The hits continue to roll in for the University of Memphis men’s basketball program as news broke rising-senior guard Avery Woodson will graduate and transfer for his final season of eligibility, using the graduate transfer rule, and true freshman Randall Broddie, a former three-star recruit according to 247Sports Composite Rankings, will also transfer.
Woodson’s transfer leaves the Tigers without their top five scorers from last season’s team if Dedric Lawson, Memphis’ leader scorer, decides to stay in the 2016 NBA Draft.
Broddie, who also held offers from SMU, Miami and Cincinnati, among others, did not play for the Tigers this past season and should be eligible to play next season.
As of today, the Tigers will only have eight players returning for next year off of last season’s roster – two of which, Jake McDowell and Dante Scott, are walk-ons, and that’s assuming Sam Craft decides to play both basketball and football again. Point guard Charlie Moore from Chicago and junior college small forward Jimario Rivers of Southwest Community College are the only two commits Memphis has for next season.
The Woodson news is a particularly big blow to next season’s team. The Tigers were already going to be pretty thin on the wings, and Woodson was one of the few bright spots in what was an overall disappointing year for Memphis as they failed to make the NCAA Tournament or NIT for the second straight season.
Last season, Woodson led the American Athletic Conference in three-point percentage of players who attempted at least 100 threes, and he ranked third in made three-point baskets with 77.
With the increased emphasis that’s been placed on finding efficient shots through statistical analysis, having a player like Woodson who made 43 percent of his threes last season is vital.
Woodson’s career effective field goal percentage, which adjusts traditional field goal percentage by accounting for the fact the threes are worth one and a half times as many points as a regular two-point field goal, at Memphis was 54.8 percent. To put that in perspective, Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield, a contender for National Player of the Year, has a career effective field goal percentage of 54.9.
Even beyond quantifiable statistical numbers, Woodson’s impact on the court will be sorely missed. He provided great floor spacing for guys like Dedric Lawson and Shaq Goodwin to operate in the post. Defenses has to play no-help, or keep a man on Woodson at all times, leaving defenders on an island to play one-on-one, or if they did help off Woodson to double-team one of the Tigers bigs, he made them pay from the outside.
Undoubtedly, Josh Pastner will hit the graduate transfer market to try and replace not only Woodson, but also the other departing players such as Goodwin, Trahson Burrell and Ricky Tarrant, but shooters like Woodson are not easily replaced.
The graduate transfer market has become college basketball’s version free agency, and it’s something Pastner has used in the past to land players like Ricky Tarrant, Calvin Godfrey and David Pellom.
Avery Woodson is leaving the University of Memphis after playing there for the last two seasons. Woodson shot 43 percent from 3-point range last season.
