Through work in the ‘lab,’ Syracuse commit Elijah Moore has become a prolific shooter
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A lab is where a scientist can be at their best, surrounded by beakers, test tubes or whatever else they need to experiment. Elijah Moore reaches his “lab,” Cardinal Hayes High School’s gym, by 5:45 a.m. most mornings. He has everything he needs for his own experiments: a basketball and a hoop. Someone just has to turn the lights on.
Moore’s go-to lab partner is his dad, Ty Moore, who helps him test tweaks to his shot and different ways to finish inside. Moore could be in there for 24 hours, but he has to leave himself time to get a sandwich before class.
“It brings us peace, it brings us happiness,” Ty said about the lab. “It’s not really work for us.”
The training has moved from schools to parks, occasionally bringing in other lab partners who shared the same goals as Moore. The work, from sharpening the minute details of his shooting form to mastering the pick-and-roll, transformed Moore into one of the most prolific high school shooters in the nation. Now, he’s the first commit for Syracuse’s 2024 class, donning an SU shirt before and after games at Cardinal Hayes.
“Syracuse for me is like another home,” Moore said. “I’m definitely getting as many Syracuse things as I can to show off my commitment.”
The deep shooting, which earned Moore the nickname “Choppa,” originated from his scoring ability under the basket. In the lab, Ty said they start five feet from the hoop before slowly working their way back because Moore watched videos of some of the all-time best shooters, specifically Ray Allen and Reggie Miller, do the same.
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“You can’t walk into the gym and start chucking 3s,” Moore said. “It’s about muscle memory. Starting from close and making my way back is better.”
Basketball is an outside-in game now, but Moore’s inside-out approach was something he started doing at around 8 years old, Ty said. They usually spend 20-to-25 minutes in the lab near the free throw line. He doesn’t have to exert as much energy as he would shooting from deep, allowing him to focus on his follow through and footwork. He learned to mitigate “little things” that prevented his shot from falling in — if your arm swings right, you’re going to miss right.
“Details matter,” Moore said.
Ty also taught Moore the pick-and-roll at a young age, helping him understand “every option” that could stem from the play. He couldn’t use those skills until the end of middle school, which upset him, but Ty assured him that he would eventually showcase those skills.
“There was never a chance for him to do a pick and roll or midrange,” Ty said. “I said ‘Elijah, trust me. There will be a time where you go to the Final Four on this shot.’”
As Moore developed, he studied professional players with Ty, mainly Devin Booker and Stephen Curry. When studying Curry, Moore doesn’t even look at the ball, focusing on how his footwork allows him to curl around off-ball screens and what he does when the shot isn’t there. Booker shares Moore’s 6-foot-4 frame, and Moore noticed how the Suns guard can make plays with his back to the basket and get to his midrange spots consistently.
The balance between technique and confidence is something that Moore said he tries to learn from watching NBA players. Sometimes, Moore gets so focused on maintaining his technique that he loses confidence when shooting. Other times, the opposite happens, where he’s overconfident and loses the skills he spends so much time perfecting.
“It’s something I’ll always have to get better at,” Moore said. “But as times go there will be less and less of a margin.”
In his freshman year, Cardinal Hayes head coach Joseph Lods said Moore was routinely left unguarded from deep, since he was somewhat unknown at the time, but he knocked down every open shot. He impressed college scouts too, Ty said, scoring 20-plus points in the final three games of the season.
“Most high school kids they’re streaky, they’ll make a few, they’ll miss a few,” Lods said. “But when he gets an open look it’s going in.”
The leadup to Moore’s freshman season coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ty and Moore had relied on working out at parks, middle or high schools, but they had to switch lab locations once everything shut down.
Ty found a gym in New Jersey and the duo would drive an hour and a half away, train for an hour or two and then head back. Moore also grew significantly during that time and learned how to hammer the ball down in transition instead of laying it in.
“While people were not knowing what to do, we kept working,” Moore said.
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Moore followed up his freshman and sophomore year at Cardinal Hayes with strong seasons in the AAU circuit, playing for Wiz Kids. In the Adidas 3SSB tournament, he led all players in 3-pointers and 3-point percentage, averaging around 17 points per game. Teams started doubling him or shifting into box-and-one defenses to stop him.
Moore also developed poise with the basketball, Ty said, as he would dissect a defense, get to his spot at midrange and decide what the right finish is.
“People don’t talk about other aspects of my game,” Moore said. “When you’re a bigger guard, knowing when someone’s coming, the touch on the pass and how much force you have to get it, people take that skill for granted.”
Moore’s electric offensive skills resulted in 26 points and seven assists against Mount St. Michael on Tuesday. Over the last five contests, he’s averaged close to 30 points per game. But he’s still a “regular high school kid” with braces and no facial hair, Moore said. He’s waiting for the biggest leap in his game, which Lods said usually comes between players’ junior and senior year, to be discovered in the lab.
“Going in the direction I’m going now, I feel good,” Moore said. “But I know I have a whole year to get stronger, get taller, god willing, and add things to my game.”
