Grayson Moore sidelined for season
After sitting out his transfer season, Utah State’s Grayson Moore is done for the year.
“Grayson was a big piece, a glue guy,” said senior guard Darius Perkins. “He is a blue-collar guy (that helped) defend and rebound. He is a great leader and will really be missed. His leadership is tough to fill. You knew what you were going to get out of Grayson. He brought it on the defensive end every night.”
Moore, a fifth year senior and transfer from Northwest Nazarene, broke his foot against Colorado State on Saturday during the team’s sixth game in 15 days.
After not starting and playing minimal minutes in the first few Aggie contests, Moore had moved himself into a starting role from the energy and work he put in on defense.
“Grayson was doing a great job of doing everything that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet,” said USU coach Tim Duryea. “Moving the ball offensively, making his teammates better, energy plays, second shot and putbacks. Defensively he gives us more length on the wings and allowed us to bring offense off the bench with Shane Rector and Julion Pearre.”
Moore’s absence was felt by his teammates, who played in the first full game without him on Tuesday.
“It’s tough,” said senior guard Chris Smith. “He did everything. I think he played three different positions for us. We really, really miss him.”
Quinn Taylor, a redshirt freshman, started in his place and played 18 minutes in the game. The Aggies also pulled the redshirt on John Middleton, a 6-foot-4 freshman guard from New Jersey. Middleton made his first appearance for USU. He played just five minutes in the game but got his first points on a layup as he cut to the basket.
“In a perfect world we would rather have him,” Duryea said of Moore. “We were developing a nice niche there and felt like our rotation was pretty set. We’re not going to have that the rest of the way.”
Lew Evans has suffered two concussions this season and Elston Jones missed time earlier in the year with a separated shoulder. After the seventh game in 18 days on Tuesday and the multiple post injuries, other USU players are starting to wear down as well.
The loss of the post players is forcing the Aggies to play guards at the three spot and have them on the court for a longer period of time.
“We’ve got to do a good job of developing John Middleton,” Duryea said. “I thought Chris played tired a lot. We just tried to get John’s feet wet tonight. We really didn’t have another sub. We’ve got to develop John so we can rest Chris.”
The next two weeks will serve as a good time for the team to work on development. USU plays on Saturday at San Diego State, then it has a bye on Tuesday before going back to work at home versus Nevada on Jan. 30.
— kalen.s.taylor@gmail.com
Twitter: @kalen_taylor