Sitting shirtless, laid back in a tanning chair by the poolside cabanas at Michigan basketball’s LA hotel — the W Los Angeles-West Beverly Hills — Vladislav Goldin leans upright as a smile stretches wider across his face.

He’s reflecting on his life’s odyssey, which has taken him from Nalchick, Voronezh and Moscow in Russia to Putnam in Connecticut, on to Lubbock in West Texas, then to Boca Raton, Florida and, finally, to Ann Arbor — where he’s now a focal point of a Wolverines basketball program firmly in the thick of the Big Ten race.

The 7-foot-1 center is fully aware what his path must seem like to an outsider, with what seems like a singular list of stops.

“I’m not probably the only one,” Goldin said with a laugh when asked how many people have lived in all of those places. “I’m the only one.”

For much of the 45 minutes Goldin talked with the Free Press during January’s West Coast trip, he was as jovial as he is tall, as go-lucky as he is athletic. That is, until one topic came up.

Goldin is a tremendous player — one of the best in the Big Ten, an emerging star nationally with a likely professional tenure in his future; he returned to the NCAA this season to ensure it’s in the NBA, not overseas — but it’s not what makes his story unique.

The 22-year-old hasn’t seen his family going on five years.

It was August 2020 when Goldin needed to take “four or five” planes just to get from Russia to the United States during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, he has played in more than 140 collegiate games, including a March 2022 trip to New York, where he helped Florida Atlantic (and current U-M head coach Dusty May) claim the program’s first Final Four berth.

Yet his parents, Alexander and Lubov Goldin, haven’t been able to attend a single contest. They remain at home just a few hours from the Russia-Ukraine border, where a full-fledged war has raged for more than 1,000 days and counting.

Travel to and from the region is difficult, not to mention dangerous. Goldin did his best to put into perspective the situation, but found himself cutting off, both by emotion as well as fear for the safety of those closest to him — not just his family, but also former friends who are now active in the military

“Living in America for five years without leaving the country, I kind of lose a little bit of people who I talked to,” he said. “But the fact is, what’s going is, I watch videos of what’s going on, it hurts to watch — how people fight basically for no reason. 

“I don’t know what to say. It’s just wrong. It doesn’t feel right.”

Instead, Goldin’s slice of home has come from the man sitting to his right, Dmitry Fedoseev, a former professional coach in Russia who is on May’s staff as a graduate assistant. Golding and Fedoseev didn’t know each another before 2023 but have formed an incredibly tight bond in a short time through their shared grief.

May, who calls Fedoseev “the most over-qualified GA in all of college basketball,” brought the 41-year-old first to Boca Raton to work with FAU and Goldin for the 2023-24 season, thanks to fortuitous timing and an open spot on staff.

What he couldn’t know at the time is what this new basketball mind would help unlock.

Fedoseev has become a secret weapon of sorts for Goldin. The security blanket nobody knew he needed.

“It’s always easier to build connection with someone who has the same background as you, someone who has seen the same lifestyle as you,” Goldin said. “We built a really good relationship. Just like I said with coach May, we built a relationship off the court. We talk about everything.

“It’s not just strict boundaries of how it’s going to work. It’s flowing relationships, there is no pressure.”

Fedoseev, also taking in the LA sun, couldn’t help but offer that Goldin’s feelings were shared.

“It’s two-way process,” Fedoseev said. “I try to help him with basketball, but sometimes, it’s mostly like therapy.”

Life in Russia

Goldin doesn’t remember exactly when, or even where he was traveling, but he remembers the conversation quite well.

It was sometime in 2014, when the teen was in a car with his father. He got up the courage to say something about his future plans.

Previously a wrestler, Goldin had ditched that. Now was his chance to perhaps take it a step further.

“My plan was not professional sports ever,” Goldin recalled. “I even wanted to quit it. I was driving with my dad, to practice or from practice, and said ‘I don’t want to play sports any more. I want to hang out with my friends, do something else.’ He said I could quit basketball if I picked another sport but I was like ‘all sports,’ and he said no.

“So I said if I had to play something, I was already good at basketball.”

A couple years after that, he hit a “huge” growth spurt. Suddenly, the boy who was better than most players was now well taller than them, too.

Before he knew it, he’d moved from the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains to the nation’s capital, Moscow, to join the Russian national team (as well as CSKA Junior Moscow, for whom he spent three seasons with, beginning in 2017). It wasn’t easy to move more than 300 miles away at just 15. But now, he says, he’s thankful he did, adding he couldn’t have handled the past few years without that first taste of life without home.

“It helped me (grow) a lot,” Goldin said of the distance from his family. “At least that case, they were 6 hours. Now, it’s … pffft.”

In Goldin’s mind, he was just “going with the flow” when, one day, a coach at a tournament told him he could have a future playing in America. He was generally a good student despite his issues with one subject: English.

He recently described it as his “least favorite,” complete with an impression of Russian elementary teachers chastising him as he struggled to pick it up. Yet still, Goldin agreed with the idea of moving to the U.S.

“I said yes (to playing in America), but, again, I thought it was a joke,” he said with a laugh. “I didn’t think nothing about it, but then two or three weeks later, they are like, ‘This is how get visa and you go do this and this and this.’ “

In less than six weeks’ time, Goldin went from Moscow — the sixth-most populous city in the world (population of around 13 million) — to Putnam, Connecticut (population 7,207) for his senior year.

Early days in America

The culture shock was indescribable.

By that point in his schooling, Goldin remembers, he at least felt he had somewhat of a handle on the language. But the move to the New England region, where people tended to speak quickly, made already-difficult school subjects all but impossible.

“You think you might know English, but you come to America and everybody speaks in a different accent,” Goldin said, shaking his head. “They speak fast, you’re an 18-year-old guy, boy, whatever, you’re getting a little bit scared. So I went to class and I did not listen.”

About a month or so in, Goldin estimates, a teacher was trying to explain something at his desk and another Russian exchange student offered him “assistance.” He still takes exception to it.

“She goes, ‘Do you need help?’” mocking a Russian accent trying to speak English. “I say, ‘You clearly see I need help. I need something more than help.’ “

Fortunately, he always had basketball. Goldin — a consensus three-star recruit, according to 247 Sports’ composite rankings — helped lead Putnam Science Academy to a shared national title in his senior year of 2019-20, which was cut short by the pandemic.

He took a few recruiting visits and “knew some schools were interested” but described the entire process as overwhelming.

Ultimately, he landed on Texas Tech, and then-coach Chris Beard, in large part because the Red Raiders already featured a Russian center, Andrei Savrasov, he could learn behind.

Not long after Goldin made his decision, however, Savrasov transferred to Georgia Southern.

The decision meant one thing for Goldin, he remembers: “More English learning lessons.”

Goldin’s experience of adjusting to college, in another new environment, left him seemingly in his own bubble.

In Lubbock, Goldin was teammates with a future fellow Wolverines, Nimari Burnett.

But in 2025, when asked to reflect about Burnett’s growth between then and now, Goldin said he truly couldn’t describe it.

All he remembers of that time is what he was dealing with, and not his teammates.

Goldin played in 10 games while averaging 4.7 minutes and 1.9 points — a typical freshman season in a high-major conference for a player still learning the game.

He was ready to return to Lubbock the next season and take the next step; he even remembers going into Beard’s office after the season — the Red Raiders had lost to Arkansas in the second round of the NCAA tournament — to ask if he could leave town for a few days to see friends.

“He told me, ‘No, no we’re coming back, our practices start in a week, we gotta get going now’,” Goldin recalled.

The next morning, Beard gathered the team and informed them he was leaving for Austin, to become head coach of rival Texas.

Finding FAU, Final Four

As soon as his coach was gone, so was Goldin.

That was summer 2021, when the NCAA relaxed its regulations on transfers, allowing players to change schools without sitting out a season. This was the first time Goldin was able to truly look at his options, and it was the final domino in how he ended up in Boca Raton.

See, May took over FAU in 2018 and, upon arrival, was immediately put in contact with overseas hoop minds.

“When I got the job, a guy said, ‘Hey, let me connect you with these guys in Russia that have some players over here in high school,’ ” May said. “I started developing a relationship with some of his youth coaches.”

The idea was to begin to open the Russian and European pipeline; three years later, one of the coaches came to watch May’s Owls practice.

Soon after FAU’s Latvian center left the program to play professionally overseas. Suddenly, May had a center spot available and knew who he wanted, as soon as Goldin’s name hit the NCAA transfer portal database.

“Called one of Vlad’s advisors and said, ‘Can we get involved?’ ” May recalled. “He said, ‘Oh, he’s coming to you.’ “

The next three years in Boca Raton would change the lives of both Goldin and May.

Goldin started 33 of 34 games in his first season as an Owl, averaging 6.8 points and 4.9 rebounds a game for an FAU squad that jumped from fourth in the Conference USA East division to second, losing in the second round of the CUSA tourney. He still feels that team could’ve won the league title that year had it “matured faster,” but that experience was overshadowed by the next season.

In 2022-23, Goldin was the only Owl to start and play in all 39 games. He averaged 10.2 points and 6.5 rebounds a game, scored in double figures 19 times and set a program record for rebounds by a sophomore (255) as FAU went 28-3 in the regular season while winning its division and the conference tournament for the second NCAA berth in school history.

But what truly established him in Owls lore was his 14-point, 13-rebound performance at Madison Square Garden in New York when FAU topped Kansas State, 79-76, in the Elite Eight for a history-making Final Four berth.

“The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” Goldin still calls it. “The most beautiful event. I knew how big March Madness is and how we went with Texas Tech to March Madness. … So when I saw first round, second round, Sweet 16, Elite Eight, I was just, ‘Oh my God.’

“It was getting brighter and brighter and then the Final Four, I was just shocked how big of an event. How many people watch, the impact it makes all over the world. … It was unbelievable. I don’t even have the words to explain how beautiful that place was.”

The clock stuck midnight on FAU in the national semifinal at NRG Stadium in Houston, as the Owls fell by one point, 72-71, to San Diego State. Still, it was enough for Goldin to know he’d found the right man to play for.

“It’s just a fight for your life,” he said. “One game at a time and you just don’t want to leave that place.”

But even in these brightest moments, seemingly on top of the world, Goldin didn’t have his family.

‘Whenever it happens, it happens’

Truth be told, he’d gone too many sleepless nights wondering about when he would next see his parents, as well as his sisters, Marina and Alexandra.

Despite his challenges on school and on the court, that has been the hardest part for the teen who left Russia as a boy to grow into a man, all while his family has watched through one screen or another.

“I get too worried about that,” Goldin said. “I think about trying to see my family every year. ‘This year, I’m going to see them. Next year, I’m going to see them. Next year, I’m going to see them.’ So at some point, I just stopped thinking about that.

“Just because whenever it happens, it happens. Hopefully … hopefully soon.”

Fortunately, he is able to speak with his family virtually any day.

There’s an eight-hour time difference from Ann Arbor to Nalchick — it was 11 hours when he was Facetiming his sister on Jan. 7, the day he put up a career-high 36 points in a win over UCLA — so there are only a few convenient time slots, but everybody does their best to make it work.

His family follows his career, so although he’s not consumed with sadness daily, he admits it comes in waves when he realizes the sun is rising and setting without him there every day.

“It’s hard,” Goldin sighed. “When your grandparents passed away, your sister got married and (you are) not there, sister gave birth and not there. (During) daily life, you can forget the stuff, but when something big happens and you’re not there. …

“It’s (sad) I’m not there, you miss something that happens not that often, you want to show love, show support.”

Fedoseev and family

Fedoseev knows the feeling all too well.

He happened to be in New York in early 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine.

Stranded in America, with his family on the other side of the ocean, he didn’t have a way back home. Before long, it was clear he was out of his job as a coach back home, despite an accomplished résumé. He had won four consecutive women’s championships (2017-21) in Russia’s top division as head coach of Rostov-Don-SFedU.

But, as he says, everybody has to make a choice. Born in January 1983, when Russia was still the Soviet Union, he comes from a family in a different time. While both of his brothers and his sister have left the country, his parents have stayed behind.

“It’s not easy to talk about it from USA because we have our family in Russia, it could be not so safe for them,” he said. “Here we can have our opinion and we can share it free, but we have to care about our family in Russia.

“I disagree with what’s going on, but I cannot go and scream.”

Fortunately, he was a talented mind and had some connections, which led him to the world’s most famous basketball arena.

“Somebody knew him and told me, ‘My friend Dima’s in New York’. … when we were in the Sweet 16, Elite Eight,” May recalled, in yet another element of his life-changing weekend at Madison Square Garden. “At that point, he didn’t know Vlad, so we had a (graduate assistant) spot at FAU and because he was out of the job, overqualified, a brilliant student, we said, ‘Do you wanna be our GA?’

“He’s added a nice flavor to the manager staff, support staff.”

The follow-up to that Final Four run didn’t quite go how the Owls hoped. Although Goldin took the next step, earning second team All-CUSA honors while averaging 15.7 points and 6.9 rebounds a game, the team lost seven times in the regular season en route to an 8-seed in the NCAA tournament, then fell to Northwestern in the opening round.

From there, Goldin had a decision to make: Take the next step and pursue his lifelong … well, semi-lifelong dream of the NBA or return for a final season in college?

“I wanted to, how do you say, ‘try the waters?’” he said. “Just see what it looks like, what can I expect, talk to people about what to work on. It was a lot of learning … and I knew no matter what I had one more year.

“I wasn’t risking anything to put my name in the draft then come back, that gives me an advantage for the next year because I know what it looks like.”

Settling in at Michigan

Less than two weeks after FAU lost to its Big Ten foe, May announced he was headed to the Midwest.

Right away, there were questions about who he would bring to U-M. Most assumed it would include Goldin, but it wasn’t a sure thing.

“He wanted to see where he was in the draft process,” May said. “But everyone in Vlad’s camp made it clear. … We felt there was a 99.999% chance he would come, that (he) would be here or the NBA.”

Indeed, he did come to Ann Arbor, only for a new question to arise: How would he co-exist with Danny Wolf, another 7-footer coming in from Yale, who could play both inside and out?

The immediate answer during games wasn’t ideal: Goldin averaged 7.7 points and 4.7 rebounds over his first six games.

“We knew he wasn’t playing near as well as he could,” May said. “We thought when we brought him here he was potentially the best big man in the country that was in the portal, and to see him not play the way he had played the last couple years was tough.”

Since then, though, Goldin has averaged 20.8 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, which has him sitting at a career-high 16.4 points per game despite playing in perhaps the toughest conference in the country.

His 23.1 points per game in league play leads the Big Ten, fueled by a pair of games with more than 30. He has also expanded his shooting repertoire, hittin 9 of 16 (56.3%) 3s after not attempting one in the first 123 games of his career.

Goldin has scored at least 17 points in 10 of those 12 games, made at least 70% of his field goal attempts in eight of them and has shot below 50% just twice all season, all while ranking No. 8 nationally at 64.6% from the floor.

Much of it works because Wolf, the other half of the duo known as “Area-51,” is an elite facilitator and Goldin, May said, may have the best hands of any big he’s been around.

“It all goes back to our coaches’ trust in us,” said Wolf after a December win at Wisconsin. “We’ve worked at it the last four or five months … that 4-5 ball screen is pretty good. … (Vlad) said he wasn’t making (enough shots to start the year), but in practice he makes all of them, we knew eventually they’d go in.”

As of Wednesday, Goldin was among the top 15 in the nation in true shooting percentage (69.3%) and field goal efficiency (67.4), according to KenPom. He has expanded his game by making 3s and also drawing 6.9 fouls per game (a top-30 rate in the country) while shooting 72% from the stripe this season.

‘Help me to feel like home’

To be clear, Fedoseev isn’t the only coach Goldin is close with.

When asked about his relationship with May, U-M’s center made it clear he wouldn’t have followed just anyone to Michigan.

“You never see a person just as a ‘coach,’ as a profession. You look at the human. He’s unbelievable human, tries to help as much as he can,” Goldin said, removing his hat as a bead of sweat ran down his face. “That’s the difference of how much of an impact you can make. You can make an impact on the court, but it creates way higher relationship when you make it off the court.”

He’s also not the only person Goldin has to lean on. Goldin has been dating his girlfriend, Camryn Vogler, for nearly three years. The two met in Boca Raton when she was a member of the FAU volleyball team and have since moved to Ann Arbor, where they live together with their 1½-year-old Bernedoodle, Hank.

Yulia Grabovskaia, a Russian freshman on the women’s team, helps dog-sit when Goldin and Vogler are on the road.

Vogler’s mother and father, Dawn and Matthew, have become like a second set of parents for Goldin; when the team departed Ann Arbor for the holiday break, Goldin went down to Vogler’s family home in Tampa, Florida.

“They help me to feel like at home,” Goldin said. “We have huge difference between how we feel at home, but they made me feel like I have family. We have different understanding of homes — her family is very active, my family is very lazy — they just go anywhere. Go on a boat, go play darts, go play this, let’s go to the pool.”

Goldin admits he’s often not sure where they’re going, but long ago, he learned to trust the journey.

Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.