Well-traveled Woods plays important role in getting Robert Morris the top seed for the Horizon League Tournament

In high school, Kam Woods was a phenom on the basketball court. After all, he didn’t score nearly 4,000 career points by accident. He averaged 38.1 as a senior at Pinson Valley in suburban Birmingham, Ala.

It’s just one small highlight in the big picture of Woods’ illustrious background that had Robert Morris coach Andy Toole craving an opportunity to bring the 6-foot-2 guard on board this season.

After spending a year mainly riding the bench for N.C. State’s Final Four team, Woods obliged.

“I say! I feel like it was meant for me to be here,” he said Wednesday through his thick Alabama drawl.

He and top-seeded Robert Morris were preparing for a Horizon League Tournament quarterfinal against No. 8 Wright State at 8 p.m. Thursday at UPMC Events Center.

In an earlier women’s quarterfinal, No. 4 Robert Morris will take on No. 5 Northern Kentucky at 5:30 p.m.

Woods’ first trip to Pittsburgh came last season when N.C. State won two NCAA Tournament games at PPG Paints Arena in March. He didn’t play in either, both Wolfpack victories.

It doesn’t matter now, even though Woods, a senior, still thinks about it a lot. He is more concerned about getting back to the Dance with Robert Morris.

And this time, he won’t be sitting.

“He’s our leading scorer (14.6 ppg), our leader in assists (133),” Toole said. “He’s made some huge shots all year long. He’s a guy who wants the ball at the end of the game. He’s not afraid to take on those moments, and that’s been as impactful as anything for our team.”

Woods’ immense talent has followed him wherever he has been.

At Pinson Valley, he twice was Alabama Class 6A Player of the Year. Before that, he was Alabama Class 3A Player of the Year at nearby Midfield.

He averaged double figures in scoring (10.3 ppg) as a college freshman at Troy, and, a year later, scored 17 points in a victory for Northwest Florida State Community College in the NJCAA Division I national championship game.

He earned second-team All-Coastal Athletic Association honors as a junior at North Carolina A&T the following year, averaging 17.3 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists.

Then, last season, Woods was in an unfamiliar spot, playing in just 13 games for that splendid N.C. State unit.

But the experience has been invaluable, and Woods shares it many times with his current teammates. As a group, they have brought Robert Morris into the spotlight of Western Pennsylvania’s sports landscape.

The winner of the Horizon League Tournament will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

“Even though we’ve got lights on us right now, keep playing the same game,” Woods said he tells the team. “It’s still the same basketball, whether it’s March or November. It’s going to be a test. Just stay poised.”

Growing up in north-central Alabama between Memphis and Atlanta, Woods is accustomed to the region’s many idiosyncrasies, such as the cuisine of The Bayou and the history of the old Mississippi juke joints.

Talk to Woods, the affable backcourt wizard with a flair for southern living, and life is a plate of crawdads.

“I say! Down south, we’ve got our own language,” he said with a grin. “Everybody’s lingo, it’s all the same, basically. You guys got some sort of thing going on here, too. I notice it all the time.”

Woods has had to adjust to the culture of the beloved “Yinzers” of the Pittsburgh region, but he’s happy to try to fit in.

“Just having people understand me when I start to talk … I like this city,” he said.

Let’s just say Woods gets a kick out of it all.

“The food is definitely different here. I’ve had to change up everything.”

While others have garnered recognition for winning some of the Horizon’s specialty awards, Woods has had a great season as well, earning all-league second-team honors.

“All year long, Kam has brought a level of confidence to our team,” Toole said. “When he goes on the floor, every shot he shoots, he thinks he can make. He thinks he can make every play. That’s something that’s helped our team. He has a don’t-back-down-type attitude, and so when he walks out on that court, our team follows that lead. He has been through the postseason. He understands what it takes.

“It’s amazing with some of the accolades we’ve gotten, Kam is almost like a little bit of a forgotten guy.”

Earlier this week, Toole was named Horizon League Coach of the Year, sophomore Alvaro Folgueiras got Player of the Year and was placed on the all-conference first team, and junior Amarion Dickerson wound up with defensive player of year and joined Woods on the second team.

“Defense is all about your heart, really,” said Dickerson, a junior college transfer from Mineral Area (Mo.). “It’s all about you wanting to play defense. You have to play it to be a championship-level team. It’s not something you can just turn on and off on a daily basis.”

He said he was a bit skeptical that he had earned the recognition, even though he has been among the nation’s leaders in blocked shots all season.

“YSU has a pretty good guy over there blocking a lot of shots, too,” Dickerson said, referring to 7-3 Youngstown State sophomore Gabe Dynes, whose 96 rejections lead Division I and is 20 more than Dickerson’s total.

“At the end of the day, it all comes down to the productivity of the team and us being a No. 1 seed,” Dickerson said.

Meanwhile, the 6-9 Folgueiras, who has produced 12 double-doubles this season, was expected to play in Thursday’s game after leaving Robert Morris’ final regular-season contest on Feb. 27 — an 82-68 victory at IU Indianapolis — with a lower body injury.

“He should be good,” Toole said. “He was able to do some stuff (Wednesday in practice). I don’t see that being an issue.”