Southern Miss basketball receives some good news following a rough week
It’s been a rough few days for the Southern Miss men’s basketball program with at least four players entering the transfer portal, but coach Jay Ladner got a bit of good news early Monday morning.
St. John’s University forward Isaih Moore posted on Twitter just after midnight on Monday that he is verbally committed to the Golden Eagles.
Moore is a 6-foot-10, 205-pound junior who averaged 9.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 17.3 minutes a game during his one season at St. John’s in the Big East.
Moore will rejoin former Pearl River Community College teammate Tae Hardy, who was USM’s starting point guard during the 2020-21 season.
The two players were part of the undefeated PRCC squad that finished 28-0 after the 2019-20 NCAA Tournament was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moore began his college career with one season at the College of Charleston, making 11 appearances with averages of 2.8 points and 2.1 rebounds a game.
A product of Sumter High School in South Carolina, he was rated as the state’s seventh best high school prospect in 2018 by 247Sports.
USM received a major blow late last week when the team’s top scorer, 6-7 sophomore Tyler Stevenson, announced that he had entered the transfer portal. He averaged 14.1 and 7.1 rebounds as far and away the Golden Eagles’ most consistent player.
Also reportedly entering the transfer portal are 6-7 redshirt sophomore forward Denijay Harris, 6-6 junior guard Justin Johnson and 6-5 freshman guard Angel Smith.
Ladner will likely rely on Moore to replace Stevenson’s production at power forward.
A major task for Ladner and his staff will be finding a true point guard to run the offense and a post player to defend the basket.
Ladner is 17-39 overall and 9-26 in Conference USA during his two seasons at Southern Miss.
This story was originally published April 19, 2021 at 10:39 AM.
