SALT LAKE CITY — Tray Woodall is walking a different path, living a different life, than he was less than a decade ago. The 12-year old who sold drugs in Crown Heights, who gave up on school in Paterson, will lead Pittsburgh into another NCAA Tournament today, will walk down the aisle for his diploma this spring.
As the Brooklyn-born, New Jersey-bred point guard said, “anything is possible.’’
Woodall leads Pittsburgh in scoring (11.8) and assists (5.2), and in today’s 1:40 p.m. West Region second-round game, he will lead the eighth-seeded Panthers (24-8) against Wichita State in what could be his last collegiate game.
If it is Woodall’s last game, it will be an incredible comeback story for him, one even he couldn’t have imagined as a teen.
“Definitely not. I wasn’t on the right track at that point in my life. I definitely couldn’t see myself being here,’’ said Woodall, on track for a degree in sociology. “But I’m happy I’m here. And I’m not complacent. I still want to gain more. It’s the hunger for more that keeps me working hard.’’
He knows from hungry; life saw to that a long time ago. When his father left the family, his mother Theresa Ratliff descended into drinking and drugs. When the welfare check came on the first of the month, that often left a 12-year-old Tray and 15-year-old sister Shataya — who had a baby of her own — to fend for themselves.
“Me and my sister had to sell drugs,” Woodall told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “What other outlet did I have? I couldn’t get a regular job. I was in fifth grade.”
Woodall — introduced to basketball by his cousin, Khalief, killed when Tray was just 11 — still was dealing the next year after Ratliff moved them to Paterson, but that’s where he met George Fontan and his son Jio, who changed his life.
The elder Fontan related to Woodall, who had lost his father by 14, had his son by 15 and had been incarcerated by 18. But he had turned his life around, and eventually became Woodall’s godfather. Jio was his best friend and teammate.
“Jio’s father, he kept me on the right path,” Woodall said. “There was a point in time before I lived with him, when I lived in Paterson, I wasn’t going to school. He’d ask me how was school and I said I didn’t go, so then I started staying at his house he’d drive me and drop me off. I could see he had my best interests at heart.
“It was a bumpy road, but I’m here now. … I’m glad I took [his advice] and understood it at that point and age, somebody telling you I’ve been through that and I’m here. … He’s a father and takes care of his kids, does everything the right way. This is the way to go.’’
Woodall and Fontan led St. Anthony in Jersey City to a 32-0 record and a national title. Now the latter is at USC — which reportedly has made overtures toward Panthers coach Jamie Dixon — and Woodall is at Pitt, trying to shake its reputation as March underachievers.
Pittsburgh has made 10 of the last 11 NCAA Tournaments — missing only last year when Woodall suffered an abdominal injury — but has reached just one Elite Eight. It also has been upset as a No. 3 by No. 10 Kent State in 2002, as a No. 5 by No. 13 Bradley in 2006 and as a top seed by No. 8 Butler in 2011.
“At the end of the day it’s up to us to get the job done,’’ said Woodall, who won’t have any family on hand unless the Panthers reach the West Region semifinals in Los Angeles.
With Fontan in the stands, it would be a fitting place for Woodall’s redemption story to play out. After all, anything is possible.