Sometimes a fresh start can be good in life, and that holds true in basketball.

There were over 600 transfers last season in college basketball for guys looking to hit the reset button, and the Gamecocks were the beneficiaries of one of those.

They landed Seventh Woods over the summer, who found a home at South Carolina and it seems so far his new home has been beneficial.

“I’ve been very hands-off with him. He’s been in that fish bowl basically his whole life. When I mean hands off, I don’t mean I’ve ignored him. I’m just not trying to pressure him to do certain things. I wanted him to regain confidence in who he is and the joy of competing and playing. He was lacking there last year. When he got here in June, he was happy to be here but I can’t explain why,” Frank Martin said. “I’m not trying to blame North Carolina. I’m sure that was part of the problem. That fire wasn’t burning as bright as it did when I met that young man in high school. I think he’s getting there again. He was phenomenal in practice preparing for Vanderbilt. He made some passes and he’s starting to connect his mind, his athleticism and skill. When he starts doing that on a regular basis, he’s going to be good. I’m excited for him. He seems to be really happy right now.”

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Woods, who was a four-star recruit who played high school basketball in Columbia, was a viral sensation as early as a seventh grade, and spent the almost all of his high school career under a microscope.

He’d pick North Carolina over South Carolina coming out of Hammond, spending three seasons there where he’d average 1.8 points and shoot 34.8 percent from the field over the course of 94 games, one of which being a national championship winning game.

The guard decided to transfer after his junior season and found a landing spot at South Carolina, coming over in June and working out with the team for two months before school started.

He can’t play this year—the plan is for him to go on scholarship after this season before his final year of eligibility—which means he has the ability to focus on his game and take a little time to get out of the limelight to refocus and work on his game.

“Seventh’s been great. He’s worked really hard at re-working his jump shot. For whatever reason, and I’ll let him one day address it because it’s not my place to address it, he changed his technique,” Martin said. “It wasn’t very good. There’s just no other way to explain it. Chuck martin’s helped him a lot and he’s put in an unbelievable amount of time and his jump shot is starting to look pretty good again.”

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But his role on this team is a little more than just a guy who goes to practice and works on his shot.

He’s working in roles similar to what Jermaine Couisnard and Jair Bolden did last year, practicing on scout team and going against the guys who are able to play this year daily in practice.

The results, Martin thinks, are shown on the court when the lights come on.

“We’re making Jermaine guard him every single day in practice. We make Trae Hannibal guard him every single day in practice," he said. "I should probably make other guys guard him every day in practice because guess what? Those are our two best on-ball perimeter defenders right now.”

Hannibal raves about going against Woods in practice, saying it’s something that forces him to get better every day.

“It’s been key. Seventh’s fast so going against him, AJ, Jair and TJ every day is only making me better, especially as a freshman,” he said. “Getting acknowledged by those guys and Seventh with his experience has been good. I’m just continuing to learn and guard him and I’m getting better every day.”