AOTW: Goffredo's 33 Lift Harvard

Heading into the 2005-06 season, no one knew what to expect from the Harvard backcourt. One look at the stat sheet through 14 games, however, reveals that most of the questions regarding the Crimson guards have been definitively answered.

Neither captain Matt Stehle nor junior center Brian Cusworth, the Ivy League leading scoring tandem returning from last year, ranks at the top of the scoring chart.

Instead, junior shooting guard Jim Goffredo, who sat last year behind Kevin Rogus ’05, ranks first on the team-and second in the Ivy League to Penn’s Ibrahim Jaaber-with an average of 15.2 points per game.

Goffredo, together with freshman point guard Drew Housman (10.5 ppg), has helped Harvard turn an unknown quantity into a core strength.

Goffredo leaped ahead of Stehle and into the team lead in scoring average with a 33-point explosion on Saturday against Dartmouth, carrying the Crimson to a 78-65 win in the opener of the Ivy campaign.

The outburst was the highest scoring total by an Ivy Leaguer this year, and earned the third-year guard honors as the Ivy League Player of the Week.

“Jimmy had a special night, like few players have,” coach Frank Sullivan said. “It certainly gave us great momentum; [it was] just terrific to see him have a night like that.”

Struggling with his shot heading into the game, Goffredo sank 11-of-17 from the floor, including 7-of-12 from long distance, and scored the most points by a Harvard player since Brady Merchant ’03 tallied 45 against Brown in 2003.

“My shot just felt great tonight,” Goffredo said after Saturday’s performance. “I haven’t been making them as much lately, but I knew that my shot hadn’t really been feeling bad, so I didn’t worry about it so much. The shots were there, and I was making them.”

Goffredo, who midway through the first half had outscored Dartmouth single-handedly, hit five three-pointers in the first half alone to establish a new personal high.

He has now made 31 treys on the year, good for fourth in the league, and his seven total makes from beyond the arc against the Big Green tied for the second highest total in Harvard history.

Unlike the departed Rogus, however, who was strictly a three-point specialist, Goffredo is more apt to pull up for a mid-range jumper or drive to the hoop to try to take advantage of his .917 free-throw percentage (33-of-36).

“[The dribble-drive] is definitely one of the things that I worked on this summer,” Goffredo said. “I’m much better shooting a fifteen footer than I am shooting a three, so I’ll take that any time I can get it.”

Continued improvement in that aspect of his game will allow Goffredo to remain a scoring threat, even on nights when the long-range shot isn’t falling.

In the meantime, however, the junior guard’s emergence has made the Crimson offense much more than just Stehle and Cusworth-a fact that has Ivy League coaches ripping up game plans.

“When you have three or four weapons, you try to take three of those weapons away,” Dartmouth coach Terry Dunn said. “Eventually, if you don’t pay attention to detail, one of those guys out of the four will hurt you.