Aaron Moore Dismissed From Portland State Team

I had heard this rumor earlier in the week, but wasn’t able to confirm it until now – Aaron Moore is no longer with the Portland State basketball team. From the Portland Tribune:

Geving was vague in talking about why Moore — who did not play in Portland State’s 79-62 Saturday road loss to Weber State — is no longer with the Vikings. 

“You’ve got to just, at some point, draw your foot in the sand,” Geving said. “We’re going to move forward, and I still believe we’re going to be better for it, because Saturday night we played hard.” 

Geving said removing Moore from the team was a difficult decision for him on a personal level. 

“Is it easy?” Geving said. “No, it’s not easy. Is it painful? Yeah, it pains me. But I also know our players are going to respond to it better. I’m going to earn the respect of my players a little bit more as opposed to if I just let it continue to go on. Then all of a sudden players are going to go, ‘Well, coach teaches us to act like that, we all get to act like that.’”

Moore averaged 13.2 PPG and 7.1 RPG last season, and often had the look of a guy that could be an all-conference player. Through the early part of this season (he did battle through some injuries), those numbers were down to 11.8 PPG and 5.8 RPG. In their Big Sky opener, he gave Idaho State fans the double bird, which seems as though it may have been the last straw for Moore at PSU.

The Vikings are 0-2 in Big Sky play, and now very thin on the perimeter. JUCO forward Tiegbe Bamba is still out with injury, leaving Kyle Richardson and Brandon Cataldo as the only healthy big men on the roster. They have some talented guards, but they need to hope that the dismissal of Moore brings a lot of addition by subtraction, particularly defensively (where their 1.13 PPP allowed is 332nd in the country) if they are going to turn things around this season.


Follow me on Twitter @bigskybball