Kevin Jones

And rightfully so.

But Pitt’s Travon Woodall may prove to be the league’s Most Valuable Player, a category for which the Big East has no actual award.

He was named the Big East Player of the Week for last week.

Consider that Pitt is 5-6 without  their redshirt junior point guard this season and 10-3 with him.

After Woodall went for a career-high 29 points, including 12-for-12 from the stripe, in Sunday’s 79-70 win over Villanova, Pitt improved to 15-9 overall, 4-7 in the Big East.

Asked when the last time he scored that many points was, Woodall told SNY.tv by phone, “I [haven't] scored 29 since maybe IS8.”

Teammate Ashton Gibbs, a fellow Garden State guard, added 25 points in the win.

After an 0-7 Big East start, the Panthers have won four in a row. Woodall has scored a combined 53 points, with 10 rebounds, eight assists and 11 turnovers in the last two games – wins at West Virginia and over Villanova.

For the season, Woodall is averaging 13.3 points and 6.8 assists, which would be good for second-best in the Big East behind Providence’s Vincent Council (8.56) if Woodall had played in the required 75 percent of his team’s games.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the idea of Pitt make the Big Dance seemed laughable.

Woodall missed 11 of 12 games between Dec. 3 and Jan. 16 because of an abdomen/groin injury. They were 5-6 during that span and actually lost their first seven Big East games, including the Notre Dame game in which Woodall returned prematurely from the injury.

“That was me being more frustrated than smart,” Woodall said. “But I’m back now and I’m leaving everything on the floor, everything that I’ve seen while I was off the floor that the defense is giving. That’s what I’m taking advantage of now.”

Now, if Pitt can go 5-2 in their final seven regular-season games, they will be 9-9 in the league and, remarkably, could end up making the NCAA Tournament. Their RPI is 67,

“I mean, our goal is just to keep playing,” said Woodall, the former St. Anthony star. “Our goal isn’t five and whatever, we gotta win all the games. We’re trying to impress to the other guys that we need to win every game, and keep focusing on the next team, the team that we’re about to play.”

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“I want to play Saturday,” Woodall told SNY.tv.” It’s College GameDay. Who would want to miss that?”

Woodall participated in contact drills Thursday for the first time since the Notre Dame game Dec. 27 and said he “felt good” but still had to be cleared.

The Brooklyn-born and Paterson, N.J.-raised Woodall was averaging 14.1 points, a team-leading 8.3 assists and 3.4 rebounds when he suffered the injury while sliding Nov. 30 against Duquesne.

After missing six games, Woodall returned prematurely Dec. 27 in a 72-59 loss at Notre Dame, but failed to score in 18 minutes.

“The Notre Dame game was way too early,” said Woodall. “I wasn’t ready.”

Pitt is 11-8 overall, 0-6 in the Big East.

Louisville (14-5, 2-4), meantime, has endured its own rash of injuries.

Eight players have missed at least one game this season, and now junior forward Rakeem Buckles is lost for this season and next with a knee injury. The Cards were already missing shooter Mike Marra (ACL) and freshman guard Wayne Blackshear (shoulder)

Louisville coach Rick Pitino added Thursday that top wing Kyle Kuric is “doubtful” for Saturday.

“I don’t think we have an identity because we’ve had so many different lineups, so right now we’re just trying to survive and win and we’ll keep on doing that,” he said.

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By JOSH NEWMAN

Special to ZAGSBLOG

NEW YORK – You’ll have to excuse Steven Adams, Notre Dame Prep’s free-spirited, guitar-playing, happy-go-lucky, Pittsburgh-bound 7-foot center. The New Zealand native hasn’t been in the United States very long and everything is a little foreign to him, just as he is to this country. The best example of this comes courtesy of Crusaders head coach Ryan Hurd.

“Any city we head into, he’ll ask, ‘Is this the ghetto?” Hurd told SNY.tv.

In terms of basketball, Adams isn’t much brighter right now in some ways. He is still getting used to the faster, more physical style of American basketball. Adams and Notre Dame Prep, a New England prep school power with a slew of Division I recruits, share a region with some of the country’s elite players and teams. Despite this, Adams has no idea who Tilton (N.H.) School junior shot-blocking sensation Nerlens Noel is, nor does he comprehend who longtime Connecticut prep school power St. Thomas More and head coach Jere Quinn are. 

In his first game for Notre Dame Prep on Saturday, Adams gave Noel, a future high-major forward, 23 points and 13 rebounds in a Crusaders win. After a first half marked by foul trouble on Monday against St. Thomas More at the Big Apple Invitational, Adams finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds, six blocks, countless altered shots and totally controlled the last seven minutes on both ends in a 79-72 come-from-behind win.

Remember the following when you look at those numbers against one of the nation’s best big men and one of New England’s storied programs. Adams hasn’t even figured out how the game needs to be played in America on a consistent basis and he did it with butterflies rolling through his stomach.

“I’ve been nervous in all of the games so far, I don’t really know what it is,” Adams said as he shoveled postgame pizza into his mouth on Monday outside a Baruch College locker room. “I think it’s because I just haven’t adapted to the American-style of basketball. I feel kind of foreign. This style of play is different and hard, but the coaches are letting me get the feel by myself.”

How does a big kid from New Zealand, one that is projected as a one-and-done at Pitt and a potential top three pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, fall into Jamie Dixon’s lap? The Pitt head coach has plenty of relationships in good-standing in New Zealand from his days there as a player. That includes former Cleveland State star and NBL legend Kenny McFadden who was a pro teammate of Dixon’s in New Zealand. McFadden was Adams’ mentor in his native land.

McFadden believed that Dixon was a man that could guide Adams and here we are today.

Yes, Adams put up big numbers and efforts against Tilton and St. Thomas More over the last five days and yes, he probably could be one-and-done with Dixon. With that, the truly glorious thing about Adams right now is that he doesn’t seem to care. The NBA does not appear to be something he is concerned with at the moment and if you ask Hurd, the kid is more concerned with assimilating to America, making friends and of course, playing his guitar.

On a recent ride in the team van, the Crusaders were listening to the song ‘Toes’ by the Zac Brown Band. Adams took a liking to the song, downloaded it when the team got back to campus and was playing it on his guitar within a day. Adams may be a millionaire in 18 months, but for now, his naivete despite all the ability and the opportunities that are in front of him is refreshing.

“I just want to worry about what’s happening now,” Adams said. “If you worry about the future, you tend to miss stuff now.”

PHoto: MassLive.com

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“This week he’s going to go to Florida (Tuesday), New Mexico State (Wednesday) and UNLV (Friday) and he may go visit another maybe one or two,” his mother, Wendy Sparks, told SNY.tv by phone.

“We’re not sure which ones he’s going to go visit. He has to decide soon because he wants to be back in school by mid-January.”

Wendy said her son had received releases to all of those schools.

“We got the releases about a week ago and now he’s ready to go,” she said.

Pittsburgh has declined official comment on Birch’s transfer status, but he is no longer listed on the team roster.

The 6-foot-9, 220-pound Birch recently told CBSSports.com he will transfer to Florida, UNLV, Gonzaga, Washington, Xavier or New Mexico State.

“I want to play more (power forward),” Birch told CBS. “That’s one of the main reasons I went to Pittsburgh in the first place. I know I don’t have the four-man skills yet, but I want to develop them.”

A former McDonald’s All-American, Birch averaged 4.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.9 blocks for Pitt.

He will have to sit out a year after his transfer.

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“We haven’t asked for a release,” Haith told Sporting News. “We haven’t done anything with the kid.”

Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com reported that sources told him Missouri was the only school to which Pitt would deny a release if they asked.

A former McDonald’s All-American, the 6-foot-9 Birch told Pitt coach Jamie Dixon in mid-December he would transfer.

Birch told CBS his list of potential landing spots includes Florida, UNLV, Gonzaga, Washington, Xavier or New Mexico State.

He told CBS he left Pitt because of a dispute over what position he wants to play.

“I want to play more [power forward],” Birch told CBS. “That’s one of the main reasons I went to Pittsburgh in the first place. I know I don’t have the four-man skills yet, but I want to develop them.”

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Khem Birch

The 6-foot-9 McDonald’s All-American left the team last Thursday and told Dixon he intended to transfer.

One source in Birch’s inner circle said Birch is currently at home in Montreal “keeping a low profile.”

Although both Missouri and New Mexico State have been linked to Birch, no list of potential destinations has been formulated, a second source said.

Still, Missouri has shown a willingness to add transfers and recently brought on former Oregon guard Jabari Brown as its third transfer who will become eligible in the 2012-13 season.

New Mexico State associate head coach Paul Weir is a Toronto native and the team’s current roster features six Canadians.

“It’s a very disorganized mess,” a third source close to Birch said of the next phase of his career. “It’s not going to resolve itself in the near future, I don’t think.”

Meantime, both Birch’s former high school coach, Ryan Hurd of Notre Dame Prep, and current Pitt players have chimed in on Birch’s decision to leave.

“Khem is a great kid,” Hurd told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette over the weekend. “This situation is painting him as something he is not. The problem is he is being led down a road by so-called advisors. It’s going to end poorly for Khem, and that is sad for me because I care about the kid. This is not going to end well for him.”

The Pitt players have not been as sympathetic, with forward Talib Zanna, a Nigerian, telling the Post-Gazette that Pitt practices sometimes brought Birch to tears.

“His wrist and hands were banged up,” Zanna said. “He banged it like three times in a row. There was a lot of pain. He couldn’t sustain the pain so he just had to cry. I don’t even know if I would say it was crying, but if you looked at his face it looked like he was crying. This program might have been too tough for him. I think that’s why he left.”

In contrast to Hurd’s comments about “so-called advisors,” Zanna added that Birch was a loner who didn’t spend time with the team.

“It’s a real shame,” Zanna said. “He made Coach Dixon look bad. That was up to him. It was his own decision. If he wanted to move on because he wanted more playing time that was up to him. We just have to move on and let him do his stuff. We’ll be fine without him, or with him.”

Photo: Post-Gazette

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The news was first reported by CBSSports.com.

“Khem has decided to leave the team for personal reasons,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “We thank Khem for his contribution to our program over the last semester and wish him great success in the future.”

Birch, a 6-foot-9, 209-pound center who was a McDonald’s All-American, started each of Pitt’s last six games. He led the Panthers in blocked shots (19), averaged 4.4 points and 5.0 rebounds per game and shot 57.1 percent (16-28) from the floor.

Birch totaled one double-double of 15 points and 10 boards at Penn on Nov. 25 and surpassed career-highs for blocked shots (six) and rebounds (11) in a home win against Robert Morris on Nov. 27.

No. 15 ranked Pitt (9-1) hosts South Carolina State tomorrow at the Petersen Events Center.

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And head coach Jamie Dixon knows he can’t have Gibbs sustain that pace for a long period of time.

“Ashton looked comfortable, fatigue doesn’t seem to be a big thing,” Dixon said. “It’s not a good thing. Him doing 40 minutes against the press is not a good thing…

“We need Travon back, there’s no question about it.”

Tray Woodall, a redshirt junior and team co-captain, suffered a groin strain and abdominal tear Nov. 30 while sliding against Duquesne and initial reports said he would miss 4-5 weeks.

The 5-foot-11, 190-pound Brooklyn-Paterson, N.J. native was having a stellar year, averaging 14.1 points, a team-leading 8.3 assists and 3.4 rebounds.

The former St. Anthony star isn’t happy with the timetable and is anxious to return, but he also wants to be completely healthy when he does come back.

“I’m just trying to get back as fast as I could, but at the same time they don’t want me to come back too early and then re-injure it and I could be out 12 weeks,” Woodall told SNY.tv Saturday.

“I never knew how severe an injury like this was. This is probably the most severe injury I ever had in my career.”

Woodall has been in close touch with former St. Anthony teammates Tyshawn Taylor (Kansas) and Mike Rosario (Florida). Taylor underwent knee surgery Sunday and was due to miss several games himself.

“Tyshawn was telling me if I try to come back too fast, the rest of my season could be over if I re-injure it,” Woodall said. “So he told me to be patient and everything will work out.”

Woodall said he’s undergoing treatment in which he receives injections in his groin.

“They take my blood out and put it in some machine and then put the blood in my groin and my hip and in my ab,” he said.

Woodall said it was especially frustrating missing the Big East/SEC game Dec. 3 against Tennessee, which Pitt won 61-56.

“When we played Tennessee I wanted to play because we played them last year and they gave us a good whooping,” Woodall said.

Without Woodall, Pitt started redshirt freshman Cameron Wright in the backcourt and has relied more on true freshman John Johnson and redshirt frosh Isaiah Epps.

“Nobody’s playing with three freshman guards and a senior,” Dixon said. “I don’t recommend it, but we’ll get our other guys back, we’ll get Travon back. John was hurt this week.

“But I like how we responded. I thought Cameron played better [Saturday].”

Gibbs’ role has changed, too.

“Now he gotta create a lot more shots for himself,” Woodall said. “Like coach said a couple games ago, that his percentages are not going to be exactly where he wanted them to be at because he has to sit here and create for himself.

“He definitely has to do a lot more facilitating.”

The good news for Pitt is that Woodall is on the mend.

“They’re saying 4-6 weeks, but I feel better,” he said. “A lot better,”

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Junior guard Tray Woodall will miss the next month due to a groin strain and abdominal tear suffered in Thursday night’s win over Duquesne. Doctors expect the former St. Anthony star to return to the court following four-to-five weeks of rest.

“We anticipate that Tray will make a full recovery and join his teammates on the court soon,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. 

The 5-foot-11, 190-pound Brooklyn-Paterson, N.J. native was having a stellar year, averaging 14.1 points, a team-leading 8.3 assists and 3.4 rebounds. In seven games he has totaled four double-doubles on the year (points-assists) and reached double figure scoring in five contests.

No. 17 Pitt (6-1) plays at Tennessee on Saturday as part of the Big East-SEC Challenge.  Pitt will also be in New York Dec. 10 to face Oklahoma State at MSG.

And maybe the ACC.

“We are extremely excited about Steven and James,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said, referring also to DeMatha Catholic guard James Robinson. “Both are good players from winning backgrounds and both have outstanding work ethic.”

Adams is a 7-foot, 240-pound center from New Zealand who has been rated as a consensus national top-10 recruit. This summer he led the adidas Nations Tournament in both scoring (22 ppg.) and rebounding (16.8 rpg.). 

In a matchup with fellow 7-footer Kaleb Tarczewski, who has signed with Arizona, Adams posted 20 points, 24 rebounds and four assists, while holding Tarczewski to 10 points and four boards.

“He’s tremendous,” said Chris Rivers of adidas, who was the assistant coach to Alex English on Adams’ Asia team. “He’s very Greg Oden-like from 2005.

“He runs, he blocks shots up by the square, he finishes with both hands. He’s a competitor, a true team player.

“He has tremendous attitude. His team lost every game and it didn’t phase him. He went hard every time down the court.”

A New Zealand National Team player, Adams competed this summer for the Wellington Exodus Saints and helped lead the squad to the National Basketball League title. He has also guided his club team in Wellington to two national titles at the Under-19 and Under-17 age groups.

Following secondary school graduation from Scots College Prep (Wellington, N.Z.) in December, Adams will enroll and play at Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass., and play for coach Ryan Hurd.

After a semester at Notre Dame, Adams will join fellow Notre Dame Prep alum Khem Birch, a Canadian who was named a McDonald’s All-American last season, along with current freshman shot-blocker Malcolm Gilbert.

“In high level Division 1 basketball, you need those bigs to survive,” Hurd said.

“[Coach Dixon] is going to have two incredibly skilled guys who can go get the ball.”

Robinson, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound point guard, is a three-year varsity player who has guided the program to 90 wins, three conference titles, three city titles and the 2011 Alhambra Catholic Tournament championship.

He also guided his AAU team, Team Takeover, to the Nike Peach Jam/AAU national title after scoring 24 points in the championship game. DeMatha is expected to be ranked among the nation’s top-25 preseason teams in 2011-12. Robinson is a consensus top-60 national recruit.

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