Men’s basketball: Gibbs’ shooting, defense impressing coaches

Coming into this season, sophomore guard Ashton Gibbs knew that he would have to improve his 4.3… Coming into this season, sophomore guard Ashton Gibbs knew that he would have to improve his 4.3 points per game average if his team wanted to continue its string of success.

So far, he’s done just that.

This season, he is averaging 17.5 points per game.

Much of his scoring can be attributed to his astronomical 3-point shooting percentage of .409. He also leads the Big East in free throw shooting at 93.7 percent.

Gibbs spent part of this past summer in New Zealand with the gold-medal winning United States Under-19 team. This summer and early this season, he worked hard, taking hundreds of shots a day, but according to head coach Jamie Dixon, his improvement in the other areas of his game has helped the team the most.

“Everyone talks about how many shots he puts up, but what truly stood out to me was how much his defense has improved,” Dixon said. “This summer with the Under-19’s, he really became our best perimeter guy.”

Gibbs hasn’t just improved defensively, but in rebounding as well. He has 16 rebounds combined in Pitt’s three games against Big East opponents — DePaul, Syracuse and Cincinatti — and often jumped over much bigger players to get them.

“Coach [Pat] Sandle and coach [Brandin] Knight have really been on him about rebounding, and he’s really improved in that area,” Dixon said.

Gibbs broke Pitt’s record for consecutive free throws made in a season (34) against Syracuse, exemplifying his hard work in other aspects of the game. Gibbs extended and set the record at 40 in Pitt’s game against Cincinnati, but missed on his 41st free throw attempt.

Gibbs’ work hasn’t gone unnoticed. He was honored as the Big East player of the week last week.

“Guys like to work on things they do well, but working on your weaknesses and improving those is what really stands out to me,” Dixon said.

Even DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright had high praise for Gibbs following his 24-point and eight rebound performance in the win against the Blue Demons.

“It looks like Ashton Gibbs will be the next really good guard to come out of this building,” Wainwright said.

That’s saying a lot considering that guards like Brandin Knight, Carl Krauser and Levance Fields came before him.

Gibbs is already well on his way to following in those players’ footsteps, but, considering he’s a sophomore, his potential could be even greater than that of his predecessors.

But for now, Gibbs’ energy is focused on helping his team get back to the NCAA Tournament.