Ex-DeLaSalle star Travis confident, excited to play for Stanford
MINNEAPOLIS -- Reid Travis looks only slightly different after a summer preparing for the next step of his basketball journey.
There's a little more muscle on that wiry, 6-foot-8 frame. His knees are working better after arthroscopic surgery to clean up one of them in July.
But that clean-cut, boyish, smiling face hasn't gone anywhere. Neither has the confidence the DeLaSalle star-turned-Stanford freshman exudes.
"I definitely feel I'm way ahead of the eight-ball in terms of being prepared for college physically and mentally, basketball IQ," Travis told FOXSportsNorth.com. "I feel like I've been well-prepared, so I'm excited to see what happens when we go into fall practice, and hopefully I can earn some significant minutes."
That's the plan for the 240-pounder who chose Johnny Dawkins and the Cardinal over Minnesota and Duke about a year ago. With forwards Josh Huestis (first-round NBA draft pick by Oklahoma City) and Dwight Powell (second round, Charlotte) both leaving for the NBA, Travis is in line to compete for a starting spot.
To that end, he spent most of the summer in Stanford, the school that produced Herbert Hoover, John Steinbeck, Sally Ride, John Elway, Tiger Woods and Reese Witherspoon. He took two summer classes while practicing twice a week with his new teammates, which is now allowable thanks to a new NCAA rule permitting limited coach access during the summer.
Travis also underwent what Dawkins characterized as a minor knee operation July 7. He fully expects to be ready when fall practices start later this month.
Stanford began its fall semester this week. Travis spent the month prior at home, capping his stay by attending former DeLaSalle and AAU Howard Pulley Panthers teammate Jarvis Johnson's commitment ceremony Friday.
Unlike Travis, Johnson stuck with his hometown school and picked the Gophers.
"It was big for me to be here, and I didn't want to miss it," Travis said, standing at the back of the same conference room in which he'd made his commitment known last fall. The decision came after an illustrious prep career that saw him lead the Islanders to three consecutive state championships and average 26.1 points and nine rebounds per game his senior year.
Then came the national rankings -- 23rd overall by ESPN, 40th overall by Rivals.com and Scout.com -- and an appearance in this year's 2014 McDonald's All-American Game. Travis seemed to be leaning heavily toward the Gophers but wound up favoring Stanford's recent success and high academic standards.
There wasn't as much suspense with Johnson, who made up his mind early last week he'd be going to Minnesota. He had some help in the process from his old friend.
"Jarvis reached out to me about a month ago and kind of asked how I handled the whole situation, because we did go through similar processes with the high-caliber schools coming at us, and the way the pressure of the recruitment process started to heat up," Travis said. "I just told him to have fun with it and just kind of narrow it down to really what he was looking for at the end of the day. I think he used my advice well, and I'm happy for him. I think it's a great fit."
Landing Johnson is considered a triumph in Gopher land, especially after first-year coach Richard Pitino's inability to land either Travis or fellow top in-state prospects Tyus Jones and Rashad Vaughn in last year's recruiting class.
Pitino had a full year to work on Johnson, though, and it paid off.
"I think that they've taken a different approach of what (former coach Tubby) Smith did, and that approach -- at least in this situation -- has been extremely effective," DeLaSalle coach Dave Thorson said after Johnson's commitment. "I think, no question, teams literally had been recruiting Reid for three years, and Stanford has done a marvelous job. They'd been in early, and obviously for what Reid was looking for, he really felt like Stanford was the right decision for him. I don't think it was the case that he didn't value or didn't respect where Minnesota was going.
"We're talking years versus months, and I think that's an advantage they had with Jarvis is they had some time."
Follow Phil Ervin on Twitter
