If you haven’t, by all means read the USA Today article on three St. Anthony players in college. Travon Woodall featured, and I hope finally puts to bed that long-running criticism of Woodall playing at Pitt because he wasn’t even a starter as a senior in high school.
Fontan and Woodall became the only St. Anthony players to be named season captains, because of exemplary leadership and punctuality, Hurley says. They always were on time despite commuting 20 miles, sometimes by train and light rail from Paterson.
“Both those kids brought the whole package,” Hurley says of their work ethic in the classroom and basketball.
Woodall wants to show that leadership at Pitt alongside senior Ashton Gibbs, one of the country’s top shooters. Nationally, Woodall is one of the most improved players since last season when the 5-11 point guard averaged 6.4 points and 3.4 assists while playing 21.6 minutes a game as a reserve.
This season, he is averaging 15 points and 8.5 assists, third in Division I, heading into Wednesday’s game vs. Duquesne. He’s a starter now, but starting never has been important to him. As a senior at St. Anthony he came off the bench because “emotionally he could handle it,” Hurley says. “Travon had less ego than other players.”
What matters most to Wood-all is finishing games, having teammates count on him to help put away an opponent. He can’t recall ever being nervous and says he steeled his nerves in middle school when classmates, including rival gang members, once beat him up after taunting him for weeks.
Woodall will be one of those players in the future we look back on with pride that he went to Pitt.
Dwight Miller did like his time at Pitt. He still is in touch with Pitt players. He just wanted a chance to play.
“I had a conversation with Coach Dixon after the season, basically we talked about playing time, the minutes that would be allocated, and I ended up drawing the short end of the stick on that one,” Miller said. “I wanted to give myself the best opportunity. I didn’t want to be that guy to sit back and just go for the ride. I wanted to play more, and have more of a hands-on approach to games instead of sitting on the bench.
“I decided to take the chance to try to make it work out somewhere else.”
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“So far, I think things are working out well,” Miller said. “I still have a lot of things to learn, but I’m happy I made the decision.”
And now, Miller is eager for the opportunity to show Pittsburgh he had more game than he was perhaps given credit for.
Miller is playing less than 10 minutes a game with modest numbers, but by all accounts he is playing well enough. His energy and attitude have never been in question. We will get a chance to see him in the Tennessee-Pitt game this Saturday.
Maryland powerhouse DeMatha is a top-ten high school program this year with a loaded class.
1. DeMatha: The Stags are loaded, led by Pitt recruit James Robinson, Syracuse recruit Jerami Grant and one of the nation’s top juniors, BeeJay Anya. DeMatha begins the season ranked No. 10 in USA Today’s national preseason Super 25.
Robinson is also considered one of the best defenders among top national recruits (Insider subs).
He is smart, physical on-ball defender who understands distance to the ballhandler and does a great job off knocking weaker point guards off the ball with his chest without fouling. He will not hesitate to hit the floor and take a charge as well.
The Pitt rotation this year seems deep. Next year will be even tougher. Lots of quality that will be fighting for minutes next year.
“…Pitt might be without starting point guard Tray Woodall for its game Saturday at Tennessee. Woodall left the game against Duquesne Wednesday night with a leg injury and did not return.
Head coach Jamie Dixon said today that Woodall had an MRI and an x-ray on his groin and abdomen, and he is awaiting word from team doctors about the severity of the injury.
“He’s in a lot of pain, there’s no question about it,” Dixon said. “We just want to get all of the data and make sure everyone takes a look at it and sees it before we make any decisions or calls on that.”
5 of their top 6 scorers are freshman or sophomores. Legit.
Good to see Orlando Antigua.
as for the next guards.. we got johnson, wright, and epps
This is a huge opportunity for Johnson, particularly. Of the three freshman guards, he has the most game.
The two big issues coming into this season were:
1) Defense – we’ve talked about that ad nauseam and
2) Experience v. Talent – how quickly will the young guys contribute and to what degree?
For this team to make a sweet 16 (or beyond) run, the young talented guys need to play often and they need to play well.
So far, Birch (talent) got his opportunity and made the most of it. He (at least for now) took the starting spot from Taylor (experience).
JJ Moore (talent) has made some strides and shown some signs that he can play under control, but the jury is still way out him.
Now, J Johnson (talent) gets his opportunity. The kid, by all accounts, is hard working and has a great attitude. He’s crazy talented. It seems like he is getting comfortable with what the coaches are asking him to do. The game is starting to slow down for him. Now he can prove it.
Both Birch and Johnson are capable of providing an UPGRADE over the starters at their positions, both offensively and defensively. If these guys have earned starting spots by March, this team will be better off.
Competition for playing time, starting roles can be a great thing for a team if handled right. So far Dixon seems to be handling it perfectly.
One thing for sure, this won’t be the same old Pitt this year. Much more interesting.
But who’s gonna distribute? Woodall has more than twice as many assists per game than anyone. And again, he leads in assists even on a per minute basis.
It may not mean a very good game but it may force the rest of the team to figure out how to create assists. I’d be OK with that. Though I’d really like to get some revenge on Tennesee.
When he is out the offense stagnates because Ashton is not a real ball handler/PG. We will lose at Tenn if he doesn’t play, I feel.
Jamie the magician has his hands full.Needs to get Birch, Zanna and Johnson minutes to allow them to improve and be ready for a March run.
Here’s hoping Dante performs at his City Game level with bigger opponents acoming with Tenn and OKla St. His D needs work.
we need to get that magical 20 wins to keep the NCAA streak alive, and the final pre-BE games will be critical. Need 10-11 wins going into conference play.
He’s not even the best college PG in in this city, for pete’s sake. I think anybody who’s watched McConnell eat Woodall’s lunch in Greentree would attest to that.
I suppose some of you watched Duke and the Buckeyes the other night. I started telling people about Craft last year. THAT is what you should expect from a PG — the ability to distribute, get the ball to the right guy at the right time, put pressure on the defense by penetrating, play tough, hard-nosed defense on the opponent’s ballhandler and hit an occasional big shot.
Woodall has hit a couple of big shots, but I find him sorely lacking in distribution, penetration and defense. He just puts no pressure on the defense and his own pressure on the opposing PG is non-existent.
Is he the best option right now? Probably. Is that a happy conclusion? NO. Emphatically.
So it will be interesting to see J.Johnson get more minutes. At least the defense will be better……
