S. Carolina guard Moss commits to McNeese, could be Cowboys’ perimeter threat
Jim Gazzolo, Special to the American Press
A day after announcing six new additions to the McNeese State basketball team, head coach John Aiken seems to have found the final piece to his puzzle.
Multiple national reports say South Carolina shooting guard T.J. Moss is headed to Lake Charles.
According to those reports Thursday, the 6-foot-4, 175-pound Moss verbally committed to play next season for the Cowboys.
“We have not signed anybody since (Wednesday),” Aiken responded in a text.
On Wednesday, Aiken said “we are in on a few people and feel we are close.”
Aiken added that he was hoping to finish his final signing with someone who can shoot the basketball.
“We really want another guy who can fill it up from 3,” Aiken said. “I want a guy who is going to make shots.”
Moss, a redshirt sophomore from Memphis, Tennessee, might be the answer. He entered the now infamous NCAA transfer portal after three years with the Gamecocks but, due to COVID-19, has two years of eligibility remaining.
Moss played in 55 games for South Carolina, averaging 3.3 points and a little more than 15 minutes a game. He started the final five games this season for the Gamecocks, finishing that span with 24 points and 26 assists. Moss started eight games in his career, three as a true freshman.
Moss will likely be asked to help fill the 3-point shooting void left by the transfer of Dru Kruxhausen, who signed to play his final year at Northern Colorado. Kruxhausen was the nation’s leader in most 3-point shots made over the last two seasons.
Moss averaged 4.3 points a game last season. He averaged 6.3 as a freshman in the 2018-19 season, but played in only five games.
In three seasons at South Carolina, Moss shot 29 percent (31 of 107) from beyond the 3-point arc with his best year being his first when he finished at 33 percent.
If Moss signs, he will give McNeese its full compliment of 13 scholarship players on the roster. Six of those are returning players with the other seven consisting of three freshmen from high school and four transfers, three from the portal and another by way of junior college.
If all works out, McNeese could put on the floor a pair of Power Five transfers and two more from mid-majors. Those four would have 14 years of college basketball experience at the Division I level to fall back on.
Aiken said Wednesday he didn’t want recruit only the portal, but added that you have to use everything you can to build your program.
He called the three freshmen he inked the “best high school class we have signed in my four years here.”