By Jon Cooper | The Good Word
Moses Wright has always been good around the net.
It’s just that for most of his early life growing up in Raleigh, N.C., and even for a year at William G. Enloe High School, the net he was good around was on the tennis court.
Wright might still be slamming tennis balls were it not for a four-inch, 40-pound growth spurt following his sophomore year at Enloe. After that, he changed his opinion about basketball and traded overhead slams for slam dunks. Wright led the Eagles with 22.0 points, 11.0 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and even a 41.0 three-point shooting percentage.
“It did (change my mind),” he said. “Especially since my coach told me that I could be great. They saw that leap and it was like, ‘Yeah, he could be special.’”
Moses continues making leaps and is still hearing from his coach that he can be special, only now it’s from Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner. After finding his way through a freshman year where he played 25 games, starting 10 of them, including the final five, and a sophomore year, where he continued to improve and ended with a flourish, Wright has found his way into the starting lineup, into a role on both ends of the floor and into Pastner’s blueprint for future success.
His improved work around the basket has been the nicest development.
“What he’s done well is he’s kept a lot of balls alive and he’s finished,” Pastner said. “Where last year he would maybe get an offensive rebound, but he wouldn’t finish, now he’s finishing around the basket.
“That’s why I’m on him all the time, ‘Keep attacking,’” Pastner continued. “He’s really good around the paint. He’s (shooting) in the high 70s. Obviously, he hasn’t shot well from three, he hasn’t shot well from other areas, but in the paint he’s 70-some odd percent. He’s got a couple of 12-footers in there, jump-hooks. It’s anything in the paint. He’s finished better around the hoop, where last year he wasn’t doing that. What has taken him down a lot is he’s shooting other shots that maybe aren’t his strength, and I’m on him about that all the time. ‘You really haven’t been stopped in the paint yet based on your numbers.’”
Wright’s hard work in the paint is making things easier.
“Offensive rebounds are easy points,” said the 6-9, 217-pounder, with the 72-inch wingspan. “Easy points for others, too, easy kickouts. Crashing the boards just makes everything easier.”
His crashing the boards is paying off. Over this year’s final five regular-season games, all starts, he played 28.4 minutes, averaged 12.0 points, with three double-digit games, including a career-high 19 at Miami on Feb. 23, on a solid 53.1 percent shooting (26-for-49). He’s also pulling down 6.2 rebounds, 2.4 on the offensive end, with six blocks. In those games, he set career-bests for minutes (39 at NC State on March 6), points and field goals (19 and 9 on Feb. 23 at Miami), and blocked shots (four against Pittsburgh on Feb. 20).
The numbers and milestones nice but Wright doesn’t gauge his game by numbers.
“Honestly, I really don’t like to go back and look at my stats from the game,” he said. “I can just tell if I left it all on the floor or not. It doesn’t matter how many points I scored. It’s the way I feel after the game.”
His teammates feel really good about this Moses Wright.
“Moses is playing really well, he’s playing high-level,” said sophomore point guard Jose Alvarado. “It’s not shocking, because we see how good he can be. It’s about mindset and just having fun with the game, and that’s what he’s doing now. He’s going to be very good for us. He’s playing with a high confidence, and he’s playing how he should be playing. I’m glad he is.”
Wright made 20 starts in 2018-19, including a stretch of 14 in 15 games between Nov. 16, 2018 against East Carolina and Jan. 19, 2019 against Louisville, but he never really found any consistency — he scored in double-figures three times, but also went scoreless twice. Then came sporadic minutes over the next six games before the noticeably different season-ending charge.
Those six games coming off the bench proved to be his awakening.
“When Coach wasn’t playing me, I was like, ‘Something has to change,’” he said. “So I started changing my energy, and then I saw better results. Coach Pastner always tells me I’m at my greatest when I have a whole bunch of energy. He’s right.
“Just bring energy, no matter how I feel, and don’t let my personal feelings impact other’s performances and my performance,” he added. “I can be such a great energy-giver sometimes, hyping everybody up. Sometimes I can be, like, dead and no energy and bringing everybody down with me. I’ve been having more of a fun approach, a fun mindset. It’s still serious, but know when to flip the switch.”