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.
Summer School:
There are probably thousands and thousands of young ballers on the East Coast that would like to be in Travon Woodall’s shoes right now- presumed starting point guard on a top Big East team with an NCAA All-American caliber shooter on your wing and two McDonald’s All-Americans high schoolers down low. Combine that with the potential for being part of the legacy of tough, successful NYC-area point guards like Brandon Knight, Karl Krauser, Levence Fields, and (kinda sorta) Brad Wanamaker. In short, this is a junior year hoop dream job. What does Travon Woodall have to do to make those dreams pleasant ones?
First, he has got to become a better or more consistent shooter. With expected blanket coverage on Gibbs and the uncertainty of backcourt shooting from incoming and redshirt freshmen, Travon needs to be able to knockdown shots and become a viable alternate kick-back option when defenses overplay on Gibbs and the frontcourt can not be counted on for scoring. Both his FG and 3Pt% need to improve. As far as penetrating, what would be really nice is if he could refine a tear drop shot in the lane. He’s quick and has a slight build, but he lacks dynamic athletic moves that we saw from someone like Kemba Walker or even whirling dirvish gritty school yard moves like Carl Krauser. Levence Fields used change of speeds and meaty shoulders to get in the lane. So a signature “take-it-to the rim” move like a tear drop, which he has shown some of in the past, would go a long way toward keeping defenses honest. Travon is a tough kid and he’s not afraid of contact, so I’m not suggesting this because of passivity or weakness. But little pull-ups in the lane can be baskets or dump-off and dunk opportunities as defenses catch on.
On the passing front, Travon seems to occasionally force the ball. He needs to take a page from Wanamaker and be a playmaker without trying to be Magic Johnson everytime. He also has a tendency to make lazy one-hand push passes off to his left. Being smart with the ball, making crisp passes from the point and saving creativity for driving to the basket or in transition will give us less turnovers for sure.
Defensively, Travon has proven to be pesky disrupting the passing lanes and occasionally scrappy on help defense. But he doesn’t seem to be strong as an on-ball defender. He didn’t spend much time in late game defensive situations, but as an upperclassman this year, he’ll be on the floor late and may be called upon to stop or deter penetration. He may have to cover the best backcourt player of the other team. So 1-on-1 defensive improvement will be critical.
Conclusion:
Coach Dixon’s very deliberate, coordinated offense can always benefit from an injection of speed and energy to keep defenses honest, change tempo, and create off-ball opportunities for open shots for Ashton Gibbs and others. On defense, mid-2nd half sagging seemed to hit the team regularly last year, so pesky perimeter play can have a similar uplifting tempo affect. So in Pitt’s system, there’s a lot of opportunity for someone with Travon’s attributes to thrive.
While he was a captain at St. Anthony’s his senior year, did he even start? I’m not sure and I don’t care. This is an exciting time for young Mr. Woodall. He’s overcome a lot of challenges already and is now in a dream position. He comes from a big time high school program and has performed well on the big stage for Pitt several times. Now, he’s getting the keys to the kingdom. As mentioned above, he’s next up in pretty nice legacy of NYC area point guards. We would love for him to play his way up to the accomplishments of those tough winners. However, if he struggles at the point and J.J. Moore or one of the redshirt or incoming freshmen prove capable on the wing, he could see his role dialed back to the off-the-bench catalyst of the last two years. This would certainly be a different legacy, but not necessarily an unfavorable one.
SPinNYC
My wife and I are traveling home from Louisville ffrom a wedding, going thru Columbus on Sunday.
Looking for a church to worship….we are Presbyterian…part of the “frozen chosen” What is the name of your church? If you don’t mind sharing? Will understand if you care not to…
Forget individual players, Jamie should be drafted.
Long story short … never trust a sport that has rule ‘illegal defense’ Sounds unconstitutional to me
Great write up SP and I look forward to the next one.
What I infer from this Summer School review on Woodall is that we have a player going into his 4th yr in the program and we have no idea what we’re going to get this year at the most important position on the floor. That’s unsettling.
I know I’m still baffled by how unready Woodall was for BE basketball when he arrived for his original freshman year. He was even slighter and he repeatedly couldn’t hit the rim from three during warmups. A very puzzling recruit…….
Recent examples are Gary McGhee … and don’t you remember just how much criticism Wannamaker received here in his first 2 years? He was a turnover machine back then!
I have no idea how his career there played out but he obviously didn’t live up to the hype (although you can’t be too disappointed to be a starting PG in the Big East).
I think he’s going to be a solid yet unspectacular player for us these next two years. If he can shoot a little better and avoid some of his turnovers he’ll be just fine.
This will be his fourth year. He has been properly socialized into the Dixon program. Jamie trusts him. Pitt needs a point guard, Gibbs is better off the ball and will be relied on to SHOOT and SCORE. Woodall played almost 22 minutes a game last year and did OK. An incremental improvement in decision making, shooting, ball defense and some left hand would go a long way towards helping this team win the Big East.
The more interesting question is who will be that third guard? Gibbs played 33 minutes last year, that won’t decrease. He can play either guard spot. Woodall played 22 minutes, that will probably go up a little (but not to 30), he really can only play point.
So what does Dixon do with the other 25 minutes or so a game?
The other guards on the team have very different skills. So Jamie decision will have as much to do with team need as it does ability/performance.
Here are the choices:
* Wright – Big guard (legit 6’3″+ I stood next to him in Greentree). Good athlete, good defender, good ball handler, smart and can probably play the small forward spot too. Right now, he is somewhat limited offensively. Can’t shoot and with Brown and Wannamaker gone, this team will need some shooting. He is most likely to fill the role Brad played, but probably not this year and will need to improve his shot. MINS: 8-10
* Epps – True point guard. Good ball handler, good distributer/floor leader. Decent size, slightly over 6 ft. Looks like he spent a little too much time with Dante at the O eating trays of fries. Will need to drop a few lbs. OK shooter. Not overly quick. Defense looks suspect. John Johnson lit him up like a Christmas tree in the first ProAm game. He wasn’t anywhere near quick (or interested) enough to stay in front of Johnson. Like Woodall, he is ONLY a point guard. His personality is jovial, happy go lucky, and loose. Jamie usually prefers his players (especially point guards) to have a little edge. MINS: 5-8
* John Johnson – The most interesting of the guards. He is a small, score first, lightning quick, lead guard. He can beat people off the dribble and finish at the rim. He can shoot from three or midrange off the bounce. He probably needs to have the ball in his hands. He looks to be a quick and WILLING on ball defender. While he has long arms, he is not tall (maybe 6 feet?) and he’s wiry (Maybe 160lbs) but he looks strong. He has scored 40 points in two summer league games but only has 3 assists? And he has turned it over a bunch. Not the kind of stat line that will endear him to Dixon. The kid looks to be a competitor, he has an edge, he is relentless, tough and seems to have a little chip on his shoulder. To say he is “miles ahead of where Woodall was” is an understatement. IF he can figure out how to fit his game into what Jamie wants, it will be really hard to keep him off the floor. MINS: 5-10
* Durand Johnson – Tall, good shooter, decent athlete, decent basketball skills. Needs another year to mature, physically. He’s really skinny. MINS: Redshirt
* Moore/Patterson – Those guys are both small forwards, but Jamie could play them together with either Gibbs or Woodall at the point. Patterson has a good handle. They can both guard the two spot. If none of the above prove reliable, Jamie won’t hesitate to go big. MINS: 5-10
With Brown, Brad, JJ Rich, and Gary gone there are plenty of minutes up for grabs. Pitt has a lot of versatile players who can play a lot of spots. It will be interesting to see who steps up and grabs the minutes.
A lot will depend on how Jamie wants to play, fast/slow, big/small, defense/offense, experience/talent but I’ll save that discussion for another day.
With Brad and Gil gone, this team will need more than just minutes, they need scoring, so here’s hoping that J. Johnson can earn Jamie’s trust in short order.
Sorry for not making that clearer.
I hope J Johnson can contribute a lot but we have no idea how good a defender he is (or Epps for that matter) .. and you now how important Dixon considers defense to be
Gibbs
Moore
Birch
Taylor
Bench: Robinson (please learn how to play the 3), Zanna, Patterson
I would not be surprised if Gibbs is at the point to start and then moves over when Woodall comes into the game.
My comments are based on SEEING THEM PLAY BASKETBALL in person. Granted, summer league basketball is not the same as Big East basketball. BUT IT IS STILL BASKETBALL. And since NO ONE ON THE PLANET has seen Cameron Wright, Isiah Epps or John Johnson play Big East basketball, we need to base our opinions on something, right? People form opinions and make projections all the time based on imperfect data (ALL OF BASKETBALL RECRUITING).
Do you think we get the whole story from the coaches? From Paul Ziese (PA-LEEZE!)? From Chas? From Rivals or a scouting service? From watching an all-star game? An AAU game? All that stuff can play a role, but I would rather see it.
So until late November, watching them play in Greentree is as good as an indication of what they can do as we’re going to get. They are playing BASKETBALL against decent competition and against each other.
As far as having “no idea how good a defender he is”….I can tell you FOR CERTAIN that Isiah Epps did not stay in front of John Johnson in a basketball game. Whether it was because he didn’t want to or he couldn’t I don’t know. But from 30 feet away, it sure looked like he wasn’t quick enough. Certainly, that gives us at least an idea of what kind of defender he will be.
On the other hand, John Johnson DID stay in front of Lamar Castile, who has one of the quickest first steps I have ever seen in person. I saw Johnson fight his ass off in the post against a dude 5 inches taller and 50lbs heavier and hold him off.
So you can disagree with my opinions, but you can’t dismiss them as “go(ing) overboard by the numbers in Greentree”.
All am I doing is offering an educated (if not somewhat biased) opinion on what I SAW. After you have seen these guys play, let’s compare notes. I’ll bet you a beer you’ll share 90%+ of my opinions. And the other 10%, you’ll be wrong! 🙂
PS – Have you seen Woodall and Gibbs play defense? Not pretty.
They call Moore “Twin” for a reason.
A question: Now that you are retired, why are you residing in Columbus (or the Columbus area) instead of the ‘Burgh?
