Shakeel Moore answers the call for depleted Wolfpack back court
Following Wednesday night’s loss to Virginia at home, a game that saw NC State men’s basketball’s guards combine for just 16 points, head coach Kevin Keatts said he needed more from that position.
True freshman point guard Shakeel Moore answered the call in a massive way. In the Wolfpack’s blowout win at Boston College Saturday, Moore exploded for a career-high 19 points, shooting 8 for 12 from the field to go with six rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block.
“I was just playing to my strengths; seeing the ball go in first, attacking, being aggressive from the beginning, which opens up shots for me as well as the game goes by,” Moore said.
For Moore, it was the latest eye-popping performance in what’s been an up-and-down but overall impressive freshman season. It also broke him out of a mid-season slump, as Moore hadn’t played more than 20 minutes (he played 23 against the Eagles) in the four preceding games, and hadn't scored in double figures since the Pack’s first game against Boston College on Dec. 30.
In the win over the Eagles, Moores’ offensive versatility was on display, as he knocked down 3 of his 4 attempts from beyond the arc, but also frequently used his abilities to attack the paint, score around the rim and make plays.
For Keatts, it’s that ability that was the key to Moore’s big day, and will be a critical to continuing to expand his role going forward.
“I think the biggest thing for those who have followed him from high school days is the kid’s probably the best paint touch guy I’ve seen in a long time,” Keatts said. “He’s a gritty, hard-nosed defender. And honestly, when you pull up his stats, he was taking a lot of 3s. He had fell in love with the 3-point line. Our conversation yesterday was ‘Man, I need you, you’re the only guy really that I can consistently get into the paint.’
“... So I needed him to be able to get into the paint and make plays. We’re a good basketball team. That kid’s a good finisher when we have somebody that can get paint touches from our guard spot. That’s why he played more minutes, and if he continues to get better, he’ll play more minutes.”
In his true freshman season so far, Moore is averaging seven points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game.
The first-year point guard has navigated an unusual season, featuring NC State having to put its program on pause twice due to COVID issues, no exhibition games and very few nonconference games to get settled in.
Despite that, Moore has made a big impact in his first year in the ACC and stepped up when NC State’s needed him most, including Saturday’s eye-popping performance, the game-winning jumper in the first Boston College game and a 17-point outing in the Pack’s home win over rival North Carolina to open ACC play.
“It’s refreshing,” Keatts said. “Our back court of young kids will be really, really good. It’s unfair to them, it’s unfair to everybody what’s going on, so I want to make sure that I’m not just saying NC State. But it’s unfair to them the situation that we’ve all been put in. That being said, they’re getting valuable experience playing right now. The kid’s talented. And a lot of times, when you’re a young guy, you have to give more instructions about what you need from as opposed to just letting them go out there and play. I’ve learned with those guys to give them instructions about what we need from them.”
Moore has also come up big on the defensive end. All six of his rebounds came on the defensive glass Saturday, and he has 23 steals and five blocks on the season, including a block of a potential game-ending 3-pointer in regulation to keep the game alive in the Pack’s overtime loss at Clemson earlier this season.
“I’m just having fun,” Moore said. “It’s just enjoying the moment and embracing everything. It’s just fun getting out there. I just take a lot of passion doing it.”
At 8-7 overall and 4-6 in conference play, the Wolfpack faces an uphill battle the rest of the way to salvage a potential NCAA Tournament berth this season, but with some winnable games down the stretch, it’s not impossible.
With Devon Daniels, the team’s leader in both scoring and assists at the time of his injury, out for the season, the Pack will need its young guards to continue to step up, with Moore chief among them.
Part of that will include feeding the ball inside to the Wolfpack’s trio of talented big men in D.J. Funderburk, Manny Bates and Jericole Hellems, the likely new focal points of this offense with Daniels out. The Pack’s front court trusts Moore to get them the ball in a position to score.
“Shak has been a big help to our team as a whole,” Funderburk said. “I think two games ago or a game ago, Keatts told us our guards needed to step up more, with losing Devon, everyone counting us out more but as a collective, as a guard collective he wanted them to step up and help the bigs way more than what we were doing before in those previous losses. So it just goes to show he stays in the gym and it’s paying off for him.”
If Saturday’s performance, and some of his others this season, are anything to judge by, Moore will be up to the task of helping this team finish strong, and a vital piece of the Wolfpack’s back court in the years to come.