Mississippi State Basketball lands a starting guard in Shakeel Moore

One of the teams that have been the busiest in the transfer portal this offseason has been Mississippi State Basketball. They’ve already landed two of the top overall targets already and just recently landed a third in former NC State guard Shakeel Moore.

Moore was a three-star prospect in the 2020 recruiting class, set to play a backup role as a freshman with the Wolfpack. He was in the same guard lineup as four-star recruit Cam Hayes, along with senior Braxton Beverly.

An argument can be made that at times, Moore was the best one of the trio, especially when leading scorer Devon Daniels was out for the season midway via injury. The 6’1 guard had a stretch of three double-digit scoring games in six games, including a season-high 19 points against Boston College. Moore averaged 6.8 ppg off the bench as a freshman but displayed high potential for the future.

And after beating out both Creighton and Western Kentucky for his efforts, it’ll be Mississippi State that’ll get to see that potential. And they’ll need him after losing two key guards from this past season. Leading scorer DJ Stewart (16.0 ppg and 3.1 apg) has gone pro, while freshman guard Devion Smith transferred to Georgia Tech. Moore is taking over for the role that Smith would’ve inherited had he stayed with the program.

Now, the projected starting backcourt for the Bulldogs next year will be Moore and Iverson Molinar, who led the team in scoring (16.7 ppg) this past season. He was third in assists with 2.3 and shot 44% from three-point range. Moore was at 34% so this duo can certainly work together on the court. The former NC State guard likely will take the main ball-handling duties and showcase his facilitating skills.

It’s certainly a risk to have an unproven playmaker take on such a huge task but with four years of eligibility and not too many better options in the portal, it’s one Mississippi State will take. The good news is that there’s plenty of surrounding talent on the roster, including Memphis small forward transfer DJ Jeffries, North Carolina transfer big man Garrison Brooks and returning forwards, Tolu Smith and Derek Fountain.

Teams not named Georgia in the SEC have been loading up with talent all offseason and Mississippi State Basketball has been able to keep up thanks to these key transfers. If Moore can make the transition into a capable starting guard and complement Molinar next season, the NCAA Tournament could be within reach.