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Texas Tech basketball: Matt Mooney proving to be more than just a shooter

By Matthew Conner

WOLLONGONG, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 27: Basketballs are seen prior to the round three NBL match between the Illawarra Hawks and the Brisbane Bullets at Wollongong Entertainment Centre on October 27, 2018 in Wollongong, Australia. (Photo by Jeremy Ng/Getty Images)
WOLLONGONG, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 27: Basketballs are seen prior to the round three NBL match between the Illawarra Hawks and the Brisbane Bullets at Wollongong Entertainment Centre on October 27, 2018 in Wollongong, Australia. (Photo by Jeremy Ng/Getty Images) /
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Through five games, grad transfer Matt Mooney has already proven to be invaluable to the Texas Tech basketball team thanks to his ability to do more than just shoot the ball.

When Chris Beard lost over 73% of his team’s offensive output after last season, one of his top priorities was to add more scoring to the roster.  So it was huge when he was able to land Matt Mooney, one of the best graduate transfers available and a proven scorer for South Dakota.  But through five games, we are seeing that Mooney is more than just a sharp-shooter and his all-around play has made the senior one of the most indispensable Red Raiders.

Everyone expected Mooney to score.  He has averaged 15 points per game throughout his career and he was coming off of two-consecutive years in which he scored over 18 per game for South Dakota.

But to begin this season, the scoring did not come immediately for the Chicago native as he tried to find his place on his new team.  In the season-opening three-game home stand, Mooney averaged just nine points per game hitting double-digits only once.

Fortunately, Mooney’s scoring touch returned just when the schedule picked up.  In the last two games in Kansas City, Mooney had 17 points against USC and 15 against Nebraska helping the Red Raiders capture the Hall of Fame Classic championship.

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Chris Beard certainly needs Mooney to be a reliable second scorer to compliment Jarrett Culver.  But what has been exciting to see is how Mooney has been able to impact the game in so many other ways.

He was thought to be more of a shooting guard who played off the ball rather than a key distributor.  However, for a Texas Tech team having to replace one of the best point guards in the history of the program, Keenan Evans, Mooney has stepped up to be the team’s best facilitator.

Averaging a career-high 4.4 assists per game, he ranks 4th in the Big 12.  It has been important for the Red Raiders to have a reliable ball-handler as sophomore guard Davide Moretti has shown that he still has some growing to do when it comes to protecting the ball.

When Mooney is setting up the offense, it is far more fluid and there is more movement both in terms of players and ball rotation.  He has proven to be not just a shooter but also a player adept at getting into the lane to score or dish the ball to a teammate for an easy bucket.

On the other end of the floor, Mooney is showing that he is a complete player.  Though he is not considered to be a lock-down on-ball defender, he is one of the most aware defenders we have seen in quite some time.

His ability to anticipate the offense’s next move has been uncanny and as a result, he’s already come up with 11 steals on the season.  No other player on the team has more than five.  And at 2.2 steals per game, he is tied for fourth in the Big 12.

Meanwhile, the 6-foot-3, 200-pounder is also willing to battle for rebounds.  He is fourth on the team with 4.2 per game.  That trails only Norense Odiase, Jarrett Culver and Tariq Owens, all of whom are taller and longer players that should be natural rebounders.  And when you consider that Mooney has gathered only two fewer rebounds on the year than the 6-foot-11 Owens, it shows that he is willing to do battle inside where many guards are not.

Coming into the season, there was some question about whether Matt Mooney would be able to be as effective for a Big 12 team as he was for a mid-major program that played a far weaker schedule.  Last year, he came up big against TCU (31 points) and UCLA (23 points) showing that he can compete at the highest levels but still, he had to prove that playing against major competition on an every game basis would not prove to be too much for him, especially defensively.

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This week, against two teams that are considered likely NCAA Tournament teams, USC and Nebraska, Mooney was one of the best players on the court.  He averaged 16.5 points, four rebounds, three steals and three assists in the back-to-back games helping the Red Raiders secure two huge resume-building wins.  And along the way, he proved that he is more than just a long-range shooter, he is one of the best all-around players on the roster.

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