When the season began, Rick Barnes said Tennessee could not compete without Armani Moore putting points on the scoreboard.
That role has changed over the course of the season.
With Detrick Mostella and Admiral Schofield becoming scoring threats, Moore has been able to shift back to what he does best: everything else.
“I think Armani impacts us when we’re playing well, if he never scores a point,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Monday. “Early in the year, and I think it’s a real compliment to him, we relied on him to do everything.
“He has a talent in that he’s a big-time competitor. He’s a guy that wants to win possessions. He’s a guy that takes it personal sometimes, and he’s hard on himself.”
The senior scored in double figures over the team’s first five games, including a 29 point effort in a win over Army in November. He then rattled off another streak of four games in double figures in December.
At the start of conference play, though, Moore has gone a different direction. He has scored in double figures just twice in SEC games and has yet to hit the mark in a game that Tennessee won. Instead, he has focused his effort in other areas.
He has yet to grab less than six rebounds in conference play. He has dished out 27 assists in that time, good for an average of close to five per game, and he has added 10 blocks in that time. This role is nothing new to the do-it-all Kennesaw, Georgia native.
“There’s a lot of things that a team needs to be successful,” Moore said. “I think you have to have guys like me who are not only willing to score points, but do things in other areas … I think you’ve definitely got to have a guy like me.”
Regardless of their role, every basketball player wants to fill up the scoreboard, and Moore admitted that his lack of scoring over the last few weeks has been frustrating, but the level that the team has been playing at has not.
While that frustration might lead some players to slack off in other areas, the opposite has been true for Moore.
“Being a guy who was doing a whole lot of scoring at the beginning of the season, for any player once you see your numbers decrease in one area, it can be frustrating,” Moore said. “Once I actually sat down with myself and realized that even though I’m not scoring, I can always be effective in other areas.
“That’s one of the things that I have to accept … I think now I’ve come in and been a whole lot more effective in other areas than scoring.”
Barnes said Monday that Moore could be one of country’s best defenders thanks to his quickness and athleticism. At 6-foot-4, Moore often plays center for the Vols, meaning he is matched up with players several inches taller.
That ability to guard every position on the floor is something he takes pride in but also something that can be challenging at times.
“Obviously there are some times where there’s a big height difference,” Moore said. “That’s going to happen when you have a whole starting lineup where guys are 6-foot-4 or shorter. It’s fun. I like the challenge. I just think it all boils down to your will to win.”
Barnes was asked if guard Kevin Punter was as important to his team as any other player in the SEC due to his 23 point per game average. He agreed but with one caveat.
“I would say that about Armani, too,” Barnes said. “If you had asked me a few weeks ago if I thought we could go out on the road and get a win without Armani, I probably would have said no.”
