Photo Courtesy Quinnipiac Athletics
By: Dylan Fearon
Tom Moore likes to take his time after games end to talk to his team before addressing the media. It’s no surprise for reporters to wait up to 25 minutes to get soundbites from the Quinnipiac head coach after an important win or a tough loss. It’s almost become his “thing.”
Thursday night was similar in that Moore took his time after an 88-69 loss to Niagara in the first round of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament.
However, there was a different vibe. It was as if the players, reporters and maybe even Moore himself knew that he might have just come to the end of the road in Hamden.
10 years and zero NCAA Tournament appearances. A 34-57 record in the last three years and 19-42 in the last two, including three straight first-round exits in the MAAC Tournament.
“Yeah, I’m concerned, of course. This is a really tough business and it’s a results-driven business,” Moore said when asked if he’s worried he may have coached his last game at Quinnipiac. “I’m concerned. I look back on what we have done here in our 10 years and I’m still very proud of what we have done in the grand scheme of things, but I’m not happy obviously with the last two years.”
Moore was hired back in March 2007, after spending 13 years as an assistant at Connecticut. He was expected to turn a basketball program with zero tradition in one of the smallest conferences in the country into an immediate winner.
Within three years, Quinnipiac was in the 2010 Northeast Conference championship game playing in front of a raucous TD Bank Sports Center. But, the Bobcats fell to Robert Morris by two on a couple of Dallas Green free-throws to win the game.
Quinnipiac joined the MAAC heading into the 2013-14 season. Moore had an experienced team, albeit filled with NEC recruits, and brought Quinnipiac to the MAAC semifinals, finishing with a 20-12 record.
It seemed that things were looking bright for Quinnipiac. The next year, the Bobcats returned plenty of experience and added highly touted point guard Giovanni McLean. However, McLean was ruled ineligible due to transcript fraud before the season, the Bobcats underachieved (15-15) and were bounced in the first round of the MAAC Tournament.
Last season McLean was eligible, but the Bobcats didn’t have the depth or experience, as players decided to transfer. The Bobcats finished 9-21, with another first round exit.
After three players left prior to the 2016-17 campaign, Moore had to go the junior college route, once again, to bolster his roster. Despite the older players, the inexperience at the Division I level showed, concluding Thursday night at 10-21.
The progress he made in the NEC has diminished in the MAAC over the past three years. From being the No. 3 seed in the 2014 tournament, to No. 6 in 2015 and then falling to No. 9 and No. 8 in each of the past two seasons, it was inevitable this season was crucial.
“This was a pivotal year for the program,” Moore, who has 162 career wins at Quinnipiac, said. “We’re in the middle of a reboot and I wanted it to be a one-year reboot and as I look at the group, I think it is a one-year reboot Our record won’t reflect it that it was a one-year reboot. Our record’s our record.”
If Moore is eventually let go, some at Quinnipiac will remember him as a coach who turned Quinnipiac into an NEC contender, while others will say he failed to get the Bobcats to an NCAA Tournament.
Moore may lead a program to the big dance one day, but Quinnipiac might not be the place where it happens.
