March Madness: Gibbs a leader on and off court

Typically, the de facto leader of any basketball team is the starting point guard.

The point… Typically, the de facto leader of any basketball team is the starting point guard.

The point guard has the most responsibility of anyone on the court. He runs the offense, brings the ball up the floor and is responsible for knowing where the other four players are supposed to be.

For the Pitt men’s basketball team, the man filling this role is Ashton Gibbs.

A 6-foot-2 junior from Scotch Plains, N.J., Gibbs developed into the leader of Pitt’s team during the off-season between the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons.

At the conclusion of the era that featured stars DeJuan Blair, Sam Young and Levance Fields, Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon sat down with every one of his players and discussed their strengths and weaknesses.

With Gibbs, the subject of conversation was leading the team. That interview gave Gibbs the confidence he would need to keep a steady hand at point guard despite the departure of Fields.

“It first started with the job Coach Dixon does — he gets us into a meeting preseason and postseason, and he tells us what we need to work on,” Gibbs said.

Gibbs said Dixon gave him the confidence to take Fields’ place on the court.

“It was just something that gave me a lot of confidence with what I needed to work on over the summer, and I worked on those things and it really carried on to my sophomore year,” he said.

Prior to last season, the first after the departures of Blair, Young and Fields, the Panthers received few votes of confidence from the media, with most projecting that Pitt would finish in the lower echelon of the Big East.

Instead, Gibbs led the team in scoring with 15.7 points per game and Pitt finished 24-8, going 13-5 in the Big East and earning a berth in the NCAA Tournament as a No. 3 seed.

This year, despite missing action in three games due to a knee injury, Gibbs leads the Panthers in scoring with 16.7 points per contest. Shooting 48 percent from beyond the arc, Gibbs became known nationally for his ability to nail 3-pointers with the best of collegiate basketball players.

Spending his freshman year below Fields in the depth chart also played a large role in Gibbs’ development. Gibbs said Fields taught him to really know his teammates, so that he would understand when to be vocal.

“Some players you can’t yell at and some players you can, so Levance showed me what to do with certain players and how to communicate and use his leadership,” Gibbs said. “That’s something he did with me as well, and I got better.”

Gibbs added that he tries to be a leader not only for the younger players, but the starting line-up as well.

“That’s my job to be a leader as a point guard,” he said. “You just gotta live up to it each and every game.”

Redshirt sophomore and back-up point guard Travon Woodall commented on Gibbs’ ability as a leader, saying that he isn’t particularly vocal, but that he leads by example.

“He’s always in the gym,” Woodall said. “He motivates you to want to get in the gym. He’s a prime example of a guy that just works out all the time and gets better and better each day. He gets better, he sees what his

weaknesses are, and he goes in the gym and works on them. I kind of follow him.”

Former Pitt point guard and current assistant coach Brandin Knight agreed that Gibbs sets an example with his work ethic.

“Ashton isn’t a very vocal guy,” Knight said. “He leads more with his work ethic, his example, as opposed to being vocal. That comes from the way he is. Ashton always wants to work to prove people wrong, and that’s something he’s been working at since back in high school.”

Now with the Panthers earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, Gibbs will look to lead this year’s squad on a deep run to the Final Four. The journey starts with a game on Thursday in Washington, D.C., against the winner of a play-in game between UNC-Asheville and Arkansas-Little Rock.

“Back in my freshman year, we advanced to the Elite Eight and lost, so I’m really looking forward to this,” Gibbs said. “We want to go out and prove ourselves and make a good run, get to the National Championship and show the nation we’re the best team out there.”