Standing ovations are hard to come by at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
They’re even less common during a game in which IU never leads, like during Monday night’s 66-51 home loss to Nebraska.
But on several occasions, the Hoosiers' fans rose to their feet and clapped with wild abandon to salute the work of sophomore forward Clifton Moore.
Despite playing five minutes on Monday, Moore’s production off the bench marked the best overall game of his young career.
He finished the game with a career-best five points along with three rebounds and no turnovers. He was also the only IU player to finish with a positive plus/minus rating.
“Cliff got in and gave us some really good minutes,” senior forward Juwan Morgan said. “I think he’s just really come along, just as a defender, as a rebounder and just being confident in himself.”
While the hallmark of this year’s IU team was supposed to be depth, injuries have continuously hampered the rotation of players available to IU Head Coach Archie Miller.
“We probably gotta continue to work that front court depth,” Miller said. “With De'Ron not being able to really go right now, we're sort of searching, and I thought Cliff did a pretty good job when he was in there.”
The minutes have also dried up for freshman forward Damezi Anderson and redshirt senior forward Evan Fitzner, the latter of whom hasn’t scored in 39 combined minutes during the last four games.
This is where Moore enters into the fold. At 6 feet, 10 inches, Moore has the size to help Morgan down low when battling for rebounds and establishing space around the basket.
His physical finish at the rim late in the first half through a foul committed by Nebraska sophomore guard Nana Akenten demonstrated the development Moore has made from his first to second collegiate seasons.
“We're going to have to continue to kind of fire guys in there and see what they can do,” Miller said. “Cliff gave us a pretty good spark in the first half.”
Monday wasn’t the first time Moore has been deployed by Miller in Big Ten play this season, having also posted three points and four rebounds during IU’s win at Penn State last December.
Morgan said he tells younger players like Moore and freshman forward Jake Forrester the story of his own freshman season, when he didn’t play much, but was ready to make the big play whenever he entered the game.
“I think you saw a little bit of it tonight,” Morgan said. “I think going forward he’s going to be huge for us.”
