How Seventh Woods is approaching his sit out year

Seventh Woods sat in a chair on the floor at the Carolina Coliseum, in his first public appearance wearing a South Carolina uniform but sporting a few other homages to his home state.

There’s the large, intertwined “SC” starting near the top of his knee and bleeding seamlessly into a palmetto tree, which is right next to his hometown area code—803—emblazoned on his calf.

The tattoos mean a little bit more now with Woods at South Carolina to finish up his collegiate playing days over the next two years.

“With Seventh, it’s all or nothing with him,” Sindarius Thornwell said this summer at the SC ProAm. “This is his last go-round. This is it. You don’t get any more retries. His biggest focus is getting prepared for his time on the court so he can make the best out of it for himself and the program.”

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Since he’s not a graduate transfer and there wasn’t a scholarship available in this class, Woods has to sit out the 2019-20 season before going on scholarship for his final year of eligibility in 2020-21.

It’s uncharted waters for Woods, who’s never had to sit out an entire season before. Now, instead of getting his competitive juices flowing in games, now he has to channel all of it into practice, the only time he’ll be able to dribble a basketball this season.

“It gives me more motivation in practice because practice is my game. My first couple years I maybe didn’t envy practice,” Woods said. “It could get repetitive. Now it’s the only chance I get to compete.”

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The conversations between him and Frank Martin entering his sit out year have been simple: come in and provide “winning experience” from his time at North Carolina where he was a part of a national title team in 2017 and help out the Gamecocks’ host of young guards.

So far, it’s been good, although it’s taken some adjusting to being around guys who were in elementary school when Woods was putting up highlight-reel dunks as a high school freshman.

“It’s crazy. The fact you say that, this is my first time being the older guy. I’m always the youngest,” he said. “I just turned 21 and I’m a senior. Being here and having freshmen under me who are true freshmen born in 2000 is definitely big. I’m definitely adjusting to that part a bit.”

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Woods was a four-star prospect and top 50 prospect coming out of Hammond and was a viral sensation for the Skyhawks as early as his freshman year in 2012.

Around the same time Woods was putting together viral HoopsMixtape reels, the team’s current freshmen were 10 or 11 years old and the sophomores were about to start middle school.

“My first time hearing about Seventh was when I was in sixth grade,” TJ Moss said. “He was in eighth grade and they came down to play against Team Penny (Hardaway) and he came down the middle and dunked on Team Penny. I was like, ‘Dang.’”

But Woods didn’t just make an impression with the team’s younger guys before arriving on campus.

Justin Minaya, who graduated a year after Woods, grew up watching the same highlights and said it’s cool to get the chance to compete with him, even if he can’t play in games this year.

“I was excited,” Minaya said. “I remember seeing Seventh Woods as a kid with the HoopsMixtapes thinking, ‘Dang, this is crazy.’ I was really excited hearing he was coming.”