Moss ready mentally for college game
“I was ready for this opportunity when I came here. I’ve been around this level of basketball since I was a kid.”
– UTC FRESHMAN DUANE MOSS
If Duane Moss is physically ready to play for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team this season, he’ll be fine, because he appears to be ready mentally.
The 6-foot-6, 190-pound true freshman, the son of former UNC-Wilmington head coach and current Coastal Carolina assistant Benny Moss, has battled some injuries since his arrival on campus but will be ready to play in UTC’s exhibition game Saturday against Francis Marion.
And on a young team that will have to rely on freshmen, that’s a good thing.
“Not everybody is going to be ready in this type of environment,” Moss said recently. “It’s a young team, a brand new coaching staff and a whole new slate, and not many people get to see that.
“Not many get to make a name for yourself from an early standpoint, even as freshmen.”
Is he ready to embrace that challenge?
“I feel like you have to, especially if you’re going to be asked to play at such an early point in the season,” he said. “You’ve got to take that step and help your team with what they need you to do.”
Moss was slowed somewhat by injuries as a senior at Carolina Forest High School in Myrtle Beach, S.C., but still averaged 13.8 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. When he was healthy as a junior, he averaged 19.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.7 blocks and almost two steals per contest.
UTC coach Lamont Paris was able to convince Moss — who initially signed with Youngstown State but received a release when the head coach retired — to sign with the Mocs not long after Paris took over. Moss has battled a lower-body injury that has kept him off the practice floor, but the coaches have felt good about what they’ve seen when he has been able to participate.
“His feel and skill is good,” Paris said recently. “His feel for the game is an area that has been his strength; he has a feel for what to do. He’s a freshman so he has to get physically stronger, but he has a good feel and makes shots at a really good rate.”
Moss has grown up around college basketball players. His father is in his seventh season at Coastal, so Duane was able to work his way into some pickup games with collegians at a young age.
“I was ready for this opportunity when I came here,” he said. “I’ve been around this level of basketball since I was a kid; when they needed an extra, they’d text to me come to the rec center to play.
“It helped me build as a player.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.