ASU Basketball: Guard Holland Woods enters the transfer portal

Some in and some out

Holland Woods, who transferred into the Arizona State program to provide guard depth behind seniors Remy Martin and Alonzo Verge Jr., has announced that he has entered the transfer portal.

In most years, this news would be far more concerning, perhaps alarming when the other recent transfers of Jaelen House and Taeshon Cherry are factored in to the equation. However, these past two years of college basketball have been chaotic.

With relaxed NCAA transfer rules and the lingering pandemic, the idea of transferring away from a program is something much more reasonable and understood in today’s world.

Woods was slated to have an increased role for this upcoming season. He would have brought experience, perimeter shooting, and solid playmaking to the Sun Devil lineup.

He also was going to have to compete with incoming transfer Marreon Jackson for floor time. It is certainly possible Woods wanted to play out his college career in a place where he would be the featured guard, as he was during his time at Portland State.

His last season with Portland State, Woods was named First-Team All-Big-Sky.

In his lone season with the Sun Devils, Woods averaged 6.7 points, 1.9 assists, 2.2 rebounds, with shooting numbers of 38.3% from the field, 31.8% from three, and 86.5% from the line. Most of those numbers were well down from his career averages, except for a slight uptick in 3-point and free-throw percentage.

Now the attention turns back to ASU head coach Bobby Hurley, who has been working the transfer portal this offseason like he is Billy Beane in Moneyball. Will Hurley add another guard from the portal? Or will someone already on the roster see an increased role this season? Expect an answer soon.