"There's a guy I need you to get." On Clifton Moore's Arrival to Providence and What's Ahead for Him
“Coach, there’s a guy that I need you to go get.”
That was Al Durham’s message to Providence assistant Ivan Thomas once he found out Clifton Moore was transferring from La Salle last spring.
At least, that is how Thomas recalled it on The Ed Cooley Radio Show with John Rooke on Thursday night.
If anyone would know Moore’s game, it would be Durham. The two visited Indiana together as high school seniors, where they both later played and were roommates before Moore, a Pennsylvania native, departed for La Salle after his sophomore year.
Moore left Bloomington with a lot to prove. Both he and Durham were recruited by Tom Crean, who was fired and replaced by Archie Miller before their college careers ever began. Moore saw time in just 24 games in two years at Indiana before sitting out the 2019-20 season at La Salle due to NCAA transfer rules at the time.
The 6’10 center didn’t really start to showcase his full repertoire until a breakout season at La Salle last year that saw him average 12.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, and perhaps most significantly, 2.8 blocks per game.
Both Durham and Thomas sound as though they think Moore has another sizable jump in front of him.
“That’s like my brother,” Durham told The Friar Podcast of Moore over the summer. “Clif is special. Clif is a seven foot do-it-all big — can shoot, put it on the ground, block shots, whatever you need, Clif can do. That’s how special I think he is.”
“I think he can become even better. I think he is going to surprise a lot of people and I think he’s going to shock a lot of people this year coming into the Big East.”
Few foresaw just how impactful Durham would become at Providence. His emergence as a late-game scorer was a significant reason why the Friars, picked to finish seventh by the league’s coach in the fall, came out on top in the Big East.
“He said it was a really special year, and he had some extreme love,” Moore said of Durham’s Providence experience. “And I could see the confidence that he played with and the joy that he played with.”
Following the departures of Nate Watson and Noah Horchler, Ed Cooley and his staff will likely need a big impact from Moore if they are to reach the NCAA Tournament once again in March.
Thomas was effusive in his praise of Moore on Thursday night, “Clifton is a dynamic defensive player. The beauty of Clifton is his ability to block shots, but he plays extremely hard (as well).”
“He can move his feet like a guard, at times,” Thomas said. “Our ability to switch on a 1-5 ball screen with him will come in handy. He can keep guards in front of him and, of course, protect the rim.”
La Salle was a porous defensive team last year in nearly every category, except for blocked shots, where Moore ranked among the top 15 in the country. He should be the best rim protecter Providence has had since Carson Desrosiers graduated in 2015.
On a team in which only Moore and redshirt freshman Rafael Castro stand over 6’8, there is a significant opportunity ahead for the graduate transfer.
We will see how Cooley chooses to deploy Moore and former La Salle teammate Ed Croswell this year. Moore is a little bit more of a floor spacer offensively, and moves better laterally than Watson, which could allow PC to go big and play the two of them together.
Providence can also throw very different looks at teams with the physically punishing Croswell manning the five, then swapping out with the versatile Moore.
After having watched a half dozen of Moore’s games over the summer, his skill level with the ball in his hands is perhaps the most surprising, and encouraging, aspect of his game. Moore doesn’t just pass well out of the post, he zips passes across the court. Some bigs can dribble, but Moore does so with purpose, drawing fouls and passing well off the bounce.
While he won’t be the post scoring terror that Watson was over the past two seasons, Moore can post or face up. He started to try to extend his range from beyond the 3-point arc last season, but shot it inconsistently (24%). Moore was 5-11 on corner threes last year, and 4-10 on threes from the left wing, but went 5-23 from the top of the key and 1-17 on the right wing.
He may not need to shoot threes to be successful at PC, however.
Moore shot 72.5% on shots at the rim (66-91). As a point of comparison, Watson shot 66.3% (108-163), Croswell 73.9 (65-88), and Connecticut’s Adama Sanogo 63.3% (88-139). In fairness, there is more physicality and length in the Big East than the A-10, but the number is impressive regardless.
It’s possible that Moore just started scratching the surface last year, despite having four years of college basketball under his belt. Playing time was sparse at Indiana, he sat out after transferring, and then he dislocated his ankle.
After having scored in double figures just three times in his first three seasons of college ball, Moore ripped off a stretch in which he scored in double figures in 14 consecutive games last year. In five of those contests he finished with a double double. He had 43 points in two games against St. Louis, a 19 point/12 rebound double double versus Richmond, and 21 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and three blocks against VCU.
There will be an offensive adjustment period for Moore, who will go from being the leading scorer and number one option at La Salle to finding where he fits offensively on a Providence team incorporating eight new pieces this season. In Saturday’s Mal Brown scrimmage he shot 3-7 from the floor and 2-2 from distance in finishing with eight points and five rebounds as the only upperclassman playing for the White team in the intra-squad scrimmage.
From what Thomas said on Thursday night, the Friar staff is looking to have Moore eventually play with the same type of freedom that Durham enjoyed a year ago.
“His knowledge for the game is pretty impressive. He picked up on our terminology pretty quickly,” Thomas said of Moore. “I really think he’s a special player. I think he’s a unicorn-type player. I mean that.”