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Column: Moody's 'one-and-done' season will have lasting impact

Moses Moody was Arkansas' first lottery pick since 2006.
Moses Moody was Arkansas' first lottery pick since 2006. (Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)

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FAYETTEVILLE — Although his college career lasted just one season, Moses Moody’s impact on Arkansas’ program will likely extend for years to come.

Not only was he the leading scorer on the Razorbacks’ first Elite Eight team in 26 years, but he became the first “one-and-done” in school history and their first lottery pick in 15 years when the Golden State Warriors took him 14th overall in last week’s NBA Draft.

Head coach Eric Musselman invited the team to his house to celebrate the occasion and praised Moody for his skills and work ethic, but make no mistake: He also used the moment as a recruiting pitch.

Players like Derrian Ford and Joseph Pinion are already committed, but several other in-state prospects - Kel’el Ware and Nick Smith in the 2022 class, Bryson Warren and Layden Blocker in 2023, and Annor Boateng and Dallas Thomas in 2024 - are still on the board.

“I think that (it means) somebody from the state of Arkansas can play at home and become a lottery pick,” Musselman told reporters afterward. “Moses made an incredible jump from where he was rated at the end of his high school rating, and he did that through incredible hard work.

“I think it’s a great statement for everybody — from a national standpoint (and) from an in-state standpoint.”

It’s certainly a great selling point, especially considering - as Musselman pointed out - Moody wasn’t universally viewed as an immediate NBA prospect. Despite playing at Montverde Academy alongside fellow first-round picks Cade Cunningham, Scottie Barnes and Day’Ron Sharpe, he was No. 56 in the Rivals150.

Among the 60 players taken in the NBA Draft, 21 of them were members of the Class of 2020. Not including Alabama’s Joshua Primo, who reclassified late in the process and was unranked, Moody was the lowest-ranked player in that group. The other 14 first-round picks from Moody’s graduating class were top-30 prospects.

While some fans and media speculated that he may be a one-and-done, it wasn’t necessarily planned by Musselman. In fact, he said it wasn’t until the first few games of SEC play that he realized he’d need to replace his star freshman after the season.

However, Musselman wasn’t disappointed by the early departure. He called the decision a “no-brainer” and said the conversation with Moody and his father lasted about 10 seconds.

"We don't hate losing him at all,” Musselman said. “When you coach in the G-League, you're there to help your guys get called up as quickly as possible. When you're here in college, you want your guys to all reach their dreams as quick as possible.”

An argument could be made that by leaving after just one season, Moody made a bigger impact than if he had returned for his sophomore year.

Comments by Moody leading up to the draft could be printed and used in recruiting graphics by the UA, as he told reporters across the country about how much he learned from Musselman - a former NBA head coach and longtime professional coach - during his time at Arkansas.

“He’s obviously an NBA guy, so I almost got introduced to the game a year early,” Moody said. “A lot of the terminology, a lot of the sets, the positioning, the floor spacing are things I’ve been working on for a while now, so I definitely feel like I had a head start.”

It’s not just Musselman, either. Assistant Clay Moser worked in professional basketball for three decades and the Razorbacks hired former NBA head coach Keith Smart as an assistant this offseason. Arkansas saw one former NBA player (Earl Boykins) leave an off-court position, but brought in another (Ronnie Brewer).

With so much professional experience on the staff, the Razorbacks have a unique ability to prepare players for the next level and even people like ESPN analyst Jay Bilas are taking notice.

“The NBA experience is helpful, but it’s the level of detail that he has as a coach,” Bilas said. “I’m a believer that players respond to whatever the coach really believes in. Some coaches, they play music during practice, they do this, they do that. Eric’s really detail-oriented and really high energy. I think the players respond and clearly the responded really well to it at Nevada and Arkansas.”

On the recruiting trail, Arkansas will be able to point to Moody as evidence that players - both in-state and from elsewhere - can come to Fayetteville and make a quick jump to the NBA.

Brewer, who was the Razorbacks’ last lottery pick back in 2006 and was recently hired as their recruiting coordinator, said that is a big deal when pursuing top prospects.

“Well, I know one thing: That’s something that other teams can’t bash us about,” Brewer said. “A lot of teams (will say), ‘They don’t have one-and-dones,’ or, ‘You can’t get drafted from Arkansas if you stay X amount of years.’ There’s always negativity that surrounds in recruiting.”

Although he wasn’t a five-star recruit by any of the major services, Moody had plenty of options coming out of high school. He officially visited Michigan and Ohio State, plus had offers from the likes of Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Oregon, Texas and others.

The Little Rock native could have played anywhere he wanted, but chose to return home and play for the Razorbacks.

“Moses, his family, they trusted a vision,” Musselman said. “When the recruiting process started with him, we needed somebody to take a leap of faith and believe in us.”

After committing, Moody “spearheaded” Arkansas’ efforts to land the other heralded in-state recruits in the loaded 2020 class. Chris Moore (West Memphis) signed with Auburn, but the Razorbacks did reel in four-stars Jaylin Williams (Fort Smith Northside), KK Robinson (Bryant/Oak Hill) and Davonte Davis (Jacksonville).

“We had a group chat of course and we all said we wanted to make a change, we wanted to make a difference,” Williams said. “We wanted to make Arkansas a basketball school, like an elite school, and we did it the best that we could.”

That group of Arkansas natives was vital in the Razorbacks ending their quarter-century Sweet 16 drought and the trio of Williams, Robinson and Davis will still be in an Arkansas uniform next season.

They’ll provide a strong core for a likely preseason top-10 team, while Moody - despite being in the NBA - will provide a positive sales pitch for the Razorbacks on the recruiting trail.

“What we can do is live off facts,” Brewer said before the draft. “We did have a guy that was from the state of Arkansas that ended up staying home, going to the University of Arkansas, buying into Coach Musselman’s system, buying into everything that he was saying and now will have the opportunity to be one of the top picks in the NBA Draft and not only change his life, but his family’s life.”

Only time will tell the exact impact of Moody’s one-and-done season on the program, but he was definitely a key to launching it to the next level early in Musselman’s tenure.

“He came to Arkansas on a mission,” Musselman said. “I truly believe that from a long time ago, he and his family had a mission on what they wanted to get accomplished and I think that his approach all last year showed he was single-minded in, ‘Hey, I want to help this team win.’”

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