Moore Remains Heart and Sole of Connecticut

Ricky Moore reached down and flapped the loose sole of his garish green-gold shoes.

“Yeah, they’re 14-karat, I’m just sorry I blew ‘em out already,” he said.

Moore got new shoes for the Final Four.

Then he burned so much rubber holding Ohio State’s Scoonie Penn to three-for-13 shooting, the shoes gave out.

“The bottom came apart because I played so hard,” Moore said, fretting about whether he’ll be able to get a new pair before Connecticut plays Duke for the national championship Monday.

Trust us, Ricky, it wasn’t the shoes.

Connecticut’s Richard Hamilton is a spectacular, slithery scorer and Khalid El-Amin has the feistiness of a champion.

But it was Moore, the self-sacrificing senior, who did the grunt work to get the Huskies to their first title game.

Penn came out wearing a No. 35 jersey instead of his usual No. 12 because he couldn’t find his jersey before the game.

Here’s a thought: Maybe Moore was already inside it.

“He’s a great defender,” Penn said. “He didn’t let me breathe the whole time.”

Moore, maybe the nation’s best defensive player in the college game, held Penn to 11 points with relentless, physical defense in Connecticut’s 64-58 victory.

“I’ve said this all along: Ricky Moore is the best defensive player I’ve ever coached,” Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun said. “Scoonie Penn is one of the best players we’ve gone against. He was three for 13, and he’s a great player.”

Moore already held another Final Four guard--Michigan State’s Mateen Cleaves--to six points on two-for-15 shooting in a Connecticut victory earlier this season.

On Monday, he’ll go for the trifecta, and it will be against high school teammate William Avery of Duke.

Moore and Avery played together for two seasons at Westside High in Augusta, Ga., winning the state championship Moore’s senior year.

Now they’ll go against each other for the first time.

For the national championship.

“We’re real close,” Moore said. “We’re good friends, but we don’t see each other, with our schedules.”

The city of Augusta might be torn on Monday.

Moore grew up with access to Augusta National, where his father was a caddie, but never went around much. (His father caddies for PGA pro Kelly Gibson now.)

“I never spent any time out there. I spent all my time at the boys’ club, playing basketball,” Moore said.

On Monday, Moore will try to add another defensive star to his court record.

The top three he has guarded?

1. Allen Iverson.

2. Cleaves.

3. Penn.

Moore had faced Penn before, when Penn played at Boston College before transferring to Ohio State.

“I played better against him at BC than today,” Moore said. “I have to give him a lot of credit. He’s a lot quicker, and a lot stronger.

“I knew if he went off, it would be tough for us to win the game. I needed to hold him to like 10 or 12 points. He’s going to take a lot of shots. I knew I had to hold him to four for 10, four for 15.

“I tried to play smart and give him a little cushion and not allow him to go by me.”

When Penn did get by, Moore was right behind him leaning and pushing with his 6-foot-2, 195-pound frame on the quicker but smaller Penn, who is 5-10, 185.

The most amazing thing about that? Moore committed only two fouls. The first didn’t occur until only 2:53 remained in the game.

The second came with 25 seconds left, when he was whistled for a foul outside the arc and Penn went to the line for three with the score 63-56.

“I talked to the ref after the play,” Moore said. “It’s the NCAA tournament, I guess they have to make it exciting.”

Moore helped keep things from getting too exciting by sticking to his man.

Connecticut usually plays help defense, but Moore was forgiven for not helping Saturday when Michael Redd danced around at the top of the key.

“For what reason? Redd can do that all day,” Moore said. “I wasn’t going anywhere. I know Scoonie wanted some open shots.

“I just wanted to make all the shots tough. I think he made terrific shots out there today. Acrobatic shots. You can’t do anything about it. You just have to make them as tough as you can.”

Soon enough, you could see Penn’s frustration start to show.

“After a while, when you’re not making shots, and you don’t get any easy ones, you get tired,” Moore said. “You get frustrated. You say, man, I’m tired.”

Moore wore another one out Saturday. It’s an unusual occupation for a guy who averaged 22 points a game in high school, but when El-Amin arrived at Connecticut, the Huskies needed Moore to do something different.

Defense it was.

“When Khalid got here, I had to change my role. It was not tough.

“I have two teammates who are terrific scorers, and Kevin Freeman is so good down low. I think my job is to play solid defense and cover those guys’ backs.

“Night in, night out, when you hold opponents to terrible shooting, it speaks for itself on the stat sheet.”

He found his role, and he has filled it. All the way to the NCAA title game.

“His sophomore year, he had a situation where the NCAA suspended him for five games,” Calhoun said. “He’s spent 2 1/2 years trying to make up to this university, and he didn’t need to.

“Some person gets to him and gives him a $215 airline ticket. He felt embarrassed for the school that happened.

“I don’t think it’s his No. 1 motivation, but he has a lot of pride, and he really wants to please people. Watching him try to do something for this program is special.”

No, it wasn’t the shoes, but let Moore think so if he wants.

“They’re ugly,” Calhoun said. “We were wondering how many frogs were killed to make them.”

Beauty’s in the eye of the beholder.

“I opened up the box, I saw this glow,” Moore said. “I was like, whoa. They feel good on my feet.

“I think they keep my opponent looking down at my shoes.”