Published: May 09, 2008 12:03 am      

COLUMN: Moore helps land recruit

MORGANTOWN — They had just finished working out in the weight room and getting their running in on this first day of basketball season, 1976-77, and now they were playing a pickup game.

The hot-shot freshman was on one team, the hardnosed senior on the other.

The freshman was smooth and quick, a star at the legendary high school program in Mount Vernon, N.Y.

“Some people said I was the best player to come to West Virginia in 10 years,” the freshman remembers now.

Coaches love to hear that. Seniors don’t, especially this senior, who believed you had to earn your reputation, not bring it with you in a suitcase.

The freshman had the ball, breaking loose for the basket. The senior arrived in time to make a defensive play.

“He took me out,” the freshman recalls. “He told me, ‘You’re not going to be starting this year.’”

And then they fought.

That was how Lowes Moore and Bob Huggins met.

Both have been in the news lately, Huggins for the unprecedented “lifetime” contract he just signed with West Virginia, Moore for being named to the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame.

The introduction is etched indelibly in Moore’s mind.

As for Huggins?

“I don’t remember it,” he said, “but if it happened, he must have provoked me.”

Of course, Huggins has always considered it provocation when an opponent tries to score a layup against his team.

Considering the hostile beginnings, the relationship between Huggins and Moore has flourished through the years.

Huggins played his senior year with Moore a reserve on the team, Huggins actually outscoring Moore by averaging 13.2 points a game to the freshman’s 5. The next year Huggins was a graduate assistant under Joedy Gardner, before Gardner was fired and replaced by Gale Catlett.

As one might guess, the state of West Virginia was not big enough to accommodate both Catlett and Huggins, so Huggins was let go. Also, as one might guess, Moore’s scoring average of 21.5 his sophomore year — built in part on a 40-point effort against Notre Dame’s Final Four team — declined steadily in his final two years under Catlett, dropping to 17.5 the first year and 16.5 the second.

Still, Moore found himself heading off to the NBA, the last player from West Virginia ever to play an NBA, as difficult as that is to believe, the final season of his career being 1980, more than a quarter of a century ago.

But if Moore and Huggins went off in different directions, there was always something that drew them together. Maybe it was that competitive fire that ignited on that first day they met, or maybe it was that they could help each other.

Certainly, Moore found himself working at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Mount Vernon, which has been something of a basketball Mecca for talent. Consider, if you will, the list of talent that came out of that school: Earl Tatum of Marquette, Rudy Hackett of Syracuse, Gus Williams of the Seattle SuperSonics 1979 championship team, Ray Williams of the Knicks, Scooter and Rodney McCray of Louisville, Ben Gordon of Connecticut and Keith Benjamin of the Pitt.

And now Moore has a gift for Huggins and his alma mater in Kevin Jones, a recruit who has cast his lot with Huggins.

“When Huggins got the job he gave me a call. He said he’d seen Kevin Jones play and wanted to know what kind of person he is,” Moore said.

He gave rave reviews and then had a chat with the recruit.

“What I offered to Kevin was a opportunity to take advantage of my experience at West Virginia. I love the school. My academic experience was great. My athletic experience was tremendous, and I enjoyed myself,” Moore said. “I told him what I thought of WVU, what I thought about Coach Huggins.”

And that was what?

“I know every kid coming to school is thinking this is my pathway to the NBA,” Moore said. “What you want is someone who will push you toward that dream, and there’s no question Coach Huggins will push you.”

And so it was that Kevin Jones became the prize recruiting catch of the year for Huggins.

How good is he?

Well, perhaps the best way to put it is that the online encyclopedia Wikipedia lists the greatest basketball players to come out of Mount Vernon High. All of the above players are mentioned, except one.

Lowes Moore.

But on the list is “Kevin Jones, West Virginia University,” and he hasn’t even had his first fight with Huggins yet.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.