Big East Tournament: Is J.J. Moore The Key For Pitt?

For much of the season, J.J. Moore has been an afterthought. That's starting to change, though, as he's been red hot over Pitt's last five games.

As of February, Moore had averaged only about six points on the season and had scored double figures in only four games. However, over the past five, Moore has averaged nearly 16 points a game and scored in double figures each time. He's also making shots at a surprisingly high rate, hitting 60% of his attempts.

How important is he to Pitt's success in the Big East Tournament? Extremely.

Ashton Gibbs and Tray Woodall are generally regarded as Pitt's two best scorers. But both have struggled with consistency and if Pitt is to make any noise in The Garden, those two will need some help. Lamar Patterson is the other option, but Pitt will need some help from its bench. Dante Taylor and Talib Zanna have both come off the bench at times this season and while we've seen that each is capable of providing a bit of a lift, Pitt needs a pure scoring talent that can pick up the slack.

Moore is that guy.

He was expected to start this season, but with the emergence of Patterson, that didn't happen. Now, with Moore playing so well off the bench, there's no need to change things up. But he's averaged more than 25 minutes over the past five games and there's no question that Moore should be given the chance to contribute.

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