Senior guard Nic Moore has helped guide the Mustangs to an undefeated start with his stellar shooting and relentless competitiveness (photo by SMU athletics).

It’s a phrase people teach their children at a young age as the next generation learns to navigate in a world full of different types of people:

“Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

If ever there was an athlete who can relate to this philosophy, it’s senior SMU guard Nic Moore.

At first glance, he looks like the last one who would be chosen for a pick-up game. Never mind the fact that, listed at 5-foot-9 and 170 pounds, Moore almost always is the smallest player on the floor in a sport that puts a premium on height. The measurable are secondary to a seemingly playful personality for a player who appears to have the ability to cut up with teammates and coaches — and even with officials — and seems to have as much fun on the court as anyone …

… until the game starts.

“When the lights come on and he steps on the floor, it’s ‘go time,’” junior SMU guard Sterling Brown said. “He’s not going to let nobody outplay him. He’s just real fiery, real competitive.”

Brown’s assessment is, at the very least, accurate, although it also might be an understatement. An honorable mention Associated Press All-America selection last season and the reigning American Athletic Conference Player of the Year (and the preseason pick by league coaches to pick up the honor again this season), Moore is up to his old tricks, leading the 2015-16 Mustangs in scoring (15.0 points per game), assists (27), three-point field goals attempted (35) and made (16), and free throws made (18). That he is tied within two of forward Ben Moore for the team lead in free throws attempted (Ben Moore has 23, Nic Moore 21) speaks to the beating he absorbs from opponents and his willingness to drive into the paint, where the elbows are higher and bruises are handed out more readily.

The eyes have it

Then there’s what teammates and coaches call “the look.” The disarming smile disappears in close games, replaced on Moore’s face by an intense stare that demands the ball from teammates and dares opponents to try to stop him.

“I just know him, and I could see that look in his face,” senior forward Markus Kennedy said after Moore scored 26 points to lead the Mustangs to a 75-70 road win over TCU. “It was time for him to get off, time for him to go. So I just set him screens, get him open and find him (with) the ball, and he’ll do the rest. That’s why he was Player of the Year.

A consistently accurate shooter, Moore is scoring a team-high 15.0 points per game — a number that would be significantly higher on a team with fewer viable offensive options (photo by Pat Kleineberg).

“This was Nic’s first game back since his shoulder injury, so he’s been out, rehabbing and stuff, and just seeing him go off for 26 was just amazing.”

Six games into the season, and already Moore is battling injuries, specifically a hairline fracture in his finger and the shoulder injury. That’s the price paid by players willing to wander inside, where players can be a foot taller and substantially, or fling themselves across the floor after loose balls.”

Prior to the TCU game, Moore barely practiced for more than a week while trying to get healthy, even sitting out SMU’s victory over Brown. Asked after the game in Fort Worth if Moore’s limited practice led to any requests to downshift a gear when he returned to the court, associate head coach Tim Jankovich made it clear that reining Moore in was not an option.

“No … no — he would hate you for life,” Jankovich said. “He would not speak to you, then he would get stubborn, then we’d get in an argument and the whole game would spin sideways. Great competitors … you don’t tell them to take their foot off the gas. No … no. There might be a fistfight if I told him that, so if he’s playing, he’s going to play all-out. He’s not going to listen … I’m not going to tell him that … that’s not him.”

Moore said Jankovich did request a cautious approach when Moore returned to the lineup — a request that Moore knew he could not fulfill.

“He told me in the locker room,” Moore said. “He said, ‘Nic, if you play against TCU, you’ve got to promise me you’ll take it easy, you won’t dive on the floor for loose balls, you’ll just be smart out there.’ I’m just like, ‘yeah, Coach, I promise.’ But with my heart and my competitiveness, I can’t take a play off, regardless of if I’m hurt or not. It’s just the fight in me. If it’s out there, a loose ball, I’m diving, regardless.”

Nothing new

Moore’s toughness and unwillingness to concede anything to an opponent are traits Jankovich saw — to a degree — when he recruited Moore to play for him at Illinois State. When Jankovich headed to Dallas to become associate head coach under new SMU coach Larry Brown, Moore followed his coach.

“Kind of, but not to (this) extent,” Jankovich said when asked if he knew when he recruited Moore what kind of a maniacal competitor he was getting. “We knew he was a great competitor — he took his high school team to the big-class state championship game (in) his junior year. I saw his team — it was pretty amazing he took them that far. He had … I think he had 38 points and fouled out with five minutes to go, or … who knows? And then his senior year, he was hurt. After he had signed with us, he was hurt, and he didn’t get a chance to see how far they would go. He hurt his knee, so he didn’t really finish up, but we knew he was a great competitor, but not … honestly, I didn’t know to this level.”

Moore deflects credit for his style, insisting that he is a result of the environment in which he grew up.

“I probably have to give props to my dad, and both of my brothers,” Moore said. “When I was little, they used to just torment me, really. They made me who I am today — toughness, have heart.

“My dad kind of brainwashed me when I was little. He’d ask me every day, am I better than Michael Jordan? I told him ‘no’ one time (at age seven or eight), and then, from then on, he was like, ‘I don’t want you to ever say that somebody can ever beat you.’ So then, every day, he would always ask me, ‘can you beat Michael Jordan?’ From then on, it was ‘yeah, I could beat him. I can beat him.’ So then, it just plays in my head, and when I see other guys having a rough game, and I got the ball most of the time, I know that I need to step up and make some big shots and basically take over the game.

Moore said his father, Mike, took him to the gym “in my baby seat and let me sit in the corner and stuff, but I’ve always had a basketball in my hand, really.” His brothers played in games in which Moore desperately wanted to join.

“I remember going to the Y with my brothers,” Moore said. “Watching them play full-court — they’re four (Kyle) and six (Mike, Jr.) years older — and just seeing them, after they were done playing, I would always want to check up with the older guys and play them. There’s numerous stories about ‘Nic was this … Nic was that,’ wanting to play. I have always wanted to play at the highest level, the highest competition, so I mean, it just carries over into those moments.”

Moore leads the Mustangs in scoring but also is the quarterback of the entire offense (photo by Pat Kleineberg).

Moore still hates to watch others play. When he followed Jankovich to SMU, transfer rules dictated that he had to sit out a year. Not surprisingly, Moore said that looking back, he sees the benefit of the year, but at the time, the inability to play was maddening.

“That was probably one of the hardest years of my life, really, to sit out and practice but you can’t play,” he said. “(You) work out and get numerous hours in, and then you can’t play the game that you love, competitively, against another team. But it probably also was one of the best years, when I could get a year under Coach Brown and learn more, because I was still young when I came in. Anywhere I would have went, I would have had to sit out, but for ‘Coach Jank,’ and all the respect I have for that man, to give me a chance to play Div. I basketball … the only thing in my heart was to follow my man.”

When the injuries to his finger and shoulder forced Moore to the sideline this year — for a single game — he said he felt similarly frustrated. It wasn’t just missing the game that bothered him, either. While some players might relish the chance to skip a few of Jankovich’s rigorous workouts, the missed practice time also felt like a missed opportunity to Moore.

“It was hard, definitely, because I wanted to be out there with them, but what was really hard was missing the week of practice and seeing all the effort and hard work they put into it and I couldn’t be out there to help them prepare and get better for that game against Brown,” Moore said. “But it kind of just made me take a step back, and Coach was like, ‘now you’re a coach on the bench.’ I see the game different (when) sitting out than I would playing.”

There are cases in which hyper-competitive players are relegated to the bench while nursing an injury, and they can be so intense on the sideline that teammates and coaches can’t wait for those players to regain their health … just to get them off the bench. Moore’s injuries were significant enough that he spent the Brown game watching on the bench … and talking to teammates, coaches, officials and anyone within earshot.

“I wouldn’t say he’s annoying (on the bench), because he’s trying to support the team. But you know, he’s always on us,” forward Ben Moore said. “He’s relentless in everything he does, and when he’s out, he’s relentless with the way he’s talking, he’s relentless with the way he’s trying to pick us up. So no, I wouldn’t call it annoying … but you definitely know he’s there.”

In his time playing for Larry Brown and Jankovich, Nic Moore has evolved from a frenetic gunner into a complete player worthy of the accolades that come his way. He mixes slashing drives to the basket with soft jumpers from well behind the three-point line that barely more the net. He runs the offense skillfully, but also patiently, rather than always at breakneck speed. His confidence is such that there are not many shots he doesn’t think he’ll hit, but while he relishes in taking the late three-pointer that can put a game out of reach, he also is a generous passer who will pass up a good shot to feed a teammate who has a better one.

Perhaps more than anything, though, is that demeanor, that stare, that ruthlessness …

“He’s a killer,” Jankovich said. “He’s a stubborn killer, but he is as competitive as anyone I have coached in 30 years. His will to win, his grit, his confidence, his toughness …

“Does he make a mistake? Of course — he’s human. Does he do something you wish he wouldn’t every now and then? Absolutely … but so does everyone. But as far as just that fight to win … not to compare him to Michael Jordan, but people talk about (Jordan’s) competitive level is just beyond anyone that they could match. He was in a class by himself, and to me, in a college world that I have lived in over years and years, (Moore) has that unusual level of competitiveness.”

Moore laughs when asked if his teammates can match his rabid competitiveness. Whether it’s because of physical stature, coaching or the years-ago tests from his father and brothers, the one area in which he knows he can compete with anyone is pure effort.

“I don’t know,” he said. “They might say they do, but I don’t know. I’m real feisty, real competitive. That’s my whole thing. Coach (Jankovich) probably is the one that’s closest to me, not wanting to lose. I hate being down, I hate when things are not going right, but that’s why I’m out there to help guys, kind of come back together. It doesn’t always work that way, but I just try. That’s all I can do — try.

Can it be taught?

So what happens when Moore is gone next year? Brown, Ben Moore, Keith Frazier, Ben Emelogu and transfer Semi Ojeleye will be seniors next season, leading the way for a roster that will have talented youngsters in guards Shake Milton, Jarrey Foster and Sedrick Barefield, as well as next year’s freshmen.

When asked if Moore can pass down his rabid competitiveness, Jankovich said it is possible, to a degree.

“Partially,” Jankovich said. “I think they’ll learn a lot watching that. You know, just to be a part of a guy who plays to that level. But it’s not something you can hand off, and I think everyone can improve. Put it this way: everyone that played with Jordan didn’t become Jordan. You can improve on it, but I don’t know, it’s part of that ‘it’ factor, I guess.”

Milton said he agrees that while players can learn from each other, the fire to compete has to come from within.

Known for running the SMU offense and drilling three-point field goals, Moore is more than willing to go into the paint and fight bigger players for the ball (photo by Pat Kleineberg).

“I think it’s just something you have within you,” Milton said. “I know that I see that look in his eyes, and you just give him the ball and give him his space and let him work.

“It’s something you see in practice every day, and that’s something that the rest of us need to try to do. He’s one of the most competitive guys I have played with. He demands a lot, and you have got to get it done. That’s his attitude toward it all.”

He might be the Mustangs’ quarterback on the hardwood, but all of this is not to suggest in any way that Moore is somehow carrying a middle-of-the-pack team on his back; that image could not be further from the truth. Kennedy is a preseason all-conference honoree who has teamed with Tolbert to give the Mustangs a strong front line that prevents opposing defenses from ganging up on anyone. Brown, Frazier and Ben Moore all have nights when they can take over games. Ojeleye is a former Parade magazine national high school player of the year who transferred to SMU from Duke amid enormous expectations. The freshman guards already have given indications that the SMU backcourt should be in good hands for years to come.

Home is where the heart is

But when an SMU team that won last year’s American Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament championships returned with a loaded roster to begin preparation for this season, the Mustangs gathered under a cloud of uncertainty. The NCAA had been conducting an investigation, the findings of which were not yet known. When the news broke that Brown would be suspended from the SMU bench for nine games and that the Mustangs would not be eligible to play in the postseason, some feared that any or all of the Mustang seniors might look for other places to play. Moore, Kennedy or Tolbert could have requested a waiver to transfer and play immediately at another school.

Moore is a known quantity, a defending conference player of the year who joined a University of Kansas team that represented the United States at the World University Games. In other words, he would have had options.

“The other 11 guys in that locker room with me,” Moore said when asked why he “didn’t even consider” transferring. “I’ve had a hand in all of them coming here, with the recruiting. People have asked me, ‘Nic, did you ever think about leaving?’ I told them, ‘never in my right mind, because bringing Keith in, bringing Sterling in, bringing Ben in, and now all three freshmen, it would say something about me, bringing them in here, and then when things get hard, or not going my way, just pack up my stuff and be gone? You don’t do that. You stick out with the people you love. I’ve got to give everything up to them guys. I was never leaving SMU.”