Cincinnati Bearcats freshman center Quadri Moore’s first season in red and black probably didn’t go as he originally planned.
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The 6’9″ center played in just 26 games, rarely for more than five or six minutes, and never looked truly comfortable with the ball in his hands in any of them. Moore finished near the worst on the team in scoring, rebounding, assists, turnover rate, and shooting percentage and had one of the most memorable moments from UC’s basketball season (for all the wrong reasons).
It’s easy to be empathetic to a soft-spoken player like Moore and see how he could quickly become dejected from that season. Especially considering he was such a dominant force in the difficult New Jersey high school circuit. Moore signed with Cincinnati with the kind of resume you’d want from a player at the center position. He averaged 16.3 points, 6.9 boards, and 1.1 blocks per game as a senior at Linden even recording a triple-double (20-16-11) one game.
On top of that Moore established himself as one of the hardest working Bearcats when he finally came to Clifton. He consistently showed up to practice before his players and even most of his coaches, performing his own shooting drills around the court. Moore also spent time after practice working on those same mechanics after practice.
Essentially Quadri Moore is your classic “first in, last out” basketball player. A coach’s dream, if you will.
But he was a bit of a slow starter with the Bearcats. He never really got his feet under him and it seemed like his mind was moving a thousand times faster than his body could handle. Instead of methodically doing everything in a sequential order (dribbling the ball, then moving his feet, then spinning around a defender, then jumping, then extending his arms, then laying the ball in the basket) Moore constantly tried to do all of those things at the same time. That’s why we saw him turn the ball over so much last season.
With all of those compounding factors it wouldn’t have been surprising to see Moore give up on himself and the UC program and transfer away, especially considering the conga line of talent that’s gone the same route recently. Former five star power forward Jermaine Lawrence thought he was the second coming of LeBron James instead of a back-to-the-basket big man and left for Manhattan. Jamaree Strickland’s frustration after a string of bad luck caused him to seek a fresh start at Tallahassee Community College. Most recently Deshaun Morman’s increasingly fractured relationship with Cincinnati’s coaching staff led to him packing his bags and bolting Clifton as well.
Neither Lawrence, Strickland, nor Morman stayed on track at Cincinnati. Instead of embracing the program and growing into solid players down the road, they gave up on UC too early. It’s unclear where their collegiate careers will take them.
It’ll be disappointing if Moore follows their path rather than, say, Sean Kilpatrick’s.
When Cincinnati signed Lance Stephenson late in the 2009 recruiting period, Mick Cronin had to make that slow walk to Kilpatrick to have the awkward conversation that he would be redshirted his first year in Clifton. The young shooting guard from Yonkers took the news well, eventually. Instead of throwing his hands up in frustration and transferring to a different program where he’d play as a true freshman, he used the year off as an opportunity to improve his game, setting the foundation for the 20 point per game All-American we knew as a senior.
That’s the carrot on the end of the stick Quadri Moore needs to keep his eye on. As a freshman he wasn’t ready for a starting role, let alone 30-35 minutes of court time per game. Quite honestly, Moore’s probably still not ready for an expanded role. Hopefully he realizes that as he heads into his sophomore year when his playing time might not increase that much considering both Octavius Ellis and Coreontae DeBerry are seniors.
Moore will continue to have to bide his time this coming season, improving the facets of his game and slowing himself down mentally. If he stays patient, the riches could be incredible come his junior year. At that point both Ellis and DeBerry will be gone and the center position will be his for the taking. Moore’s offensive prowess could make him the most dominating center to come through Cincinnati since Yancy Gates, and a far better outside shooter.
That’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility for Mick Cronin’s young big man and hopefully he’s reminding Moore of that on a daily basis.