Year-in-review: James Moors flashed big potential in an elevated role for the Rams

FORT COLLINS, CO. — We started our year-in-review series with a synopsis of the season for Colorado State men’s basketball, as well as a breakdown of the growth Dischon Thomas displayed over the course of 2020-21. Now we continue the series with the player who split minutes with Thomas and filled the starting role once “DT” transitioned back into the sub rotation.

James Moors

As explained in the first piece, Thomas served as an extremely important player for the Rams, spreading out the floor and stretching opposing bigs with his ability to knock down jump shots along the perimeter. His counterpart, James Moors, was more of a traditional five however.

Moors started the season coming off the bench, but the 6-foot-10, 239-pound redshirt freshman quickly worked his way into the starting lineup, and by the end of the year, was one of the most pivotal players in the rotation. As head coach Niko Medved told reporters during the NIT, out of everyone on the roster, nobody showed more improvement in 2020-21 than the big man from Auckland, New Zealand. 

Coming onto campus as a true freshman last season, Moors was fairly raw as a prospect, but his potential to be a real impact player was always obvious to the people around him. All throughout the 2019-20 campaign, the coaches talked about how special the big man could be, frequently emphasizing his athleticism and versatility. 

While he still has room for improvement, we got to see flashes of his unique talent — particularly down the stretch this season — when Moors really stepped up his defensive effort and also started attacking the hoop a bit more aggressively on offense.

Watching Moors on the floor, it’s easy to see that he is a confident player. He is not one of those big men that just camps under the hoop and waits for rebound opportunities on offense. The big Kiwi is a big part of the offensive movement and actually spends quite a bit of time at the top of the key, where his teammates frequently trust him with the ball — usually as a facilitator, but sometimes as a scoring option. 

When setting screens, Moors’ massive frame allows CSU’s quick and slender guards to get around their defenders with ease. He has absolutely no qualms about letting it rip from 3-point range either — even if the numbers indicate he would be best served dishing out the rock instead. For the season Moors shot an abysmal 10 percent from deep. 

While he may not be much of a jump shooter, as the season progressed, Moors began to show a willingness to put the ball on the floor and use his athleticism to his advantage. He didn’t always finish at the rim, so he needs to work on touch drills over the course of the offseason. Watching him blow past someone like Neemias Queta on the drive was definitely an eye-opener, though.

It’s clear that Moors is an elite athlete for a player of his stature. If he continues to work with the staff and learns to finish through contact a little more consistently, he’s going to be a really dangerous player on that end of the floor. 

Much like Thomas, there was a growing period for Moors on the defensive end. In the first conference series of the season, CSU was tasked with trying to slow down Fresno State’s Orlando Robinson, who is one of the better centers in the Mountain West. And in Game 1 of that matchup, Moors fouled out in just 16 minutes of action. The thing about Moors, though, is he adjusts quickly and he backs down from nobody. In Game 2 Moors was able to log 27 minutes and contribute significantly on both ends of the floor. According to Moors, that was a turning point for his confidence.

That confidence was on full display in the NIT when CSU opened with a solid showing against the University of Buffalo. The Bulls entered as one of the most dominant teams on the glass in the country, but the Rams were able to keep the rebounding margin tight and absolutely dominate in the paint. Moors finished with 11 points, five rebounds, two steals and two blocks in 24 minutes. His stellar outing was a big reason CSU was able to win a tight game, 75-73.

With all the growth we saw this season, I will be curious to see how Moors builds off of a solid redshirt freshman campaign and potentially elevates his game next year.

With so much player movement and an emphasis on bringing in one-and-done prospects by bigger programs, some hoops fans tend to get impatient with raw prospects that flash, but are still fairly inconsistent. The truth is that it generally takes big men longer to develop and adjust to the speed of the game than it does for guards — which makes sense — big men have to learn how to adjust to the physicality of the D1 game after dominating all throughout high school. 

Moors doesn’t exactly fit this mold as his basketball upbringing wasn’t the same as many of his teammates. The big thing to remember with Moors, though, is that with everyone retaining their status for this year, he will technically have four full years of eligibility remaining — even after playing this entire season. If he was this impactful already, just imagine what Moors could be next year, or even 2-3 years from now. 

The future in Fort Collins is looking full of possibility. After seeing what this group accomplished together in a wonky season impacted by the pandemic, one would assume their ceiling would be even higher in the coming years. If CSU is going to accomplish its goals as a basketball program, though, continuing to make strides on the defensive end will be key. To do that, defending the paint will be paramount and obviously Moors will need to be a big part of it.