With the college basketball season just around the corner, the time has officially come to take a deeper look at the 2021-22 Duke women's basketball roster. The Blue Zone has you covered with player previews for each member of the team. Be sure to check out the previous previews: Jiselle Havas, Emma Schmidt, Lee Volker, Amaya Finklea-Guity, Onome Akinbode-James and Nyah Green.
Miela Goodchild
Year: Junior
Height: 5-foot-10
Position: Guard
2020-21 statline: 15.3 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 27.8 MPG
Game breakdown: Goodchild’s game is simple: 3-and-D wing. The fourth-year Australian shoots threes well and she defends perimeter players well. Those are very important skills to have.
By volume and efficiency, Goodchild has been an elite shooter since she came abroad. She’s one of 68 players in the Her Hoop Stats era to have multiple seasons hitting at least 38.4% on at least 5.4 3-point attempts per game—which may not sound impressive at first, but on average, that’s top-six in the country in a given year. And Goodchild can hit spotting-up, off one dribble or pulling-up. She’s shown the ability to hit off zippers and flares and move off-ball well to find her shot, too.
Defensively, Goodchild is a great point-of-attack defender, and while former head coach Joanne P. McCallie’s zone defense meant her off-ball acumen was often hard to assess, the times she has played man coverage have shown that to be a strength of hers as well. She navigates screens, recognizes offensive actions, and helps and recovers intelligently, all while being able to position herself quite well.
Everything not previously mentioned, however, is an area of significant weakness. Goodchild greatly struggles to make anything happen off the dribble, and often appears uncomfortable having to dribble more than three times in a row. Her passing, both in vision and in accuracy, is poor. And she’s not particularly strong physically, making her susceptible to drives by stronger guards and limiting her from switching onto opposing threes.
Role on the team: Duke’s rotation at off-ball wing is the biggest unknown across the entire lineup. Between Goodchild, Celeste Taylor, and Lexi Gordon, there’s three players who’ve established themselves as positive contributors against top competition. Add in a recent top-20 recruit in Nyah Green, Vanessa de Jesus’ off-ball aptitude, and some opportunities for Lee Volker and it’s a crowded group.
Gordon is likely to spend more time at the three and four, de Jesus is likely the primary point guard, and the team has nominated Taylor for preseason All-ACC awards. So Goodchild’s probably got ten or so minutes per game in the bank, and increasing those will come down to how her play compares to that of Green.
Projected stats: 4.5 PPG, 1.4 RPG, 11 MPG
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