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US Open was must-see TV for Vandy’s Goulbourne

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Mike Miller

Good to know I wasn’t the only one transfixed by the Novak Djokovic-Rafael Nadal match in Monday’s U.S. Open final. Vanderbilt’s Lance Goulbourne couldn’t stop watching.

The 6-8 forward was a ball boy at the Open for five years, which developed into a serious love of the game. He also had some talent for it. He held an age-group Eastern Division U.S. Tennis Association ranking and also lettered in three years for his high school.

But Goulbourne couldn’t do both.

As he told Marlen Garcia of USA Today, he would love to play tennis and hoops, but settled on basketball because of scholarship opportunities. He also thinks the odds of him playing professionally are much greater. Years of tennis also boosted his basketball footwork. As a junior, he led the Commodores in rebounds and averaged 6.9 points a game.

So yeah, Monday was fun. Except for one thing.

“I was pretty disappointed,” Goulbourne told the paper. “I was rooting for Nadal.”

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