LITTLE ROCK — Highly recruited Sylvan Hills junior guard Archie Goodwin attended Arkansas’ 77-76 overtime victory over No. 22 Kentucky on Wednesday night.
Goodwin, 6-4, 180 pounds, reports approximately 35 scholarship offers, including ones from Arkansas, Kentucky, Kansas, Memphis, Texas, Georgetown and Louisville. He is regarded by all ofthe major national recruiting services as one of the premier prospects in the 2012 class.
“That was a very impressive win,” Goodwin said. “The crowd was there and the fan support was there. The players stepped up when they needed to and made big plays. You saw the best players stepping up and making the big stops to win the game.”
But Goodwin isn’t ready to name a list of his top schools just yet.
“I’m going to make it down to the top 10 by the end of the school year,” Goodwin said. “Then at the start of the next school year, I’ll have a top five.”
Goodwin said he will likely take all five of his allotted official visits, and does not expect to make his decision during the early signing period in November.
As a sophomore, Goodwin averaged 25 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals per game. In 25 games this season, he is averaging 28 points, 6.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2 steals a game while shooting 45 percent from the field and 34 percent from beyond the three-point line.
Bears Coach Kevin Davis said despite all of the notoriety, Goodwin has remained grounded.
“I would first and foremost credit his family,” Davis said. “They have been so special to me as a coach - the parental support that Archie gets and I get. The discipline and humbleness, that comes from home.”
Both coaches from Wednesday’s game, John Calipari and John Pelphrey, have been regular visitors at Goodwin’s games with Sylvan Hills this season.
“I think Kentucky [coaches] have been to three or four games and Coach Cal has been to two of them,” Goodwin said. “He’s been to our practices a couple of times. Coach Pel was at the three games at a tournament in Conway and came to two of our games at a tournament in Wynne, and he was at our last regular-season game at West Helena.”
Numerous other coaches have also seen Goodwin in action, including representatives from Baylor, Georgetown, Connecticut, Kansas, Missouri, Ole Miss, North Carolina and Memphis. Goodwin said playing for the Arkansas Wings in AAU basketball last summer prepared him for the extra attention for this season.
“I use to think about it and thought in the back of my mind, ‘Wow, they’re here. Don’t mess up.’ ” Goodwin said. “I just realized if you have a bad game or good game that the coaches recognize you’re skill level whether if it’s a good game or bad. So I’ve learned to play like they’re not even there and continue to work hard and try not to do too much.” GOOD WORK
Shortly after all the Arkansas football signees turned in their national letters of intent, they received workout books to prepare themselves before reporting to Fayetteville.
Linebacker Brock Haman, 6-3 1/2, 232, 4.61 seconds in the 40-yard dash, of Scottsdale (Ariz.) Saguaro chose Arkansas over scholarship offers from Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon State and others.
He said the workout books were thorough and will help him prepare for the beginning of his stay at Arkansas.
“It covers everything from nutrition to workout, cool down to warm-up,” Haman said. “It’s four days a week. You take Wednesday off. We really don’t have a nutrition plan at our school. We do our own thing.”
Haman said the intensity of the workout plan isn’t much different from what he and his teammates have been doing in high school, but the warmups are.
“They incorporate jumping rope before you start,” Haman said. “I think that’s pretty good because it really helps your heart rate and warms you up.”
Haman, who plans to report to Arkansas in time to attend class for the second summer session beginning June 6, is hoping to add weight before reporting.
“I would like to be 240 before I go out there along with getting better with my agility and keep my strength but gain some weight, too,” Haman said.
Haman is one of three prospects from Arizona that offensive line coach Chris Klenakis was able to lure to Fayetteville. Haman’s teammate, athlete D.J. Foster, is one of the better prospects in the West and is someone Klenakis hopes to sign for the 2012 recruiting class.
“He told me he definitely wants to take a visit to check it out,” said Haman of Foster. “We’re already joking that I’m going to be his host. I told him to keep his mind open. I know he likes California a lot. It seems like he’s leaning towards that right now, but I believe anyone has a chance to snatch him up. It would be great if I could help and get him to go to Arkansas.”
E-mail Richard Davenport at [email protected]
Sports, Pages 33 on 02/27/2011