Moorer already talking, thinking big for Cavs

By Jay Jenkins

Published: July 14, 2008

When the first letter arrived in the mail, Ariana Moorer was floored with excitement.
To her disbelief, Virginia coach Debbie Ryan had a large interest in Moorer, a scrappy in-state point guard.
Weeks later after a visit to the school and an elbow-rubbing encounter with Sharnee Zoll, the program’s assist queen, a verbal offer landed on Moorer’s plate.
“It was like ‘Oh my gosh! This is really going to happen,’” Moorer recounted. “There was excitement and a sense of nervousness at the same time.”
Eager to jump at the offer but cognizant enough to discuss the decision with her parents, Moorer waited for what felt like an eternity. It was actually just 24 hours.
“I called Coach Ryan the next day and told her that I would accept the offer,” she said. “That was a good day because they had already won a game in the ACC Tournament.”
The first verbal commitment in a four-member class that will take the floor as freshmen in a matter of months, Moorer still had 16 months remaining before she would arrive for a summer session at UVa that started last week.
While early compared to others in her class, making the decision at that stage provided her the opportunity to study the team’s players, the desired up-tempo style and Zoll’s floor wizardry.
During that timeframe, Moorer, who stands at 5-foot-7, worked feverishly to improve her own game. While her high school team at C.D. Hylton endured a rebuilding process with scores of new faces, Moorer was handed the keys to the offense of the Boo Williams AAU team last summer as North Carolina signee Sheila White was shifted to shooting guard.
“[White] had been the point guard for like four years … and Boo had told me my first year — you have to sit out your first year — that next year, with this team, I am moving you to point guard and I was so excited,” Moorer said. “I was also kind of nervous because I wasn’t sure if I knew how to lead my team like that.
“It turned out that I did so that was good.”
Moorer was so good, in fact, that Boo Williams secured his first girls national championship last July in Florida.
She had help — the squad included Maryland-bound Lynetta Kizer, a center, Tierra Ruffin-Pratt, one of the nation’s top recruits for the Class of 2009, and White.
“We had Tierra and you just give her the ball and she does whatever she wants with it,” Moorer said, “and with Lynetta Kizer, you just feed the post and she would do what she wanted to.”
With Zoll’s graduation earlier this summer, Moorer joins a host of players capable of assuming the lone vacant spot in the starting lineup on a team some have already pegged as a preseason Top 25 team.
Moorer has already heard the whispers about how she needs to replace the ACC’s all-time assist leader.
“I have been hearing a lot about that,” she said. “They have said that I have big shoes to fill because I have to beat Sharnee Zoll’s assist record. I am not worried about that. If it happens, it happens.
“I am just coming in trying to do what I need to do to help my team win.”
During a pick-up game last week, senior forward Lyndra Littles noticed a trait in Moorer that Zoll possessed during her stellar career.
“She has great floor vision,” Littles said, “and she looks to distribute the basketball.”
Those skills should help the youngster blend naturally with older players, something she has done her entire career.
“I have always been younger and had to play up with the older girls,” she said. “Everybody is always like three years older, but I like being younger. That’s fine with me.”
With potential playing time possibly looming, perhaps as a four-year starter, Moorer choose her words carefully when talking about her own expectations. As if she borrowed the words from Zoll, Moorer said the team will always come first.
“I am not really laid back, but I am coming in ready to work hard and do what I have to do just to get my team to a national championship,” she said. “Yep, I am talking big already.”