Staff file photo by Graham Cullen Jeremy Goode drives to the basket as teammate Lamar Trice guards him during an early practice this year.

When he was a sophomore in high school Goode verbally committed to playing basketball at the University of Charlotte, only to later change his mind.

The 5-foot-9 point guard missed his plane flight for his official visit to Mount St. Mary's.

He eventually signed to play basketball for the Mount, but was so upset when he hardly played against West Virginia University in his first game as a freshman, he seriously thought about leaving school.

But he stayed at the Emmitsburg school and it turned out to be a good decision for him and the Mount. He unexpectedly became a starter as a freshman and, entering his senior year this season, has established himself as one of the top players in the school's long basketball history.

An NEC first team pick last year, he might be the quickest guard ever to play at the school. He's an excellent passer, can drive to the basket with the best and has developed into a good shooter. He's one of the main reasons the Mount has had two straight winning seasons and made the NCAA Tournament his sophomore season.

"The stuff that he does is amazing, I've been with him for four years and there are still times when I drop my jaw and I'm like 'How did he do that?"' Mount senior forward Kelly Beidler said.

"There are times he's been able to 'wow' us with some of his plays," Mount coach Milan Brown said.

"He's a great kid, very easygoing," Mount assistant coach Brion Dunlap said. "He doesn't get too high and he doesn't get too low. That makes him the type of player that he is."

At times things haven't gone his way. He was suspended for one game and about 12 practices at the beginning of his sophomore year because of an altercation. He was bothered by a hand injury his junior season and always appears to have the sniffles after the game.

"I think it's this weather," Goode said.

At times he marches to the beat of his own drummer.

"I like to go places by myself a lot," he said. "That's just one of my things. I just take off and go.'

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AS A HIGH SCHOOL player in Charlotte, N.C., Goode got a lot of interest from a lot of schools and for good reason. At Providence Day High School, he averaged 27 points, seven rebounds and seven assists per game. As a senior he was third in the voting of Mr. Basketball in North Carolina.

Among the schools interested in him were the Mount, Auburn, Fordham, East Carolina and Appalachian State. Originally he had committed to Charlotte.

If he was taller, he would probably be at a larger school.

But that doesn't bother him.

"A lot of coaches have told me if you were 6-2, you would have gone to any school you wanted to go to," Goode said. "Maybe it wasn't meant to be. Maybe if I was tall, I wouldn't be as quick. I accept it, I can't change it."

By the time he was a senior, he started thinking about the Mount where his mentor and good friend, Mychal Kearse, had played basketball.

"I didn't know anything about the school more than what he talked about," Goode said. "He told me it wasn't going to be like what you saw in the movies, a big college campus. He told me it is what it is."

Dunlap and Brown had both watched him play in high school and were impressed.

"I can remember I would sit in the stands and there were probably 10 coaches and everybody was saying he doesn't shoot the jump shot, he's not solid defending," Brown said. "They asked me what I thought. I said he's really fast. He's really tough. The other things I can work on."

Goode called Dunlap and arranged for a visit to the Mount, his first official college visit. He was supposed to fly there in the morning, but never made the flight.

"I missed it," Goode said. "I was probably the first recruit ever to do that. My mother didn't even know I was going. I woke her up 45 minutes before the flight and the airport was 30 miles from my house."

He called coach Dunlap and got on a later flight.

"That was just Jeremy being Jeremy," Dunlap said. "It was a precursor of things to come. But he got here eventually."

He met Brown for the first time, but never got to look at the campus.

"It was snowing real bad so I didn't get over there to see it," he said.

A few days later he notified the Mount he was coming.

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WHEN HIS FRESHMAN SEASON began, Goode had hoped to be in the starting lineup. But he found himself behind Joey Butler, who had started the year before. The coaches weren't real happy with Goode. They felt he would loaf in practice.

"I had to really chew into him every day," Dunlap said.

"He would make me run every day," Goode said. "He would tell me I wasn't doing anything right and was just being hard on me because he expected a lot out of me."

The first game that year Goode played on a few minutes. He was not happy.

"I was talking with my mom and my exact words were that I'm not going to sit for four years," Goode said. "She said, 'Be cool, a lot of people make bad decisions when they are mad.'"

He called home to get advice and several people told him he had made the wrong decision.

The next game was against James Madison and he was told he wouldn't play much. But Butler picked up his fourth foul with four minutes to go. Goode went in. The game went into two overtimes. He played the rest of the way and scored a team-high 18 points with six assists and four rebounds.

"I wanted to show coach Brown that I was supposed to be playing, that's how I looked at it," Goode said.

The next day he found out he would be the starter, but not because of the way he played in the JMU game. Butler had been dismissed from the team for a violation of team rules. He had been arrested for possession of marijuana, possession with intent to distribute and possession of drug paraphernalia.

"We had this three-hour meeting and coach was like 'You've got the keys, what are you going to do?'" Goode said.

"A lot of weight was put on his shoulders from the get-go," Beidler said. "I think he carried himself with poise, he's always under control."

"He was thrust into the responsibility of basically running the show from day one and he responded in the right way," Brown said. "Just look at the success of the program since he's been here."

Goode went on to start the rest of the way, averaging 10.1 points a game with 155 assists. He was named to the NEC All-Rookie team.

"I didn't know the plays, but there was no time to think about that," he said.

His sophomore year got off to a rough start. He was suspended for 12 practices and the first game because of an altercation.

"I should have been out there," he said. "It threw off my timing, my teammates timing with me. It threw off everything."

The Mount finished strong that year, winning the conference tournament and beating Coppin State in the NCAA play-in game before losing to North Carolina in the first round of the tournament. Goode averaged 14.5 points a game.

Last year the Mount finished 19-14, but lost in the NEC title game.

Goode averaged 14.9 points a game despite a strange hand problem that caused him to miss practice time.

"My hands went crazy," he said. "I couldn't dribble the ball, I couldn't tie my shoes, I couldn't do anything."

He later found out it was a problem his mother had and it went away after a few days.

Goode will graduate at the end of the season, but he isn't thinking about basketball after school. His mind is focused on this year.

"I'm really stuck in this right now," he said of his senior year. "When college is over, that's when I'll think about that kind of stuff."

And he said he does not regret going to the Mount even though he isn't too fond of the weather.

"I texted coach Brown and coach Dunlap last night and I just said I wanted to thank them for believing in me," he said. "We just have that kind of friendship, relationship, a family relationship."