head, going for 16/1/2 with just 1 turnover in 25 minutes against St. John’s. From there until the end of the season, he basically never came off the floor. Goodin averaged over 35 minutes per game in 17 games down the stretch. All he did in his baptism by fire was average 7.2/3.0/5.3 with 2.8 turnovers per game.

There were some warts: that turnover number on the season worked out to a TO% of 26.5%, and Goodin’s EFG% in the games after Ed went down was an eye-watering 35.2%. Anybody who saw him go glass on the occasional straight-on three knows that his shot could use some refining. If you thought Xavier’s season was going the way of Ed’s knee on January 29th, Q’s performance as the team’s only one was nothing short of a revelation.

Defense: B

The tools are all there, but Q was prone to the occasional freshman lapse on the defensive end. For a strong, quick guy, he was a touch prone to getting caught with his feet in wet cement while an opponent put the defense into rotation behind him. His defense will be fine (I’m assuming), but he’s not quite there just yet.

Overall: B

If you were reading here at all during the season, you know I’m probably going to be named by Q in a protection order at some point in the future. I went on the record early as believing Q is the future; I wasn’t expecting to be nearly such a big part of the present this season. If he spends his summer in the lab working on that stroke, changes nothing else about his game, and sees his decision making progress naturally, he’ll be a commendable four-year point guard. If he keeps putting the pieces together like he did on the fly in March, he could be a good deal more special yet.