CHICAGO — If Kansas’ men’s basketball team is to reach the Final Four, the Jayhawks will have to defeat a team that has a former KU player at the lead guard position.
Charlie Moore, a 5-foot-11, 180-pound, 24-year-old Chicago native, who has also played at Cal and DePaul, redshirted at KU during the 2017-18 Final Four season, then played in 35 games, starting one, for KU in 2018-19.
“He’s playing his tail off. I think Charlie may have the best vision of anybody left in the tournament. He sees a lot of things,” KU coach Bill Self said of Moore. He scored seven points on 2-of-8 shooting (with nine assists against three turnovers) while playing 38 minutes in the Hurricanes’ 70-56 win over Iowa State in Friday’s Sweet 16 game at the United Center.
“He didn’t play a lot when he was with us and, for one year, and just in large part because we had two NBA players playing guard slots then,” Self added of Devon Dotson and Marcus Garrett.
“Charlie’s talented. He’s clever. He can get his own shot. He can certainly create for others. And he’s crafty. He’s very crafty. He can do little things that get you off balance that allow him to get his shoulders past you and things like that. Charlie was a good player for us, but Charlie has become a terrific player.” Self noted.
Moore left KU for DePaul, his hometown school, for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. He headed to Miami for his final campaign.
“I didn’t follow him as close. I watched as much as I could when he was at DePaul and I thought he had a good two years there,” Self said. Moore, who averaged 2.9 points, 1.3 assists in 13.1 minutes per game as a Jayhawk in 2018-19, then upped his scoring to 15.5 points and 14.4 points, respectively, his two years at DePaul.
“To me his game has gone to another level being at the University of Miami. I think he’s just done fantastic. And I’m happy for him. I was happy for all the kids that’s no longer in our programs that do well. And he certainly has,” Self added.
Moore averages 12.6 points and 4.7 assists a game for the Hurricanes. He has averaged 32 minutes per contest for a 26-10 team.
“Playing with Charlie, he was a great teammate. He was there my freshman year. I was only there with him for one year until he transferred out,” said KU senior Ochai Agbaji. “But he was a great teammate, a really good passer, really aggressive, and he can also score. And just his IQ for the game, his feel for the game I think is something that’s kind of unheralded, but he’s a really good all-around player.”
Moore is listed at 5-11, 180. KU’s starter at the point, Dajuan Harris. is listed 6-1, 170 and backup Remy Martin 6-0, 180.
“When you talk about standing height, maybe we have them an inch in most positions or whatever,” Self said. “I coached Charlie. Remy’s not any bigger than Charlie, or Juan. Two big guys are the same standing height. So I don’t think there’s a huge discrepancy size-wise. I think the fact that they can score off turning people over is what we have to be concerned about.
“They can score in a lot of ways, and of course they can make hard shots.”
Moore was not available Saturday during Miami’s media availability. On Thursday, of KU he said: “A lot of great people, good friends. One of my best friends, couple of my best friends I met at Kansas. My memories there are still pretty much good memories.”
Of leaving KU for DePaul, then moving on to Miami, Moore explained Thursday: “You know, really, my dad encouraged me to do it. I came home, first time, go to DePaul, to be closer to my parents, (to) help those guys out. But I was home for two years. My dad wanted me to be happy. I had a good conversation with the coaching staff (at Miami). And he enjoyed it as well. And I knew I was going to come play with great teammates out there in Florida. So that made it easy.”
Miami’s leading scorer is 6-foot-5 ex-Oklahoma Sooner Kameron McGusty (17.8 points per game) followed by 6-3 Isaiah Wong (15.3 ppg).
“The biggest thing is live-ball turnovers leads to them really being able to utilize their offensive skill set, which is really strong. So we’ve got to play 5-on-5 against them. And that will be a big goal of ours tomorrow,” Self said.
Of McGusty, Self said: “He had a good run at Oklahoma, playing for Lon (Kruger). But this is, to me, the development of these guys being able to go get their own shot, to me, is very apparent. He was a good scorer at OU. He can score all three levels now. And he can get it with his handle. He can get it off the catch. He can explode over you. There’s a lot of things he can do to score. And they have multiple guys that can do that. That’s what makes this team hard to guard, in my opinion.”
