So like another prentis nixon?
Yeah, but, umm, like, you know, good. Right?
Mooney is pretty overrated.
Mooney pulled a 2.2 PRPG! on Bart Torvik at Texas Tech.
For context, that same year, our guards --
4.8 = Shayok
4.4 = Haliburton
3.5 = Wigginton
2.9 = Weiler-Babb
2.3 = Horton-Tucker
Mooney would have been the worst of them or, at least, not obviously better than any of them. Maybe better than "bad Talen," but basically anybody was.
Speaking of those guards...
Mooney was legit. But the reason he is brought up constantly is that Prohm passed on him to bring in Nixon. The consensus is that Steve chose... poorly.
I have never heard Mooney wanted to commit to Iowa State. I heard he wanted to go somewhere that could offer him more automatic playing time and, given our guards (see above), that was going to be an uphill climb for him in Ames.
We might have backed out at the shot at him, but I do not think we backed out of taking a commitment that he offered up to join us. Nixon was mostly a mistake, yes, but I think one that is independent of what happened with Mooney.
Considering the guard talent we did have, I am not sure we really missed him. He might have sunk back in the rotation pretty badly once Wigginton was healthy again, but he might have been nice to have when he was out. Maybe we do not lose a winnable game like Arizona if we have him, but he does not profoundly affect the season.