You saw him Fathead-ize the poor dude last week on NIS and all over the interwebs. His prodigious leaping abilities developed him a following for quite some time now. And yes, South Carolina’s finest Seventh Woods is still only 15 years old.

Woods dropped 42 with a barrage of threes, pull-ups, and drives to the hoop in yesterday’s HighSchoolOT.com Holiday Invitational loss to the Trinity Crusaders. A 4th quarter three-spree almost rallied his Hammond Skyhawks, but the final result was a 79-65 loss in the Raleigh (NC) tournament.

We knew he could jump out of any gym on this mortal planet, but this is the first I’ve seen of him actually playing ball. A nice, smooth, compact jump shot to compliment his absurd athleticism, plus the strength to finish near the rim without having to simply jump over people. You can never get to quick with presumptions or raise expectations too high on a youngin. But. Some guys are different.

With this year’s heralded freshman class of Wiggins, Parker, Randle, Gordon, and co., soon a lot of folks will be looking to the “next big thing” and I think we know who that someone will be. Seventh averaged nearly 15 ppt for Hammond High as an 8th (grader) and will/is going to be part of an aggressive recruiting battle in the hoops hotbed of the Carolinas.

I fear that he’ll succumb to the cliché story of über-athletic phenom who never fills into his potential. I hope that he treads the LeBron/DRose hypebeast-waters and takes the game to new literal, and figurative, heights. Regardless, I can’t wait to see what he’ll become.

In case you haven’t seen the (now-dated) highlight reel, please enjoy:

 

[BR / HSOT / USAB]

@buddhafari