Moore withdraws from draft, returns for senior season

The Utah State basketball team announced Thursday that Jalen Moore will remove his name from the upcoming NBA draft and finish out his senior season as an Aggie.

After working out for three different NBA teams and competing against former college athletes from schools like Kentucky, Michigan State and Texas A&M in the pre-draft process, Moore decided that he wanted to remove his name from the draft and work on developing his skills as a leader.

“It was a great experience to get some feedback in this whole process,” Moore said. “I was able to work out in some good places and played against some good players from good conferences. I had a lingering back issue that I wanted to clear up and wanted to come back and focus on being a better leader.”

USU’s head basketball coach Tim Duryea credited the pre-draft process for helping the senior wing understand what he can do better and what to focus on in final season.

“It really gave Jalen a road map of where to improve,” Duryea said. “But, it also helps us as coaches to help him advance in those areas as we are working on our summer programs and workouts.”

Moore has led the Aggies in scoring and rebounding for the past two years, averaging 15.2 points per game and 6.7 rebounds in his junior year. He finished the year with 1,119 points.

Moore is one of eight players returning to USU basketball next season.