Plum’s Moss continues to build on sophomore season

By: Greg Macafee
Saturday, July 13, 2019 | 12:01 AM

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Last season was an interesting breakout performance for Plum point guard Connor Moss.

As the youngest player on the basketball team, Moss finished second in scoring with 14.1 points per game, was a top rebounder and shot 83% from the free-throw line. A year earlier, Moss averaged 9.9 points and was the only freshman on the team.

Although the Mustangs missed the playoffs during his first two seasons and never finished with more than six wins, Moss started to make a name for himself. Even before last season, the 6-foot-2 guard was letting his play do the talking as he was ranked by PaPreps.com as one of the top players in the 2021 class.

So far this summer, Moss has continued to build on his reputation, not only locally but nationally, as well. During the last week of May, Moss traveled to Indianapolis to compete in the Crossroads Elite Invitational, an invite-only basketball camp that features the nation’s best players in the 2021, ’22, and ’23 classes.

“That was a heck of an experience. That was probably the most talented competition that I have ever faced personally,” Moss said. “From the size and the speed of all the athletes, it was a pretty tough event.”

Future NBA players like Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. and New York Knicks swingman Kevin Knox have attended the camp.

“It was a pretty good feeling to get an invite because of the names that have been there in the past,” Moss said. “I was pretty excited.”

Moss said there were about 200 kids invited at the beginning of camp and on the last day of camp, they took the best 80 players and divided them into eight teams of 10. Those eight teams played in a tournament-style bracket, and Moss was placed onto one of those teams.

Even though it was some of the best competition he has played, Moss surprised himself over the course of the weekend.

“I thought it went pretty well because I played much better than what I was expecting for the talent level that was there,” Moss said. “It helped my game, but it helped my confidence level, too, because I can tell myself that I competed against some of the kids at the highest level.”

Moss not only got to put his game on display, but he also learned areas where he needs to improve. He said his speed, quickness and overall athleticism are some of the things that he wants to work on during the remainder of the summer.

He will have plenty of opportunity to do that as he has plans to play in several AAU tournaments around the east coast with AAU club PK Flash on the HoopGroup circuit. He plans to take full advantage of the opportunity to play against tough competition.

“In the WPIAL, the athletes aren’t as quick, aren’t as fast, aren’t as big as some of these other tournaments,” Moss said. “So if I perform well at these, I can see what works against bigger, stronger athletes, so I definitely know they’ll work against lesser athletes.”

Greg Macafee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Greg by email at gmacafee@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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