“Goodie” good to be back after year away

Hunter Goodrick’s 19 rebounds in a win over North Dakota on Monday may very well be a sign that he is establishing a groove after the pandemic persuaded him to sit out last season in his native Australia.

The 6-8 sophomore power forward is in his third season as a member of the USD men’s basketball team but just his second in the company of the rest of the team. Yea, that’s a little weird, but what hasn’t been weird about the last two years of college sports?

The main thing is that Goodrick is back in uniform and is giving head coach Todd Lee, his staff and Coyote fans glimpses of the kind of contributions he’s capable of making now that he’s living in Vermillion again instead of being 8,800 miles away in Sydney.

“If you take a year off from basketball, it takes a while to get your feet under you and get some rhythm back,” said USD assistant men’s coach Casey Kasperbauer. “We feel like Hunter is starting to turn the corner on that now. He’s establishing his role with the team.”

It’s been a difficult process, but not any tougher than making a decision from the other side of the world to sit out last season.

It was not the way Goodrick wanted it. Given the circumstances, however, with the United States swimming in COVID-19 at the time and his homeland relatively free of it, it was the right thing to do. 

It wasn’t a decision he took lightly, nor did it come without ramifications. He played in one basketball game while he was home, representing Australia in a contest when the country’s best players were boxed-out by the pandemic, but otherwise his relationship with his sport was a quiet one.

At a time when most college basketball players are spending a lot of time in the gym with practices and games, his connection to basketball was far more casual.

NCAA regulations restricted opportunities for actual competition so Goodrick spent a lot of time working out with his brother Harrison, a former college player at Metro State and Nova Southeastern. Otherwise, he was doing all the things people do in Australia when they’re not playing basketball.

“It was like I almost had a normal life,” Goodrick said. “I couldn’t play for a team or anything like that, something that made me really appreciate playing again. I really missed it. To be able to come back and play and be around the boys and our coaches – I’ve really enjoyed getting back into it.”

Goodrick’s first sport was rugby, in part because his father, Michael, played it at an elite level in Australia. When Harrison began playing basketball, however, he got his younger brother involved in games in the backyard. In time they became excellent players.

Given that both he and his brother were rugby players first, you’d have to imagine this was a bruise-filled introduction to the basics of basketball. The payoff for the younger Goodrick was in creating an appetite early on for the sport’s aggressive aspects.

In short, he’s what is known as a “banger” for the Coyotes. Power forwards these days come in two styles. One kind plays like a tall guard. Goodrick is the other kind.

“The cool thing about rugby is that there isn’t a lot of protective gear,” Goodrick said. “And basically, you can hit your opponent as hard as you want. As you get older, though, there’s a lot of injuries, a lot of concussions. But I loved it growing up and it’s helped me a lot with basketball because I like being aggressive and I’m not afraid of physical contact.”

Yes, the challenge of playing physical basketball is one that Goodrick greets with great enthusiasm. 

“We joke about it – if basketball didn’t call fouls Hunter would be in the NBA right now because he loves physicality,” Kasperbauer said. “If you tell him he has a very physical game coming up with a lot of fouls and a lot of collisions and things of that nature he gets pretty fired up.”

The Coyotes (8-7, 1-3) have had a COVID-obstructed view of the best version of themselves this year but appear to be getting healthy in time for what constitutes the core of their Summit League season. While it’s clear the conference’s challenges with the pandemic are far from over, the resolve to keep moving forward is also present with two home games this week.

“We had a good meeting after the loss at South Dakota State,” Goodrick said. “I think it brought us all closer together and we were pretty close to begin with. I think after the win at North Dakota everything is feeling better again. We’re a little more confident. Winning games in the conference is all that matters now. We’d like to get back to 3-3 and go on from there.”

Kasperbauer calls Goodrick a soft-spoken, but very tough kid who leads by example. The coaches have suggested he speak up occasionally, not because he’s too quiet but because his teammates respect him and will listen to what he says.

“He’s one of our hardest workers and one of our best teammates,” Kasperbauer said. “It was really tough for him to be back in Australia but we did our best with that from thousands of miles away. He did a great job of asking questions and learning as much as he could about the team.”

Goodrick has, at various points this season, shared with the coaches how much he loves being back on the team. That goes for games, of course, but also practices. It includes working on drills, bus and plane rides, etc. Literally every little thing.

“Coach Lee made it bearable because he was patient with me,” Goodrick said. “He made the process a lot easier because he supported my decision through the whole year. He said he’d have a spot for me. He checked up on me, he made me look forward to getting back here.”