Calvinism is upon us.... again

Eric Moore is an expert in Calvinism.

That's right, the Bulls' sophomore point guard who has a propensity for shooting threes was a quick learner in his one year of tutelage from former Bulls' point guard Calvin Cage.

Most people know Cage as the famous/infamous (take your pick) gunner who jacked up threes at a wild rate, and made them (on some nights) at an even wilder rate. Most people can easily pick out a game where Cage's shooting was the main reason the Bulls won the game. Even more people can easily pick out a game where Cage's shooting was a main reason we lost a game. Sometimes this good Cage/bad Cage would appear in the same game.

Take the 2005 Mid-American Conference Championship game for example, where Cage was on fire in the first half scoring four three pointers in the first 20 minutes. However, he did not make a single three in the second half, yet he continued to shoot them - a major reason why Ohio was able to come back from 19 points down in the second half.

Now it pains me to say this, because I once thought there was only one C squared, but Moore is beginning to look a little Cage-like.

Take the first two games of the Bulls' MAC schedule for example. In the Bulls' MAC opener against Bowling Green, Cage... I mean Moore... was lights out from three-point land, draining a school record 11 three-pointers in the game. These 11 three pointers added up to 33 of his career-high 35 points. Yet in the Bulls' very next game, Moore attempted 15 shots, yet only scored seven points, while the Bulls got blown out.

In the third game of this rollercoaster stretch for Moore, he again shot 15 times, but this time against Miami (Ohio) he made 47 percent of his shots for 16 points. Not coincidently the Bulls got blown out against Kent State, and blew out Miami (Ohio)

The biggest telltale stat that Moore is as streaky, if not more than, as Cage is his performance over the last two games against Ohio and Akron. In these games Moore has totaled 23 points in the first half and ZERO in the second. And this is where Cage and Moore differed. In the big games Cage usually showed up. In a MAC Tournament game last year, Cage offset Ball State's Skip Mills's 38 points by scoring 30 of his own. Add in the 20 points in the MAC Championship game, plus his 12 points and five assists in the rematch at Alumni Arena last year, and Cage usually showed up when it mattered.

Moore on the other hand is only a sophomore and does not have the leadership skills or the experience to carry his team in the second half like they need him to. If you take out the 35 points that he scored in a loss to Bowling Green (Which would have been a win if Martin Samarco didn't bury a miracle three to win the game) Moore has only averaged 9.25 points in the Bulls' losses, while he has averaged over 16 points in the Bulls wins.

Both Moore and Cage are shoot-first point guards who take a good majority of their shots from behind the arc. They both carry themselves with a self-assured cocky swagger, which is good. A point guard needs to be over-confident, he needs the team to know that when the game is on the line that he will step up. Moore just needs to work on the actual stepping up part.

This is not a criticism of either player, I think Moore is the future of this team and right now as a sophomore he is the second best player on the team, behind Yassin Idbihi, and everyone who knows me at all knows that I took an unhealthy liking to Calvin Cage. The dude scored the most points in a single season in school history, yet gets no credit or respect because "he missed too many shots." You have to take them to make them, and Cage made more then his share of big-time shots.

This sophomore class of Moore, Andy Robinson, Greg Gamble and Vadim Fedotov have all showed that they have the potential to be great, as at several points this season all four were on the court at the same time. While Robinson may be the high flyer, the future success of this time relies on Moore finding his inner-Cage and it wouldn't hurt if along the way he could stop at Turner Battle.