An Interview With The Coach: Walton's Head Coach Joe Goydish

I had the chance to catch up with Walton Head Coach Joe Goydish this past Friday. This season marks his 10th season with the Raiders. We are indebted to Coach Goydish for taking our phone call and giving us his time. He is an incredibly nice guy and I look forward to talking to him in the future.

Here is a breakdown of our conversation this past Friday concerning his experience coaching Ryan Harrow:

WolfpackHoops: Coach Goydish, tell us what it has been like to coach Ryan Harrow.

Coach Goydish: Ryan is a very well spoken, nice kid. The teachers really like him and that makes my job that much easier. He has been a really good edition not only to our team but also to our school. I mean we pack out our gym for a Tuesday night game, and Ryan is a big reason why. He is a very coachable kid and very easy to talk to. I get the chance to talk to him a lot outside of basketball because he spends a lot of time hanging out in my office doing schoolwork.

WolfpackHoops: Tell us about Ryan’s play making ability.

Coach Goydish: Ryan does stuff on the floor that is just jaw dropping. I mean I’m talking stuff that you would see an And1 player do. He was trained by the same guy that trained Hot Sauce and The Professor on the And1 tour.

WolfpackHoops: Does his flashy style of play ever get him into turnover trouble?

Coach Goydish: This summer we probably played 30 games and he only had 2 turnovers. I’m not saying that he is immune to making turnovers. But he probably has a 2:1 assist/turnover ratio this season, which is pretty good considering our style of play. You have seen the scores that we put up. We have two unbelievable talents in Ryan and Glen Rice Jr. and we have to give both of them a little bit of freedom.

WolfpackHoops: How would you rank Ryan amongst all of the players that you have coached?

Coach Goydish: Kevin Kruger was the best player I had ever coached before Ryan and Glen. But from an athletic and skill perspective, Ryan is the best player I have ever coached, or probably coached against.

WolfpackHoops: How do you think he will do competing at the next level in the ACC?

Coach Goydish: Ryan needs to put on some weight and muscle and we’ve talked about this. The players in the ACC are beasts and they go out there and battle. He is already quick enough to compete at the next level. He is around 6’1 right now. The kid wears a size 13 shoe. I think that he will keep growing and end up around 6’2 or 6’3. If grows and puts on some weight he will be really hard to stop at the next level.

WolfpackHoops: Tell us a little bit more about Ryan’s athletic ability? We’ve read a lot about and seen a lot of him dunking the ball.

Coach Goydish: I was just talking to my son about this the other day. When Ryan came to us last February he was barely even dunking the ball with one hand. Now he is throwing the ball off the backboard and dunking on the break. It just shows how much he has grown as an athlete.

WolfpackHoops: Scout and Rivals have Ryan as an unranked 3-Star recruit. It’s obvious that he is underrated. Why is this?

Coach Goydish: He’ll be a Top-50 player when the rankings come out again. He wasn’t on the AAU circuit for 2 years because of injury. Last season was his first season back on the circuit. He also barely played last season because he transferred down here mid-season. He kind of went under the radar. We think that he is the best point guard in the state of Georgia. He will be a 5-Star player before it is all said and done.