Goffredo's Shooting Woes Continue

NEW HAVEN, Conn.—With 10 minutes remaining in the Crimson’s Saturday night loss at Yale, Harvard captain Jim Goffredo connected on his first shot of the night, a straight-away three-pointer that cut the Yale lead to 56-51. It looked like the type of shot that could revitalize Goffredo, a streaky outside shooter who relies on rhythm and confidence, and give Harvard the perimeter attack it was sorely missing.

But Goffredo would not score another field goal all night, finishing 1-of-11 from the field, and the Crimson would implode in the final 10 minutes as Yale pulled away for an easy 86-71 victory. As the lead grew, the New Haven crowd only grew more vicious, and Goffredo, the team leader struggling through one of the toughest games of his career, took the brunt of the insults. Shooting free throws in the second half, Goffredo received a chant of “worst game ever.”

“Obviously he’s very discouraged right now,” Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said. “I think the size factor is an issue. If you look at the size of the Yale players, they are bigger, taller, longer [than Goffredo]. And they’re not afraid to violate principles of defense to stay with him.”

Goffredo struggled in Harvard’s last matchup with Yale, an 88-78 loss at Lavietes Pavilion in which the shooting guard miss seven of 10 shots. In that game, Goffredo was hounded by defensive stopper Casey Hughes, an athletic 6’5, 200-pound forward who used his superior length and quickness to contest every Goffredo jumper. But Hughes was in shirt-and-tie Saturday night, sidelined by a fractured foot, and Goffredo was getting open shots. They just weren’t falling.

Despite being the team’s active leading scorer at 14.8 points per game, Goffredo is shooting 34 percent from the field and 41 percent from three-point range. While he’s been brilliant at times, scoring 20 or more points seven times this season, he’s also suffered some poor shooting nights. Against Princeton on Feb. 9, a 74-68 overtime loss, Goffredo shot 2-of-14 from the field. The next night, a 67-53 loss to Penn, Goffredo shot 5-of-19. It’s no coincidence that when Goffredo has an off night, Harvard tends to lose.

Yale head coach James Jones offered his own theory: that without graduated seven-footer Brian Cusworth, the Crimson lacks the interior presence to keep defenses honest.

“I think that without Cusworth it makes it a little easier to guard [Goffredo], because you can step up to him, you can help out more,” Jones said. “I think it’s just a little bit more difficult for him to get shots.”

But the Harvard captain’s struggles predate Cusworth’s departure, and on nights like Saturday, when Goffredo was getting open but simply not hitting his shots, the problem seems to have less to do with opposing defenses and more to do with the psychology of the jump shot.

What causes a shooter to almost instantaneously gain or lose his jump shot might be a slight mechanical flaw, but basketball tradition maintains that the outside marksman is often his own worst enemy.

Goffredo is likely no exception to the rule. On Saturday night his first shot was an airball, and the crowd let him know about it. On every open shot he seemed to be pressing just a little bit more, with the same result. With the game no longer in doubt and the crowd’s taunts growing louder, Goffredo gave a tough foul on Yale swingman Nick Holmes.

As tempers flared, the two exchanged words and a shove or two before teammates intervened. It was the frustration of a player not performing as well as expected against a rival. It was the frustration of a jump shooter who has lost his jump shot.

With about six minutes remaining Sullivan substituted out Goffredo for freshman point guard Jeremy Lin. It looked like the end of the night for Goffredo, the end of one of the worst games of his career and a tough loss for the Crimson. But Goffredo, a consummate captain, slapped Lin on the back and coolly walked to his side of the bench, then came back in to finish out the loss, hitting four free throws in the process. After a very successful junior campaign in which he averaged 14.9 points per game, expectations were high entering this season.

The Crimson has four games left on the season. Goffredo has four games left to end his Harvard career on a positive note.