Men’s basketball
KeynoteUSA Photo/Rogelio V. Solís
Mississippi State guard Shakeel Moore (3) shoots from 3-point range during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Kentucky, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in Starkville, Mississippi.
Just several hours after announcing Elmarko Jackson’s likely season-ending injury, Kansas added more depth at guard by earning a commitment from Mississippi State transfer Shakeel Moore.
Moore, who will be a fifth-year senior in his final year of eligibility, began his career with one season at NC State before spending three with the Bulldogs. Most recently, he averaged 7.9 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists while shooting 36.3% from beyond the arc in his fourth collegiate season.
He revealed his plans to join KU in a post on his Instagram in partnership with On3 on Wednesday afternoon.
Moore is originally from Greensboro, North Carolina, and was a four-star recruit out of Moravian Prep. Primarily coming off the bench as a freshman at NC State, he managed to put up 6.8 points and 1.4 steals in 18.5 minutes per game.
Overall, Moore, who is 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds, has been a well-regarded defender and was on Naismith’s Defensive Player of the Year watch list as a junior. His EvanMiya.com Defensive Bayesian Performance Rating was a solid 1.50 during the 2023-24 season, nearly on par with the now-injured Jackson.
KU now has 12 scholarship spots filled, just one day after Jackson was injured and two days after head coach Bill Self said he wanted to add one more starting-caliber player to his roster.
In total, Moore has started 68 of his 124 career games between two of the best conferences in the country.
The question now is whether the Jayhawks plan to go with 11 healthy players for the rest of the season or use the coming weeks and months to land a 12. That would push KU to the limit of 13 scholarships, meaning it would have to defer the application for your final Independent Accountability Resolution Process scholarship to the 2025-26 roster.
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Written by Henry Greenstein
Henry is the sports editor at Lawrence Journal-World and KUsports.com, and serves as a KU beat writer while managing daily sports coverage. He previously worked as a sports reporter at The Bakersfield Californian and graduated from Washington University in St. Louis (BA, Linguistics) and Arizona State University (MA, Sports Journalism). Although he’s a Los Angeles native, he’s often been told that he doesn’t give off “California vibes,” whatever that means.
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