How Seventh Woods’ personality could help shape next year’s Gamecocks
South Carolina basketball coach Frank Martin saw it building as the 2019-20 season finished off.
At the moment, he’s sitting at home, unable to coach in the potential NIT or NCAA tournament games his Gamecocks might have been in if not for the coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak. But the prohibitions on workouts and contact might extend well into the spring, limiting the individual development the staff will be able to do with its players.
And rolling around in Martin’s head in his free time is the play of Seventh Woods, one of his most intriguing players who worked behind the scenes, one of the lost opportunities of this stoppage in sports.
Martin talked highly of Woods last week during a season-ending teleconference — from what he remembers as a high school player to what he witnessed from the past season in practice. Woods was once a top-50 national recruit who chose North Carolina over the Gamecocks in 2015. He battled injuries in three seasons in Chapel Hill before walking on at USC as a transfer last season.
The 6-foot-2 point guard’s most complete season had him averaging 7.7 minutes in all 40 games of UNC’s 2017 national title season. He averaged 2.5 points and 2.1 assists two seasons ago as the eighth man on a Sweet 16 team.
But before then, he was an explosive human highlight reel at Columbia’s Hammond School, throwing down dunks and building an online following. He averaged 18.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and five assists his final high school season.
More importantly to Martin was how Woods interacted with his teammates at Hammond and with his new USC teammates this past season.
“I recruited Seventh in high school. The part no one ever wanted to talk about is what kind of great teammate he is,” Martin said. “I remember going to Hammond and here is this kid that everyone in the world knows how great he is. Yet his teammates and coaches just really enjoyed being around him. That is the thing that attracted me to him the most. It wasn’t his talent, it wasn’t his jumping, dunking and YouTube videos. It wasn’t his passing and shooting. It was a combination of all those things and who he was as a teammate.
“It has been no different since he got here. Our younger players really, really respect him. He has developed real good relationships with his teammates.”
Martin said the biggest thing Woods lacked was his passion to score. He didn’t initially show the explosiveness and hunger that he did in high school, and it took time for him to rebuild that.
“When he got here last June, he had lost the passion to get a basket. But over the last month of the season in practice, he was coming downhill and being aggressive, starting to make jump shots,” Martin said. “If he continues to trust that, it is going to allow him to be even better because people are going to have to come out and guard him. Then he could use that feel and athleticism to go by people.”
Martin also believes Woods has a chance to be one of the team’s top defenders. He thinks the former Hammond standout has the right combination of athleticism and instincts to play that tough, hard-nosed defense Martin loves to play.
“I always thought Seventh could be an unbelievably good on-ball defender. He has got unbelievable athleticism, instincts and toughness. Now having him practice for a year, my thoughts and vision have been reinforced,” Martin said. “I think he is going to be a great defender.”
Woods has one year to play with the Gamecocks, and his role with the 2020-21 team is still to be set. The team had Jermaine Couisnard as its point guard to close the season, with T.J. Moss and Trae Hannibal either getting work there or playing as a second point. A.J. Lawson spent some time at the position early in his career but was mostly a wing last season and still has an NBA decision to make.
Woods was set to step into that mix. But now things will be delayed a bit with school being closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re going to be deprived of being able to start actually allowing him to take his personality,” Martin said in a radio interview, “because you start creating next year now, not being able to spend time with him now in the spring to prepare him for what’s in front of him and to connect his voice and talent with our team.”
This story was originally published March 25, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
