City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Before the April live recruiting periods started, Hatboro-Horsham’s Clifton Moore Jr. was just hoping to land his first Division I scholarship.

Things changed for him in a hurry.

“Zero to 100,” he said on Thursday at the Elevate Hoops Icebreaker, where he was playing with his AAU team, Hoopdreamz.

First came an offer from Lafayette, on April 16. Binghamton, NJIT and Loyola (Md.) followed quickly after.

By May, he’d added several more, including George Mason and Rider. And now, only about 10 weeks after getting that first offer, Moore’s list stands at more than a dozen schools after East Carolina offered on Thursday morning, joining a group that includes Temple, La Salle, Princeton, George Washington and those listed above.

Other schools that have reached out to the wiry, 6-foot-9 wing forward with the smooth jumper include St. John’s, VCU, Northwestern and Stanford.

“It came out of nowhere, I didn’t know what to expect,” Moore said. “It makes me know that I’m getting better and I know that hard work pays off and I’ve just got to keep working.”

Moore is certainly just getting used to the world of college basketball recruiting -- and, really, college basketball in general.

“When I was younger I only watched the NBA, I didn’t watch college, so I didn’t really have a dream school or anything,” he said. “So right now I’m just feeling it out.”

Moore was still very much a relative unknown on the local hoops scene even during his junior season with the Hatters, until he helped lead the way during a surprise run into the state playoff bracket, including a 28-point effort in the District 1 AAAA opening-round win over Strath Haven.

It was playing with Hoopdreamz in a tournament at Spooky Nook that finally earned Moore those first scholarships, and since then his stock has been steadily rising in the recruiting waters.

Watching him at the Elevate Hoops Icebreaker on Thursday night, it’s clear to see what has programs at all levels of D-I hoops extremely intrigued. Not many players at any level are as smooth at his height, and though he’ll have a lot of work to do in the weight room once he gets to college, his face-up game and general upside are unmistakable.

But as he’s realizing, upside only goes so far. Now he has to start playing like a high-major recruit every time he takes the court.

“Right now I’m just focusing on going at people, going my hardest,” he said. “(Hoopdreamz coach Jonathan Michels) said definitely show them your motor, show them your aggressiveness, go 100 percent all the time.”

At the moment, Moore isn’t thinking about official visits or favorites at this point in the process, with things changing seemingly week by week.

He’s content to play out the next three weeks -- at Elevate this week, Hoop Group’s Elite camp the next and at Live in A.C. the final live period -- and see where things are at when the dust finally settles.

“There’s no preference, I’m just keeping everything open,” he said. “I like everything so far, but I’m just keeping my options open.”

He did say that in all of his conversations with college coaches thus far, when it came to advice outside of recruiting, one call in particular stood out.

“Temple is the one that really opened my eyes, away from a basketball standpoint,” he said. “Just enjoy your childhood, enjoy it while it lasts, but you’ve still got to keep working [...] it can’t all be about basketball, it’s got to be about school and your social life. If it’s all about basketball, it’ll be work, like a job, so you’ve got to balance it.”

It’s a new balance for Moore, but it’s certainly not a bad one.