CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va -- Reid Travis is as tough as they come on the basketball court.
A 6-foot-8, 240 lb bruiser, Travis has developed a reputation for himself nationally as a bully in the paint. He’s a double-double machine with a nose for the ball and a sense of how to gain position down-low. He finishes well through contact as well, which makes sense given the fact that he’s gotten scholarship offers from Big Ten schools as a quarterback.
With all that in mind, it’s funny to consider the fact that the next step that he needs to take in his game is to become ... softer?
Well, that’s not quite right, but for Travis to be able to make the leap to the next level, the Minnesota native needs to become a more versatile player, diluting that raw power with a dash of finesse and a dollop of face-up game.
“I think the next step that I have to take is just to expand my game to the outside, and be able to knock down a three here and there while still keeping my principles of being able to pound down low,” Travis said after his first game at the NBPA Top 100 Camp on Thursday afternoon, mentioning that he watches film of NBA power forwards like Amare Stoudamire to help him learn. “I’ve been working on my post game a lot, especially since I’ve been going against all these bigger guys in the post. I’ve gotta expand a lot more, working on my jump shot and my jump hook and stuff like that.”
The better Travis gets from the perimeter, the more attention he will receive as a ballplayer. But attention isn’t all that Rivals’ 41st-ranked player in the Class of 2014 is after, as he already has plenty of it.
Travis already has upwards of a dozen high-major offers. In fact, he’s in the process of whittling that attention down and trying to figure out where he will be playing his college ball. Academics are important to Travis, which is one of the reasons that west coast programs like Stanford and UCLA have garnered his interest. Travis said that he likely will end up visiting those two schools, but the first visit that he has locked-in is a trip to Gonzaga, which will take place in the next couple of weeks.
“The coaching staff [at Gonzaga] intrigues me a lot,” Travis said. “I’ve spent a lot of time with Tommy Lloyd and Mark Few, and I’m trying to keep building that. I just want to see what the campus is about and how they develop their players. Get a first hand look at what they do over there.”
Gonzaga would be a nice fit for Travis, as he could very easily put together a career reminiscent of the one that Elias Harris had over four years in Spokane, but leaving home wouldn’t be an easy thing to do, not with the current excitement in-state of the hiring of Richard Pitino. And you better believe that the new Gopher coaching staff has made the effort to sneak in and earn a commitment from Travis.
“It’s been great talking to Coach Pitino. I think I talk to him like twice a week,” Travis said. “I’ve had a number of unofficials since he came over. It’s been great to build that relationship, I like their whole staff and I like the program.”
You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.