NCAA Basketball: The long journey for Seventh Woods to Morgan State

On June 21st, 2021 former UNC and South Carolina guard, Seventh Woods, announced that he would be using his extra year of eligibility to compete in the MEAC with Morgan State. As you can probably imagine, many of the comments underneath Woods’ Instagram post aren’t terribly positive, which doesn’t surprise me considering the fact that most people believed that Woods would currently be in a better situation.

Despite being a coveted 4-star recruit in high school, the Columbia, South Carolina native was never able to find his footing under Roy Williams at UNC. Woods was able to enjoy immediate team success at the collegiate level in year 1, but his production was nowhere near the level that many individuals expected it to be. Sure, being apart of the 2016-17 NCAA Championship team is something that Woods probably won’t forget, but I don’t think that Woods was planning to average just 1.5 points,1.2 assists, and 7.7 minutes to begin his college career.

Unfortunately, Woods took a step back the following season as he averaged 1.1 points,1.0 assists, and 7.0 minutes per contest, but his production increased a bit during his junior season (which turned out to be his final season with the Tar Heels). In year 3, Woods finally joined the double-digit minutes per game club (10.8), upped his scoring from 1.1 points per game to 2.5, and dished out 1.1 more assists than he did the previous season.

However, after the 2018-19 season, it was clear that Woods wasn’t happy with his current role on the team, which caused him to exit the Tar Heels’ program and head over to South Carolina to go and play for Frank Martin. Due to NCAA transfer rules, Woods had to sit out during the 2019-20 season, but I was hoping that Woods would finally put it all together in 2020-21.

Woods managed to post career highs in points and minutes per game (5.4 and 19.0), but his wild inconsistency is what headlined his 2020-21 campaign. While Woods managed to notch double-digit points in 4 straight games last season (11,12,10,11), he also scored just 8 points during a 4-game span in January (opponents included Texas A&M, LSU, Missouri, and Auburn).

As a result of Woods’ inconsistent play, the Gamecocks struggled to stay afloat in the SEC and finished the 2020-21 season with an abysmal 4-12 conference record and 6-15 overall record. Now, Woods is trying to revive his career once again at Morgan State, but many believe that it is a little too late for the former 14-year old YouTube sensation. So, why hasn’t Woods’ career gone as planned you ask? Well, in this article I am prepared to break down a few reasons why Woods has struggled mightily the past few seasons.