Zander Woodruff heads to Roosevelt, keeps Division I dream alive

Roosevelt landed a ready-made scorer in Zander Woodruff, a 6-foot-3 guard from Laingsburg who spent the 2025-26 season torching the NJCAA at Lansing Community College. Woodruff announced on June 26 that he was headed to Chicago to play for Dee Brown, choosing Roosevelt as the next step in a path he believes can still lead him to Division I.

Woodruff’s numbers explain why the move mattered. In 36 games for the Stars, he averaged 23.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists while shooting 45.2 percent from the field, 35.2 percent from three and 86.4 percent at the foul line. He scored 841 points, led the conference in scoring and field goal percentage, and gave LCC a guard who could create offense, not just finish it. That kind of efficiency on that kind of volume is what separates a good junior-college season from one that changes a career.

LCC’s postseason haul backed up the production. Woodruff earned NJCAA Region XII Division II all-region, All-MCCAA, first-team All-Western Conference and NJCAA Division II all-tournament honors after scoring 41 points in the season finale. Lansing Community College also said he became the program’s all-time leading scorer and had already been listed as an NJCAA All-American. The Stars finished 28-8, won the Great Lakes District C title and placed in the top 10 nationally, while also earning their first NJCAA Division II national tournament bid in a decade.

That is the junior-college runway at its best: a player arrives, takes on a heavy load, stacks production and leaves with his profile elevated. Woodruff did exactly that in Lansing, then cashed it into a four-year opportunity at Roosevelt rather than forcing a jump before the market was ready. The move keeps his Division I pursuit alive without rushing the timeline.

Roosevelt is banking on that resume in a program that is still climbing. Brown enters his fourth season as the Lakers’ head coach in 2025-26 after what Roosevelt described as historic success in his first three seasons, including the school’s first conference championship and a rise to No. 11 in the national rankings. The Lakers went 4-23 overall and 3-17 in conference play in 2025-26, which leaves room for a player like Woodruff to step in and matter immediately.

For Roosevelt, the appeal is production, maturity and a guard who has already carried a team through a national-level season. For Woodruff, it is a chance to show the same scoring touch in a new setting and keep climbing.