Woodall cleared by doctors to resume workouts

Monday, 09 July 2012 22:46

Written by Ray Fittipaldo

Pitt senior point guard Tray Woodall, who had surgery to repair a sports hernia in late April, was cleared by doctors on Monday to resume working out. He has not been cleared for contact, but his rehabilitation is on schedule.

Woodall said Monday night that he wanted to begin contact work right away, but team trainer Tony Salesi is being extra cautious with the injury because it gave Woodall so many problems last season. Woodall expects to be cleared for contact by August and said he will be in the full swing of things when the team resumes fall workouts in September.

“I’m glad I got the surgery because I wouldn’t have been able to play my senior year the way I did last year,” Woodall said.

Woodall missed 11 of 12 games in the middle of the season, and played with a great deal of pain after coming back for the final few weeks of the season. He was injected with pain killing medication before almost every game.

Woodall said the problem is now fixed and does not expect any more issues.

Woodall must settle to watch his teammates play during his rehab. He was doing just that Monday night at the Pittsburgh Basketball Club Pro-Am in Green Tree.  Between one of the games, we spoke about freshmen James Robinson and Steven Adams.

It is apparent that fans are not the only ones that have high expectations for Adams. Woodall said he thinks Adams will get 20 points and 20 rebounds in a game this season. He said he’s that good of a rebounder and is big and strong enough in the post to make some plays.

On Robinson, the point guard of the future, Woodall said he "loves" his game.

*Watched freshman Chris Jones in action for the first time Monday night. He reminds me a bit of Lamar Patterson with his body. It looks like he can get into better shape, but he has a nice all-around game. He can shoot it, and he likes to find the open man. I was pleasantly surprised by his performance.

*One more reason to believe Adams, Robinson may have big impacts on the team this season is a new NCAA rule that is being implemented for the first time this summer. The new rule allows coaches to instruct players for two hours per week. Previously, players could only play pickup games and work out with strength coaches while coaches could only watch a few summer league games. Now coaches are around their players almost every day and can watch them in action as much as they please. I’ll have more on this subject in a story in the PG later this week or early next week.  

*Talib Zanna was excited for his home country of Nigeria qualifying for the Olympics for the first time. He said he watched Nigeria’s victory over the Dominican Republic on the Internet and will be rooting them on in the Olympics. Zanna does not know any of Nigeria’s current players, but he did have some contact with coaches there about trying out in the future for their national teams. “The coach said just to keep working,” Zanna said. Nigeria was 21^st in the world rankings entering the FIBA qualifying tournament, but they upset Greece and Croatia to get in position to make it to London.

*Zanna is noticeably bigger in his arms and upper body this summer, which is a good thing. He needed the extra muscle to handle some of the bigger power forwards and centers in the Big East. But Pitt fans expecting an upgrade at power forward are mistaken. Even though Nasir Robinson had a so-so senior season that was complicated by his knee injury he managed to finish around the basket on a consistent basis. Zanna continues to struggle with his finishing ability. I lost count of the number of bunnies he missed Monday night.

*I am calling Durand Johnson the next J.J. Moore right now. You can see the potential oozing out of him, but you just wonder when he can put it all together. Moore didn’t do that until midway through last season, so don’t expect Johnson to instantly becoming a fixture in the rotation in his first season. He just seems like a player who is going to need extra seasoning and some heavy-handed coaching to get the very best out of him. Love his natural ability, though.

*All of Pitt’s coaches were in attendance Monday night.

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