Suddenly, Jacobs' Moran is living it at as a freshman at Northern Iowa
When John Moran was still a senior at Jacobs High School last March, he spoke openly of someday achieving his version of basketball nirvana.
"Getting to the (NCAA) Tournament is my dream," said Moran, a two-time Daily Herald all-area honorary captain from Algonquin. "It's always been my dream - not just getting to the tournament but making a name for the school and getting pretty deep in the tournament. That would be a dream come true."
The first part of Moran's dream was realized in St. Louis, when his University of Northern Iowa Panthers topped Illinois State 60-57 in overtime to secure the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Moran started his 33rd game of the season at point guard against ISU and scored 4 points in 20 minutes to go with 2 rebounds and an assist. Though it was far from his best game of the season statistically, no other contest in Moran's college or high school career left him feeling as exhilarated.
After Illinois State missed a 3-pointer that would have tied the game at the end of overtime, the 18-year-old freshman (he'll turn 19 on April 18) was beyond elated.
"When the buzzer went off and the shot didn't go in for Illinois State, I've never been so happy," Moran said after practice on Friday. "It was the most amazing feeling. It's a moment I've dreamed about for so long and always wanted to be a part of.
"It's just been an amazing season all around this year. We've really come together and started playing well. It's just an amazing feeling to accomplish our team's goal in the first year I've been here."
Moran's family - parents Jim and Rita and brothers Jim and Tim - made the trip to St. Louis to cheer John and the Panthers (23-10).
"I think (my dad) got a little bit emotional after the game," Moran said. "I looked up there and saw them, and they were just as happy as I was. It was just an awesome feeling to have them down there with me."
Qualifying for the tournament is the cherry atop a successful freshman-year sundae for Moran, who has made an immediate impact by being anything but vanilla. The 6-foot-1, 185 pound guard is second on the team in minutes played (981), second in assists (2.2 avg.) and ranks in the top five of every major offensive category, including scoring average (8.9 ppg.).
Moran established a tone in his first game at the collegiate level by scoring UNI's first 5 points of the season on a short jumper and a 3-pointer. Some memorable performances followed.
In front of 15,575 partisan Creighton fans in Omaha, Neb. on Jan. 6, he scored 22 points in a 69-66 victory.
On national television at Drake on Jan. 17, he sank six 3-pointers on his way to a team-best 20 points and an 81-59 victory. The wins at Creighton and Drake were part of UNI's 11-game winning streak, which stretched from Dec. 31 until Feb. 8.
"Some of the individual games Johnny had were absolutely terrific," third-year Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson said. "But over the course of the season, what he's done in terms of his toughness has really benefited our basketball team. It's one thing to be tough and make tough plays. It's another thing to be able to impact the overall toughness of a basketball team.
"For a freshman to be able to have that kind of impact on a team's toughness and competitiveness - you don't see that very often. When we recruited Johnny that's what I liked most was his toughness, his competitiveness and his feel for the game. But you don't know how that's going to translate, particularly early in a career."
Typical of the team-first attitude he demonstrated throughout high school, Moran demurred when asked if he, a freshman, felt responsible for injecting the UNI squad with the dose of toughness needed to secure a tournament berth.
"I think most of the guys on this team are tough to begin with, so I don't know if I'd credit myself for our toughness as a team," Moran said. "But we are a really tough team as a whole. We work hard in practice every single day and that's really what's gotten us where we are."
The Panthers and their fans will gather in a campus auditorium at 5 p.m. Sunday to watch the NCAA Tournament Selection Show. Moran said he doesn't care where or who the Panthers will play.
"I haven't looked at a single thing," Moran said of possible first-round matchups or seeds. "I've heard some possibilities, but I don't think those people know what they're talking about. I'll just wait until (today) to find out for sure.
"I think our whole team thinks the same way - we're excited, but we're not content with just making the tournament. We want to get in there, we want to compete and we want to play a couple of games in the tournament no matter who we play. We're going to keep playing as hard as we can. We're not satisfied yet."
And if John Moran achieves the second part of his dream and helps UNI advance deep into the NCAA tournament, all before turning 19?
"You just keep moving forward," Moran said. "If you reach one dream, reach further."