DJ Woodmore is a 28 year old 190cm point guard that is playing his first season with the EPG Baskets Koblenz. Last season with Morgenstern BIS Basket Speyer (Germany-ProB) he played 21 games averaging 15.1ppg, 4.4rpg, 2.3apg, 1.0spg, FGP: 60.0%, 3PT-2 (50.0%), FT: 87.3%. In 2018-2019 13.8ppg, 4.5rpg, 2.8apg, 1.3spg, FGP: 60.2%, 3PT: 36.5%, FT: 71.6% in the Regionalliga. In his first two seasons with Speyer he averaged 14.5ppg, 5.2rpg, 2.3apg, FGP: 44.6%, 3PT: 40.1%, FT: 72.1% and 17.5ppg, 7.0rpg, 3.4apg, 1.3spg, FGP: 47.5%, 3PT: 33.0%, FT: 76.4%. he played at Virginia Wesleyan College (NCAA3): from 2010-2014 and as a senior played 31 games averaging 20.1ppg, 5.9rpg, 2.4apg, 1.5spg, FGP: 50.3% (219/435), 3Pts: 46.0% (91/198), FT: 76.9% (93/121). Miles Schmidt-Scheuber and DJ Woodmore team up each week to talk basketball.

Thanks DJ for talking to germanoops.com 2021 is here. What new years resolutions did you make for 2021?

No problem at all, thanks for having me again! I actually didn’t have too many resolutions this year. Usually I’m full of them, but this time I’m just focused on staying healthy, and winning some games. 

The EPG Baskets Koblenz had a extra free weekend leading up to the game in Karlsruhe. How tough was it preparing for the Arvato College Wizards for your first game in 2021?

No I didnt think it was too tough to prepare for them, I thought the most difficult thing was hoping that they didn’t change too much since the last time they played. I think they had over a month without a game and a team usually makes some major adjustments in that span of time. 

The EPG Baskets Koblenz lost a tough 80-71 contest on the road. Usually the second time around teams are able to make adjustments. You won the first game 83-78. Did they make the better adjustment or did this loss have to do more with your team in general? 

Yea definitely a tough loss this time, we wanted to start the new year off with a win. Especially because we have a stretch of pretty tough games coming up. But I thought we beat ourselves a lot this game. We were really poor offensively and couldn’t get anything going in the third quarter at all after starting the game so well again. 

The EPG Baskets Koblenz controlled the first half, but the they came back late in the second quarter. With what areas of the Koblenz game were you content with in the first half and with what parts weren’t you content with? 

I feel like one of our biggest weaknesses in the first half of season has been the way we started games. Trying to climb our way out of a big hole early. We’ve fixed that in the last few games, but there always seems to be a quarter where we lose focus and can’t score or defend consistently. We have to find a way to fix that. I thought we started extremely strong but just ran out of gas going into the half. And never could find our stride in the second half. 

The Arvato College Wizards took control of the game and lead in the third quarter. American Alexander Thompson scored 7 unanswered points getting his team going. Is Thompson one of those guys that is too good for the Pro B? 

He’s definitely a talented player. Has a lot of dimensions to his game. I think we did a good job on him in the first half but made some mistakes in the second half that gave him some easy looks. He’s going to do extremely well in this league and probably capable of playing higher. 

The EPG Baskets Koblenz just couldn’t get over the hump in the fourth quarter. Why couldn’t the team buckle down better on defense? 

They were picking us apart with one play. It just seemed like we couldn’t find the answer for it. But their point guards did a good job of creating the advantage on the pick and roll, and they made the right decisions. But it’s much easier to play defense when we are scoring on the other end. And we struggled with that forsake. 

You had 10 points, 2 rebounds, 1 dime and 2 steals in 20 minutes. You played 12 minutes less than usual. Was your performance efficient enough for the minutes you got?

I thought I was beginning to find my rhythm during the second quarter and into the beginning of the third. We were playing through Brian the entire first half and it was working. That started to open things up for myself but unfortunately ended up spraining my ankle pretty bad in the beginning of the third quarter. I had to watch from the sideline for the rest of the game. 

This was one of those games where the team was just missing more consistent scorers which is hard to believe with a team that has so much talent. But some days shots aren’t falling. What will be most vital for the team to correct this week in practice?

I think to just focus on the little details within the offense and defense. I think we make it tough on ourselves at times when it doesn’t need to be. We have a lot of talent and should be able to exploit the mismatches each possession but it seems like were not seeing it all the time. I think breaking down some film will do us good going into next weeks game. 

The next game is against Bavarian team TSV Oberaching Tropics who surprisingly won the first game 90-84. What memories do you have of that game and what will be key to winning this time?

I just remember them killing us on the offensive rebounds. They had some bigs that just took up a lot of space and created problems for us all game long. I think that will be a key for us. Also if we can get out in transition as much as possible, that will play right into our hands as well.

What have been your early observations of the new NBA season? What has stuck out most for you? 

CP3 and how his leadership and skillset has turned another ‘non-playoff’ team, into a serious threat in the West. Last year with the Thunder and this year with the Suns. I think a lot of people were ready to write him off a few years ago, but he’s still one the best PGs the game has ever seen. And I’m glad his making it known again.

Thanks DJ for the chat.