With three key players out due to injury and USC desperate for depth, the Trojans are taking the rare step of adding reinforcements at the midseason mark.
Point guard Cam Woodswho last played at Robert Morris, was added to the Trojans’ roster and was cleared to play Thursday, despite the fact that USC is already twelve games into the basketball season.
Woods could make an immediate impact, as he averaged 14.9 points, 5.2 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game last year at Robert Morris, where he played alongside current Trojan, Omarion Dickerson. Woods is expected to enter the rotation immediately with USC, after the Trojans lost starting point guard Rodney Rice for the season.
What’s not clear is why Woods remains in the transfer portal two months into the college basketball calendar. USC showed some interest in Woods over the offseason, according to a person familiar with the program who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, but Woods never signed with a team, despite being a second-team All-Horizon League selection.
Because he was still in the transfer portal and because he had already graduated, Woods is the rare case, outside of an international or junior college player, that qualifies as a midseason addition.
Woods played college basketball for five years, transferring between five schools in that time. He started at Troy in 2020-21, before taking the junior college route at Northwest Florida State Community College during the 2021-22 season. He then transferred to North Carolina State, where he played sparingly in 13 games.
Woods landed with Robert Morris last season and emerged as the Colonials’ leading scorer after they won the Horizon League title and qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
So, since this is his sixth year, how is Woods eligible to join another team? In terms of eligibility, he actually falls into the same category as the Trojans’ leading scorer, Chad Baker-Mazara, who is playing his sixth season of college basketball in 2025-26.
Due to the recent ruling in the Diego Pavia case, the season Woods spent playing in junior college does not count toward his five years of eligibility. Additionally, since Woods was a freshman during the 2020-21 season, he has an extra year of eligibility due to the pandemic.
If Woods played for another team during the first two months of the season, he would not be eligible to join the Trojans in December.
For USC, this matchup may be particularly fortunate. Without Rice, USC used a combination of Jerry Easter, Jordan Marsh and Ryan Cornish at point guard. Woods will be the most experienced of the group.
Five-star freshman Alijah Arenas is expected to enter that picture in the coming weeks as well. Arenas was scheduled to return to training this week and should be cleared to play sometime in January.