Woodall was planning as he was playing
Woodall said. “I’ve stayed in contact with him for pretty much my whole career, regardless of if I was at Pitt or if I was overseas, just checking in.”
Woodall, who is replacing Tim Lawrence on the Robert Morris staff, also credits former Colonials coach Mike Rice for steering him toward coaching. Rice, a longtime friend of Hurley, was director of the Eastern Invitational Basketball Camp for The Hoop Group. As an assistant for Pitt in 2006-07, Rice recruited Woodall to play for the Panthers, where he averaged 8.0 points and 4.2 assists per game from2008-13.
At Pitt, Woodall emerged as a vocal leader. But after missing 12 games in his junior season after an abdominal injury, he began giving his post-college career more consideration.
“I never really recovered backfrom those games fully, so [at] that point I knew I was going to play the rest of my career 80 percent,” Woodall said. “I played well overseas, I finished my senior season, played well, but I played through injury. I knewthat I wanted to coach.”
Woodall was hired at IUP in October 2016, where he coached under former Pitt assistant Joe Lombardi.
“I had an unbelievable experience being under the mentorship of coach Joe Lombardi, who did an awesome job,” Woodall said. “He runs a great program. He does things the right way. He taught me what it really entails to get into this business and become a coach atthe collegiate level.”
At the age of 15, Toole saw a young player who was humble, appreciative and mature beyond his years. He said he sees many of those traits in Woodall today.
“I think if you watch Tray play, he has the basketball acumen to provide insight, to help mentor guys,” Toole said. “His experience at Pitt, working his way into more and more playing time, more and more success to where he became a third team all-Big East player, I think just speaks to his work ethic. That’s the same way he approaches the coaching. I think those are all of the things that made him attractive to us and was important for us to make him a part of our staff.”
Woodall’s ability as a mentor will be key, Toole said, considering the amount of roster turnover Robert Morris experienced this offseason. With just five players returning from 2016-17 and six newcomers, Toole said Woodall has done a good job of connecting with players.
“He has the ability to tell them what they need to hear without making it seem like it’s a negative,” Toole said. “He just has that way about him where he’s going to be honest with them, he’s going to tell them what they need to work on or he’s going to tell them where they need to be, and he’s able to get that across in a way that they get it and they can react to it and respond to it.”