Georgia's Terrance Woodbury toiling for his father

WASHINGTON

Terrance Woodbury couldn't decide which was the tougher physical task: swinging a sledge hammer all day on one of his father's construction crews or playing three basketball games in 30 hours to help his Georgia team win the Southeastern Conference tournament.

On the one hand, Woodbury never needed an IV while working for his father. No matter how demanding Dennis Woodbury, who founded his own construction company in Chesapeake three decades ago, could be. He needed one Saturday between games at Georgia Tech, where the Bulldogs played two games in one day after a tornado damaged the roof at the Georgia Dome Friday evening.

On the other, shooting 3-pointers isn't exactly manual labor, something Woodbury has known a thing or two about since he began working for his dad at age 14.

"They were both tough jobs," Woodbury concluded Wednesday at The Verizon Center, where Georgia is preparing to play Xavier in today's first-round NCAA tournament game. "I feel like my dad always gave me the toughest project he had."

It often involved knocking down walls, which Woodbury became re-acquainted with last week as Georgia stunned the college basketball world with its run through the SEC tournament: Ole Miss on Thursday, Kentucky and Mississippi State on Saturday and Arkansas on Sunday to win the conference's automatic bid to the NCAAs.

Woodbury, a 6-foot-7 junior who played at Granby and Coastal Christian, averaged 15.8 points and five rebounds in the tournament and shot 58 percent (11 of 19) from 3-point range. He scored a career-high 25 points against Ole Miss and had 16 more in the final against Arkansas. He's led Georgia in scoring four of the last five games, after leading them just four of the first 29.

"He really started to play with a good degree of confidence offensively, and he hit some timely shots starting with the Mississippi game," coach Dennis Felton told the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph. "That probably did a lot for Wood with his own confidence."

It did. Three years into his career, Woodbury is beginning to look like the player Felton thought he could be when he recruited him. Woodbury's smooth stroke has been just what the offensively challenged Bulldogs - they are last in the SEC in scoring and shooting percentage - needed.

"I just think I've played a whole lot more aggressive than I was in the past," Woodbury said. "My teammates put me in good position to knock down big shots and get me the ball when I need it."

Woodbury had shown flashes of potential before, scoring 14 points against national champion Florida as a freshman, and 34 points in two games against Kentucky last season. Stringing good performances together was another story.

Consistency has come with experience for Woodbury, who has been on a slow but steady track at Georgia. Knee and back injuries caused him to miss 17 games as a freshman. Last year, he deferred offensively to seniors Takais Brown and Levi Stukes.

"His sophomore year was really like a freshman year," Dennis Woodbury said.

Woodbury landed at Georgia after transferring to Coastal Christian to get more exposure. It worked. Dennis Woodbury recalls a practice when coaches from Nebraska, UNLV, Georgia and Clemson were in the gym. Felton liked Woodbury's long frame, soft shooting touch and considerable potential and offered a scholarship on the spot. Dennis Woodbury assured Felton he would be getting a young man accustomed to having nothing handed to him.

"He never shied away from hard work," the elder Woodbury said. "It was more fun for him than work."

Woodbury came by his ethic honestly, watching his father build a construction company from scratch. Woodbury Construction is no longer a going concern. Dennis, diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease in 2002, is semi-retired, manages investment properties.

He attended Georgia's regular-season finale but not the conference tournament, four days that not even the biggest Bulldog backer could have seen coming. Georgia won as many SEC games in the tournament as it did in the entire regular season. The Bulldogs had finished sixth in the Eastern Division.

"The coach was getting ready to get fired," Dennis Woodbury said. "They couldn't wait for the season to be over. Now they want to give him the keys to the city.

"It was a very surreal moment. We're still trying to process ourselves exactly what happened. The Lord just blessed the whole team to play at a different level."

Terrance said several close losses told the Bulldogs that they weren't far from turning the corner. It was simply a matter of coming together as a team and finishing games.

It just so happened that they played two in one day, and three in 30 hours, one of the unlikeliest rides in college basketball history. With Woodbury playing the best basketball of his career.

"Terrance has always been kind of under the radar and I like that," Dennis Woodbury said. "It's not about who's shining; it's about who comes to play when it's time. Terrance is setting himself up to be one of those players."

Already has, if the SEC tournament is a guide.

Ed Miller, 446-2372, ed.miller@pilotonline.com