J.J. Moore transfer reportedly still on

All had been relatively quiet on the J.J. Moore front until earlier this week when news broke that he was still planning on transferring. Per the Trib-Review:

"We are trying to help him find a school," Dixon said. "We are trying to help him find the right place."

Well, that sucks. It's great, obviously, that Pitt is helping him find a place where he can be comfortable, but as I've said before, losing Moore hurts the program for next season.

The funny thing in all of this? Dixon can't even (or more likely, won't) confirm if Moore has filed the necessary paperwork to still transfer, according to the article.

Forget, for a moment, that Moore wasn't a perfect player. He was often streaky off the bench and I wholeheartedly agree that Patterson should have started over him. But without him, the complexion of the team changes greatly next year. The biggest problem is depth.

If Moore had been on the team, he could have played given Pitt a quality backup behind Patterson. But more importantly, he could have even played some minutes at power forward and lessened the strain that incoming freshman Mike Young will face. Barring Joseph Uchebo being able to start immediately, Young will almost assuredly be the starter at power forward and fellow incoming freshman Jamel Artis now will be relied upon even more as a backup to either he or Patterson.

It's not as if Pitt is without options. In addition to the incoming freshman, Durand Johnson is there as is G/F redshirt freshman Chris Jones. But of the three, only Johnson has played at all so far. I'd feel better if a more experienced option were there to help them along.

The plus side to all of this, though, is that the young guys will get plenty of time this season.

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