Welcome to Pitt Basketball Summer School. A look at individual Panther players and what they need to do to get better — and by extension make Pitt a better team for the 2011-12 season. Brought to you by SilverPanther in NYC.
Intro:
In our first installment, we take a look at Travon Woodall, the redshirt junior guard. He’s an upperclassman now and going into his 4th year in the program. Will he be the next tough NYC-area point guard to be the primary driver of Pitt’s engine? Or will he be a role player, a catalyst, and a supporting player in a backcourt by committee?
What he gave us last year:
Travon and Dante Taylor were the first two off the bench in 2010-’11. Travon came in to play point guard and usually Ashton Gibbs moved to shooting guard or Gibbs rested and someone else played on the wing. As a pure PG and playing about 22 minutes/ game, Travon tried his best to play the role of distributor and offensive “tempo catalyst”. He was second on the team in assists and assists/game behind Brad Wanamaker. In the later half of the Big East season, he started for an injured Gibbs and played well in solid wins on the road at WVU and Villanova, and a home blowout vs. South Florida. He also started and struggled a little bit against St. John’s at MSG, but managed to hit two big shots including a gritty late 3-pointer that ALMOST would have been the game winner. I was surprised to discover that his 2.3 assists to turnover percentage was good enough for 4th best in the guard-centric (recently anyway) Big East Conference. But I didn’t necessarily need quantitative figures to verify Travon’s poor shooting- both inside and behind the arc. He threw up a lot of bricks and seemed to go through some dreadful stretches. He finished at 36% from the field and 29% from 3pt range. Defensively, he ripped away 26 steals- 2nd best on the team behind Wanamaker’s 49.
Coming off his uneven redshirt Freshman year, he seemed to play a little more consistently and under control. While earlier in his career he would rush and force things when inserted into the game, sometimes seemingly disrupting order, he’s managed to mostly be a positive influence on tempo. He seems to have a knack for hitting important shots late in the game. And he is fearless, although not exceptionally skilled, in transition.
