City of Basketball Love

Ari Rosenfeld (@realA_rosenfeld)
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In the first true road test of one’s collegiate career, with 21,000 fans rooting steadfastly against you, it can be nice to see a familiar face wearing the opposite jersey.

St. Bonaventure’s Derrick Woods, a Pennsbury grad starting at center for the Bonnies as a true freshman, was fortunate enough to have that luxury.

After a comfortable home win over Binghamton to start the season, Woods and the Bonnies made the trip across New York to match up with Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. One of the Orange’s stars, of course, is recent Trenton Catholic graduate Malachi Richardson, who Woods played with on the AAU circuit for Team Final.

Both are central Jersey natives--Woods played his first two seasons at Trenton HS before moving across the river into Pennsylvania. And now both are starting for their respective colleges as freshmen.

“I played with him for a couple of years and played against him for a couple years. We’d just always been in the area,” Woods said. “I played against him since my freshman year of high school...we had a little exchange of words.”

Less than three minutes into the game, Woods switched out onto Richardson on the perimeter after a ball screen. Richardson sized up his larger foe and made a swift dribble move before pulling up for a jumper; unlike many opponents the former McDonald’s All-American has faced over the years, however, Woods was still right there to contest the shot, forcing a miss.

And don’t think Woods wasn’t letting him know about it right after.

“I said something to him about that,” Woods said after the game with a smile. “I was like, ‘Uh-huh, you saw you missed that.’ I knew exactly what he was going to do, that step back. He wasn’t about to get that.”

From that point on, Woods was visibly settled into the game. It wasn’t a crowd-silencing dunk or a momentum-swinging blocked shot, but like many of the plays he made, it was a critical contribution that wouldn’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet.

Even as a freshman thrust into a new position after playing mainly on the perimeter for Pennsbury, Woods was consistently in the right place defensively. While the 6-foot-9, 225-pounder finished without a block, he contested a number of shots and more than held his own on the glass, helping the Bonnie lead for most of the game before ultimately falling 79-66.

“Stat-wise, I don’t really get too many rebounds, but I alter a lot of shots just being tall,” Woods said. “Playing against [Syracuse’s Tyler] Lydon, I remember he went to score over me and I just remained tall and he missed right over me. Fronting the post against [270-pound Dajuan] Coleman, I did good against him. I just pretty much do the little things and bring effort.”

Woods wasn’t absent from the stat sheet in his second collegiate game though. In 17 minutes of action, he finished with a solid line of six points, three rebounds, and a steal, with his only miss on four attempts immediately preceding an offensive rebound and put-back.

It was the second game in as many tries that Woods had been productive, following a five point, five rebound outing against Binghamton.

Ninth-year Bonnies head coach Mark Schmidt wasn’t necessarily expecting his young big man to see so much action early on, but with projected starting center Jordan Tyson going down with a potentially season-ending wrist injury over the summer, he’s liked what he’s seen from Woods thus far.

“When we recruited him we thought he’d play 10, 12 minutes, but with injuries, Derrick has a tremendous opportunity. Most freshmen aren’t going to play the minutes that he’s going to play, and I thought he played well tonight,” Schmidt said. “He had some opportunities that he cashed in on, and he’s a freshman. He’s going to make some mistakes. It’s the situation that we’re in and he’s out there, and he did well tonight.”

By the end of his high school career, Woods had developed into face-up forward capable of putting the ball on the floor and hitting from outside the 3-point line.

As the tallest healthy player on the Bonnies’ roster, he’s been forced almost exclusively to the post thus far in college. However, even from the center position, Woods has found that he can utilize his perimeter schools to get the better of more polished opponents down low.

“Coming here, I was looking to extend my game more into a ‘3’ as I was in high school, but then I found myself going back into the post because of injuries,” he said. “I can’t do as much as [I’m capable of], but it helps because big men can’t really guard me. They’re a little slow on their feet so I just run out and get up the floor.”

Speaking specifically on the matchup with Coleman, who’s battling back from multiple knee injuries and who wasn’t exactly a speedster to begin with, Woods was happy with the way that he adjusted to defending such a physically imposing opponent.

“Playing him, I had the mindset that I’ve got to front him. If I get behind him, it’s over, he’s scoring. And I did pretty well,” he said. “My plan was to run him and that’s what I did. He couldn’t keep up with me. There were times I ran the floor and he was way behind me, and that’s what I used against him.”

Coleman was his most important matchup throughout the game, but what had Woods most excited when he saw Syracuse on the Bonnies’ schedule was the chance to once again play against Richardson.

And after the game was over, they went from foes back to friends.

“Of course at the end it was like, ‘Man, good work bro,’” Woods said. “Nothing but the best.”