Monday, March 29, 1999
Childhood friends are foes tonight
BY MICHAEL PERRY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It's funny how some things turn out. Once upon a time, Ricky Moore was the best basketball player in his Augusta, Ga., neighborhood. He took a younger kid named William Avery under his wing, accompanied him to run-down Oak Park for pick-up games and tried to lead him down the right path.
They would end up playing together for two years at Westside High School and leading their team to a 33-1 record and the 1995 Class AAA Georgia state title.
Tonight, they will be on the same court again for a championship game, but this time they will be on opposite sides.
“It's going to be strange,” Avery said.
Moore is a senior at Connecticut.
Avery is a sophomore at Duke.
Both start.
Moore, who averaged 21.7 points and scored 37 in a game as a prep senior, is now a defensive specialist who averages 6.6 points a game.
Avery, considered one of the top point guards in the country, averages 15 points a game and is the No.3 scorer for the nation's No.1-ranked team.
“I was the teacher,” Moore said.
“He taught me too well,” Avery said.
They grew up on the same street, attended the same elementary school, junior high and high school.
When Avery was a kid, he always wanted to wear the same jersey number that Moore wore in football and basketball — No. 21.
“Everybody looked up to him in the community,” Avery said. “I tried to mold my game after him.”
That means Moore might get a first-hand look at some of his own moves tonight.
Regarded as one of the nation's best defensive players, Moore will likely be called upon to spend at least some of the national championship showdown guarding his former protege.
Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun refused to say Sunday just whom Moore would be matched up against, but it is presumed he will spend a great deal of time on Avery — unless Duke shooting guard Trajan Langdon gets a hot hand.
“It doesn't matter who I'm guarding, I'm going to go out and cause havoc tomorrow,” Moore said.
Moore shut down Ohio State point guard Scoonie Penn (11 points, 3-of-13 shooting) in the Huskies' 64-58 semifinal victory over the Buckeyes on Saturday night.
He has also helped stop Michigan State's Mateen Cleaves (2-of-15 shooting), Massachusetts guard Monty Mack (3-of-10) and Vonteego Cummings of Pittsburgh (2-of-18).
“I haven't seen a defender like him,” Avery said.
Nor has he seen Moore defend like he does now,
“I was a lot more aggressive offensively,” Moore said of the days he played ball with Avery. “That was a while ago.”
Moore does not return home to Augusta, Ga., much during the summer anymore, so the two don't see each other too often.
When Moore catches a Duke game on television, he notices a more mature, stronger, quicker player than the 5-foot-10, 150-pound kid he used to play ball with.
Perhaps Moore even has a bit of a psychological edge tonight. He knows that Avery knows who the better player was when they were younger.
“He did it all in high school,” Avery said. “He knows that. He's going to look to probably show me up.
“If anybody knows my game, it's him. He knows my moves; some of them I got from him.”
The two haven't talked in a while, and said they won't until the final buzzer sounds.
“We're going to speak after the game,” Moore said. “We're enemies right now.”
“I don't even know him right now,” Avery said.
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