Woods was a miserable defender. I mean grade F defender. Obviously he would help and might even get us a win or two because of his shooting, but he wouldn't have made any significant impact on the trajectory of this team, and so I would rather those minutes go to younger players. Additionally, with the loss of Crawford and Moore, its clear this team isn't going anywhere, and thus I would like to see us move on from Manning. You don't ever want your team to lose, but a double benefit of giving our young guns some more playing time, and making it more clear that we need to go a different direction isn't the worst result. Lastly there was all sorts of smoke about Woods being a locker room problem. You can clearly put some of that (if not all) of that blame on Manning, but I would rather not have a guy like that in with a new crop of young players.
The reality is the die was cast on this season when Crawford and Moore declared. You can't lose two seniors, who both play key positions, like we did without it crushing the following seasons' hopes. I was ok with Woods not coming back when he declared he was leaving, because I didn't think there would be a massive role for him. I thought Crawford, Chill, Brown were all clearly better, and I liked what I knew about Mucius and Wright. I am ok with Woods not being here now not because he wouldn't play (clearly he would be playing), but because I don't think he makes any sort of meaningful difference on a team like this that has so many holes already. Woods was already a massive defensive problem, and any offense he gave he often gave right back on the other end.
Sorry - he doesn't move the needle for me. I miss Mitchell a lot, and I miss Crawford and Moore a ton...Woods is a mediocre college player imo. I am clearly ready to admit that Ohio State is a lot better than Wake Forest, and that Woods is going to play a much more meaningful 5th year as a Buckeye than he would have as a Deacon, and thus he probably made a good move for his professional career post college. But I don't really miss him.