On Tuesday afternoon, Apollo High School's talented 5-foot-11 senior point guard Holland Woods Jr. decided to pull the trigger and end his college recruitment - giving a verbal commitment to Portland State University.
Woods' commitment was a big one for the coaching staff at Portland State, who had been recruiting Woods for some time. Portland State assistant coach Jase Coburn, a native of Arizona where he attended Mesquite HS, was responsible for recruiting Woods. Coburn has also recently landed many other Arizona basketball prospects, including Cameron Forte (2015-2016), whom he coached at McClintock HS, Calaen Robinson and Terrell Henderson of Corona Del Sol HS, Khari Holloway of Mountain Pointe HS/Mesa JC and Brendan Rumel of Rincon HS. Coburn is entering his fourth season at Portland State and is doing a fine job.
Woods chose Portland State over another offer from Long Island University. It was well known that his college recruitment would take off this high school season heading into the spring late signing period. Getting Woods early (fall) was a great get for Portland State.
Woods is coming off a good spring and summer evaluation period performance for himself, after leading the way all spring and summer for his Phoenix Phamily club program on the EYBL Nike-sponsored circuit. Unfortunately for Woods, while playing for such a high-powered team that included national prospects Marvin Bagley and Cody Riley of Sierra Canyon HS, he would fail to see his college recruitment take off.
Woods is a ball-hawk and when he has the ball in his hands, good things happen for his team. Woods is a big time ball handler and floor general, that plays with superior confidence and knows how to run a team efficiently. Woods has an ability, almost by himself, to hold down the backcourt on the offensive end and apply constant presure on the opposing guards defensively.
With his college recruitment now out of the way for his senior season, Woods will now be able to focus on looking to lead his high school program to a state title this season, as he will team up with senior guard Dre Marin and gifted sophomore wing Emmanuel Tabon. This year's Apollo team will again be very high-scoring and very tough to defend. While they lack much size on their team, the combination of Woods and Marin in the backcourt are a handful and speed up the game - putting consistent pressure on opposing defenses. It should be another excellent season for these two guards and their Apollo teammates.
Dre Marin should also be giving a verbal commitment soon himself, and also should end up in the Big Sky Conference with Woods next fall.
Congratulations to Woods and his family on this amazing accomplishment, and also to the Portland State men's basketball staff for getting it done.
Arizona Hoop Review Scouting Report: Woods has worked hard on his craft as a youngster, and has also been around the game of basketball all of his life. It shows as this young man is very skilled and advanced for his young age. Woods is known by his friends, family and teammates as "Boo Boo." Woods is capable of getting anywhere he wants to on the floor, and rarely do you find guard prospects like this in the state of Arizona. He is an excellent penetrator with the basketball in his hands and is also a strong finisher in the lane and at the basket over bigger defenders. He is a good shooter with range on his shot and possesses good shot selection. He also has a strong mid-range game, which makes him difficult to slow down. Woods also pushes the basketball up the floor as often as he can, and always seems to find the open man on the floor. He enjoys making the extra pass, and gets more joy from an assist than he does scoring the basketball - although he is a very good scorer. Also an excellent defender, and capable of becoming a lock-down defender at the next level as well. A very good guard prospect that is solid all the way around and is a big-time sleeper prospect.
