Goodman's Feet Back On The Ground

The Tamir Goodman engine lost most of its steam when Goodman recently announced that he would not be attending The University of Maryland next fall. Goodman claims that while Maryland Terrapins coach Gary Williams did not actually rescind his verbal scholarship offer, he instead told Goodman "missing practices for the Sabbath would be considered skipping practice and sanctioned accordingly."

This brought a fast end to what would have been the first Orthodox nationally known Division I basketball player. It had previously been reported that Maryland was to petition the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) to change all of their games to dates that did not conflict with the Jewish player's religious observance. However, Gary Williams had a change of heart due to Goodman's poor play over the summer. Goodman played in only one camp, yet his play proved enough to force Maryland to run. Faced with big time summer competition for the first time after a year of "Yeshiva ball", Goodman looked unimpressive.

This brought an end to a story that took a strange twist this summer. Over the summer, Goodman's high school, Torah Academy of Baltimore, tired of the media frenzy that surrounded their star, reportedly, decided to close their basketball program. Goodman, and his personal coach Chaim Katz, followed by leaving TA en route to a Seventh Day Adventist school. This move created a great deal of negative feedback from the Jewish community. Now, as Goodman no longer has an offer to Maryland, it appears ever so likely that he may end up at Yeshiva University, where many thought that he would be best suited to go from the beginning.

When questioned about the possibility of Goodman's arrival at Yeshiva during last year's Red Sarachek Invitational Tournament, Dr. Richard Zernick, YU Athletic Director, said, "It doesn't seem likely that he'll choose to come here, because of his well known offer from Maryland, but if he chooses to come here, we'd be happy to have him."