Moorer comes of age

In the eyes of the casual fan, making the climb to college basketball has appeared easy for Ariana Moorer.

There is more to it in Debbie Ryan’s world.

Virginia’s legendary women’s basketball coach demands perfection on a daily basis. That entails practicing at a near-flawless clip.

That, for Moorer, has been troublesome at times.

“I don’t always know what I am getting with Ari,” Ryan said.

What Ryan has received from Moorer, her rookie point guard, has been rather fascinating of late. En route to winning ACC rookie of the week honors last Monday, Moorer torched Illinois for 18 points, 14 rebounds and three steals.

Moorer, the shortest player on Virginia’s roster at 5-foot-7, followed up the double-double with another fine performance against East Carolina. The freshman scored 19 points in 31 minutes as the Cavaliers improved to 7-2 overall and completed the pre-exam portion of their schedule.

“This is what she is capable of,” Ryan said. “The thing is that I had to challenge her [before the ECU game] because she was one of the worst ones in practice. I was a little surprised that she played as consistently as she did.

“I was surprised that she took one good performance and strung it together with two good performances. Usually, we have a big drop-off. Maybe we are getting more mature. I don’t know.”

Ryan’s pre-game words of wisdom reached Moorer effectively.

“We challenged her and she stepped up and she had another very good performance,” she said. “If we can do this over a course of time, then I will feel like she has matured, but until we do this over the course of a number of games I don’t think she has really matured yet.

“We’ll see if she does this game after game after game, and then you know what you are getting.”

Moorer, averaging 10.4 points per game, knew adjusting to life as a starting member of Virginia’s basketball team would be a learning process.

“I am getting there just one day at a time,” said Moorer, who hails from Woodbridge. “I am still getting used to the pace of how they want me to play.”

Screaming orders at All-American Monica Wright, the team’s leading scorer, can be intimidating, too.

It is tough, Moorer said, to tell “older players, ‘Get over there. You need to be here.’ It has been tough, but I am making it.”

There is one aspect of Moorer’s game that has solely drawn rave reviews.

“She has a nice change of pace when she gets the ball. When she goes to the basket, she goes at a much faster pace and she sees the floor extremely well,” Ryan said. ”She knows where the open players are, she knows when it time to shoot. She knows when it is time to give it up.

“I haven’t had to teach her much of that at all. She has done a good job with that. In the open court I don’t even have to coach her. She just plays.”

The 17th-ranked Cavaliers return to action Thursday against Monmouth at home at 7 p.m.