Q: Why is Painter still looking at a transfer point guard in Nic Moore when it has point guard commitments in the next two classes?
A: Well, first off, I don't know if you'd qualify Moore solely as a point guard. I know that's what he played as a freshman at Illinois State and I know that's the position you'd almost always consider a 5-foot-8 player to be.
But the player I remember from AAU and the one I watched play a little bit on TV in the NIT didn't look like just a point guard. I know it's cliche to say a kid is just a player, but Moore is.
Like we said yesterday about Bryson Scott, Moore's a point guard in a sense, but he's also well equipped to play without the ball and the more good guards Purdue can get, the better. Moore isn't tall, but he is strong and physical. The issue you do have if you're Purdue is overloading the backcourt with smaller guys. You do want a mix. But Moore doesn't play small.
I've seen few who played with as much toughness as Moore. Kid just flat-out got things done in the summers, dating back to when he was a sophomore playing against seniors, and he did for his high school team, too. Look how many games they won. If you saw what he did against Mississippi and Stanford in the NIT as a freshman, you saw a player who can absolutely play against high-level college basketball competition.
Look, Purdue wants to be as big, athletic and talented as everybody else does, but its program also has been re-built on intangibles, things like toughness, competitiveness and the like. Moore is a picture of those qualities.
In the short term, Moore wouldn't be able to help Purdue on the court next season. He'd have to sit out a season per NCAA transfer rules. But he could be invaluable on the practice floor, giving freshman Ronnie Johnson a strong, proven, competitive sparring partner in practice.
I know Purdue has some guards on the roster moving forward, but as mentioned, Purdue can never have enough good guards considering the way it plays at both ends of the floor. To me, bringing in Moore, if it can get him, is a no-brainer for Purdue.
