The wait is finally over for one of the top prospects in Arizona's 2013 class.
Westwind Prep International and former Westwind Prep Academy graduate, gifted 6-foot-1 post-graduate point guard prospect Juwan Moody had a very interesting college recruitment throughout his playing career in the state of Arizona.
Moody, a native of Detroit, Michigan and a guard with loads of star quality in his hometown, moved to the state of Arizona to attend Westwind Prep alongside close personal friend Demarquise Johnson (Washington State signee). After venturning to Westwind Prep, Moody saw several coaching changes at the school and even changes in the school's administration. As a result, Moody's academics suffered, as did many other players in the program.
After the recent firing of former academic advisor and school principal Kris Johnson, Moody, like many of his other school teammates, saw himself academically ineligible by the NCAA, as the NCAA has not cleared many of the classes taken at Westwind throughout Moody's two years of enrollment at the program.
According to Westwind school officials, Moody did the classwork but his body of work was packaged incorrectly to the NCAA by Johnson.
Because Moody was not clearned by the NCAA, he has gone through many ups and downs in his college recruitment and has seen schools show serious interest and then backoff due to his ineligibility by the NCAA.
This week, Moody found hit fit as he signed a division-I scholarship with North Central University - a member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC). Moody will sit out the 2012-2013 season at the program in an effort to get eligible during the 2013-2014 season (Proposition 48 by the NCAA) - similar to the situation of Arizona State's Jahii Carson this past season.
Moody chose to accept the offer from North Central University after picking up scholarship offers from such schools as Jacksonville, Texas-Southern, Hampton University and Chicago State University.
In Michigan, Moody competed with the nationally acclaimed AAU/club program, The Family, before joining last year's nationally ranked (by Five-Star Basketball.com) Arizona Magic Pump N' Run-2012 squad, head coached by Jeff De Laveaga. Moody would help lead his Magic program to an impressive 30-game win streak throughout the spring and summer, and also several big tournament wins - including the 2011 Double Pump Easter Classic - held in Las Vegas, NV.
Moody competed this spring with the Arizona Magic Elite coached by Kenny Mullins.
Moody is also one of basketball godfather Sonny Vaccarro's original kids, as Moody shared a strong relationship with Vaccarro as a young prospect.
Moody is a terrific pure-point guard prospect with command-presence on the floor and excellent floor-general leadership skills. He is an exceptional ballhandler with excellent speed and quickness off the dribble. He sees the floor and has a knack for getting the basketball to the open man with crisp passing and a swagger on the basketball court. Moody is an excellent penetrator and also a good finisher around the basket, where he uses a variety of floaters to get his shot off over bigger defenders, and can get to the rim with the best of them.
Congratulations to Moody and his father John Moody on this tremendous accomplishment from our Arizona Preps' staff.
Arizona Hoop Review Scouting Report: Moody first caught my attention with his play as a senior at Westwind Prep, where he showcased his ability to score, shoot the basketball with excellent range and distribute the ball to his teammates. Moody is a terrific point guard prospect with floor general leadership skills. He is an exceptional ballhandler with excellent speed and quickness off the dribble. He sees the floor and has a knack for getting the basketball to the open man with crisp passing and a swagger on the basketball court. Moody is an excellent penetrator and also a good finisher around the basket where he uses a variety of floaters to get his shot off over bigger defenders, and can get to the rim with the best of them. Moody is also a very good shooter of the basketball and has excellent range on his shot with a quick release. He does has such an unselfish mentality on the basketball court, that I would like him to be more selfish with the basketball since he is such a good scorer of the basketball. Moody is a pass-first point guard that is able to score whenever he almost feels like it, since he has a strong ability to create his own shot. Defensively, Moody is a lock-down defender that gets very low to the ground and has excellent lateral quickness. He anticipates the play and does a great job of beating his man to the spot. He also creates turnovers with his strong defensive pressure and is an asset to his team. This is probably Moody's best asset as a point guard prospect. A steal for a college program in search of a leader at the point position.
