The men’s basketball team secured their second commitment of the offseason on Monday afternoon, receiving a pledge from Georgia Southern point guard Tyren Moore.
Moore is a Louisville native who began his career at Moberly Area CC before transferring to Georgia Southern in 2022. After spending most of his first season in Statesboro in an off-ball role, Moore shined as the Eagles’ point guard in 2023-2024. He paced Georgia Southern in scoring, assists, and three-point percentage this season, led the Sun Belt in offensive box plus-minus, ranked third in the league in total points, and ranked first in three-point percentage among players with 145 attempts or more.
The elephant in the room.
Moore is a 5’11” guard transferring to his third school. He’s one of the best high-volume three-point shooters at the mid-major level. He’s a capable ballhandler comfortable with handling an immense usage rate. We’ve seen this movie before.
Moore is aware of his similarities to Jelly Walker; in fact, UAB used them to sell him on the program.
“They definitely showed me some comparisons there in terms of tapes and highlights and stuff,” Moore told Steve Irvine on Monday. “I definitely liked what I saw, for sure.”
Where does he fit in?
With the recent departure of Eric Gaines, UAB’s first goal of the offseason was to find a true point guard. Butta Johnson, while capable of handling the one, is an efficient spot-up shooter whose talents are better utilized at shooting guard, and it’s unclear how Jaborri McGhee profiles at the D1 level.
Moore immediately becomes the favorite to fill the void in the starting lineup — the guard is comfortable in a primary ballhandler role and has proven that he can shoulder a high usage rate. Per KenPom, Moore used 27.7% of Georgia Southern’s possessions while on the floor, a top-150 rate in the nation; he took 30.0% of Georgia Southern’s shots while on the floor, a top-85 rate in the nation. Moore posted an impressive 25.4% assist rate while keeping his turnover percentage at a manageable 14.4.
In this March 9th game against Appalachian State, the final outing of Moore’s Georgia Southern career, the guard posts 36 points while making five of his 12 three-point attempts and dishing out five assists. He orchestrates the Eagles’ offense from the opening whistle, running fifteen total pick-and-rolls at an efficient rate of 1.067 points per possession.
It is worth again pointing out that Moore is much closer to Jelly Walker than he is to Eric Gaines. Gaines didn’t take all that many shots relative to the amount of time he had the ball in his hands; per KenPom, EG’s percentages of possessions used and shots taken are each over five points lower than Moore’s, who is less of a connective tissue pure passer and more of a Walker-esque combo guard.
How does he play?
Let’s start with Moore’s most eye-popping stat: his three-point shooting. The guard made 40.8% of his deep balls this season on 179 attempts, one of the Sun Belt’s most efficient rates. Per Synergy, Moore ranked in the 90th percentile of three-point shooters in 2023-2024.
The Jelly comparisons are a little overstated, as Moore’s volume doesn’t approach Walker’s. During his two years in Birmingham, Walker attempted a total of 642 triples; in his two D1 seasons, Moore has attempted just 331. That could change, of course — for example, Walker’s volume was minuscule at Seton Hall and Tulane — but there’s work to be done before Moore is crowned the next Jelly.
Moore currently profiles as a Michael Ertel-level three-point shooter; not transcendent, but far above average. An Ertel-esque performance would still be a major boon for a UAB team that struggled with offensive spacing this season.
An interesting note – Moore is a very strong three-point shooter from above the break, but seldom takes corner threes.
Most of Moore’s field goal attempts come off the dribble, where he is one of the most formidable players in the country. In 2023-2024, over half of his FGAs came off the dribble; his eFG% on those attempts was a whopping 60%. Moore ranks in the 96th percentile of all D1 players in shooting off the dribble, shoring up a role in UAB’s offense currently only filled by Butta Johnson.
As the above chart indicates, Moore is comfortable shooting from all three levels. He took 2.4 midrange shots per game in 2023-2024, making an outstanding 51.3% of them. Moore is slightly less likely to attack the rim than Gaines or Walker were; he’s a competent but not outstanding finisher.
As alluded to earlier, Moore is also an excellent pick-and-roll initiator, a role that the post-Gaines Blazers sorely need filled. Per Synergy, he was one of the most prolific PnR guards in the country this season and ranked in the 91st percentile of PnR efficiency.
Moore doesn’t profile as a particularly strong defender. At 5’11”, he suffers the same limitations most undersized guards do, and he doesn’t have the high steal rate to make up for it (2.3%, about Daniel Ortiz range). Per EvanMiya, Moore recorded the worst DBPR of any qualified Eagle this season. His defensive win shares (0.4) and defensive box plus/minus (-1.2) are subpar, and he’s coming from a Georgia Southern team that ranked 329th nationally in KenPom’s defensive efficiency.
Moore is a well-traveled, experienced guard who fills several critical roles for the Blazers. As the depth chart stands, he should be the favorite to slot in at the 1. Although he’s not Jelly yet, Kennedy and company have another talented, high-usage scoring guard with the potential to go nuclear from beyond the arc.