Two weeks ago, Ohio State men’s basketball head coach Chris Holtmann said he expected his team to add “one or two” graduate transfers. Tuesday night, the Buckeyes landed one of the top graduate transfers on the market, bolstering a thin backcourt.
Redshirt senior Keyshawn Woods, a 6-foot-3, 205-pound sweet-shooting guard who spent the past four seasons at Wake Forest announced on Twitter he will play his final collegiate basketball season at Ohio State. As a graduate transfer, he will be immediately eligible to play in the upcoming season.
Despite coming off the bench in 23 of his 28 games last season, Woods was second on Wake Forest with 11.9 points per game and added 2.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 25.7 minutes per game. His 15 games with at least 10 points were second-most off the bench in program history. Woods shot 43.9 percent from the field, hit 37.4 percent of his 3-pointers and made 84.5 of his free throws.
Woods will presumably slide into the Buckeyes’ starting lineup alongside point guard C.J. Jackson, who will also be playing his final season of eligibility.
Ohio State graduated Kam Williams and Andrew Dakich, two guards who played key roles in the team’s surprisingly successful season last year. The Buckeyes also lost forward Jae’Sean Tate to graduation and forward Keita Bates-Diop to the NBA draft. Both Tate and Bates-Diop played as de-facto guards in different lineups.
The addition of Woods will lessen the reliance on Jackson as a ball-handler and takes pressure off incoming freshmen guards Luther Muhammad and Duane Washington, along with sophomore Musa Jallow, to step into major roles.
Though Woods came off the bench last season, he started 22-of-33 games in the 2016-17 season, averaging 12.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game. He is a career 42.5 percent shooter from beyond the 3-point arc.
