Before the NCAA men’s basketball championship last April, I wanted to write something comparing the way Jim Calhoun and Dan Hurley prepared their teams for the biggest of games. There was one participant in that history at Lucas Oil Stadium, so I searched the UConn locker room looking, asking for Tom Moore.
Eventually, I was told he was in the shower so I supposed there would be a wait. Then I heard the rustle of a plastic curtain opening. I turned to see a hand sticking out, motioning, “Come in.”
Well, it could have been Norman Bates from “Psycho,” or Thing from “The Addams Family,” but I took a chance it was Tom Moore and walked in. He gave typically insightful analysis, picked up by my recorder despite the unfavorable acoustics.
Don’t get any crazy ideas, no water was running. This just illustrates the lengths Moore would go to remain a background figure at his fifth Final Four, reluctant as ever to attract attention, preferring to deflect it to the players and head coaches he served.
“The first sort of commentary you hear on Tom is what a great guy he is, how well he treats people and the humility with which he operates,” said Boston College head coach Luke Murray, who got his start working for Moore at Quinnipiac, and later worked with him at Rhode Island and UConn. “He’s got a selflessness about the way he operates, willing to take on any task and he’s really got a team-first approach. … It’s something you would want to emulate.”
Tom Moore retires after 21 seasons, four national championships with UConn men’s basketball
When you work for Jim Calhoun or Dan Hurley, you keep your head down, stay in your lane and perform the hell out of your tasks. But Moore, 61, most recently the first Huskies’ GM, announced his retirement on Thursday and, like it or not, he has been showered with praise these last several days for all the great things in which he played a part, including the four national championships at UConn.
“If you’re his boss, he’s going to find ways to do the job that’s necessary,” said Calhoun, who first brought Moore to UConn from Division III Worcester State. “Certainly one of the better assistants anyone’s going to have. He’s a unique, terrific guy.”
Moore won’t even take credit for his humility — that, he shifts to his parents for showing him how to carry himself.
From Millbury, Mass., outside Worcester, Moore’s playing career ended with high school, then he went to Boston University to become a print journalist before catching a coaching bug. He got his start at Worcester State where he met UConn assistant Karl Hobbs on the recruiting trail, and was touted to Calhoun, who hired him in 1994. Moore spent 21 seasons in two stints at UConn.
“You know, I’m a snot-nose kid from Worcester who didn’t play,” Moore said. “And to be a part of this, I just take a lot of pride in it. I worked very hard to get myself in these positions, but it takes a great deal of good fortune to have two people like (Calhoun and Hurley) see something in you at different stages of your career and trust you to be part of it. You know, I’m blessed. I couldn’t have asked for better opportunities.”
Working for Calhoun (1994-2007) and Hurley (2017-26) in their prime … Hall of Fame coaches at the height of their powers,” Moore said, “to me, it’s like, staggering. I could not ever have drawn it up any better.”
He was instrumental in recruiting many of the top players on the Huskies’ 1999 and 2004 championship teams. Then he became the head coach at Quinnipiac in 2007, where he won 20 or more games three times and hired Murray fresh off graduation from Fairfield before being let go.
“A lot of the actions and schemes that guys like Ben Gordon and Rudy Gay and Rip Hamilton were having success with, Tom brought to Quinnipiac and executed with his teams there,” Murray said. “Tom always emphasized being an excellent rebounding team, that was something Tom promoted day in and day out and his teams always exemplified a level of toughness and physicality that was sort of a nod to coach Calhoun.”
While at Quinnipiac, Moore hired Scott Burrell, former UConn great and NBA star, as a first-time assistant. “He’s very kind, thoughtful as a person, and he never wanted to be the center of attention,” said Burrell, the head coach at Southern Connecticut. “He always thought things through thoroughly before he did something, always meticulous, thorough and precise.”
After joining Rhode Island and following Hurley to UConn in 2018, he was the perfect assistant at the right time to link the Hurley and Calhoun eras. He also played a large part in flipping Andre Jackson, who was considered a sure bet to pick Syracuse, and keeping Donovan Clingan in state, in part with the personal touch of handwritten notes sent to Bristol via snail mail.
By then, as UConn was beginning its new run of championships in 2023 and ’24 and back to the title game in ’26, college basketball was changing rapidly. Moore not only transitioning to a new role, but a role that had never existed, or had even been conceived only a few years before.
Players R.J. Cole and Tyrese Martin were deciding whether to return for an extra COVID year in 2022 or take whatever money they could get overseas, and they chose to earn a living. Hurley and Moore knew they needed to get name-image-likeness figured out, and fast. Moore became the GM, where he raised money, hooked players up with NIL opportunities, and identified players in the portal to could fit what UConn was doing.
“We used the phrase a lot, ‘We’re trying to build the plane while flying it,’” Moore said.
Moore’s effectiveness is evidenced by UConn’s record these last four years.
“Tom has been tantamount to our success as he took on a crucial role helping to navigate the new era of college basketball,” Hurley said. “His insight both on and off the court led to great success as UConn’s first general manager, helping build the rosters that led to the winningest run in program history.”
The grueling work load of an all-purpose executive began to wear Moore down, and he began thinking a year ago that it was time to move on.
“The energy and enthusiasm you have to have just to have a fighting chance to do well and win is overwhelming,” Moore said. “The demands on your time have increased significantly over the last five to 10 years.”
Moore stayed to help with the process of constructing next season’s roster and schedule, as Hurley wanted stability with the offseason shortened by another Final Four run. The Huskies lined up high-major opponents early, but there are complex analytics involved in picking the right “buy” games, so Moore stayed on until summer. Now, the search is on for a new GM based on the template Moore created, while Moore is now searching for something new.
“I would really like to stay involved in the game in some way, shape or form,” he said. “I would like to try to do some television, maybe some color commentary.”
To do that, Moore will have to step out from behind the curtain and in front of the camera. He already has the most indispensable quality for TV.
“It’s hard to go through life being liked by almost everybody,” Calhoun said, “but Tommy is one of those guys that applies to.”
More for your Sunday Read:
Fever Pitch at Fenway
New UConn football coach Jason Candle spent nearly his entire life in Ohio, but he has now realized one of the perks of celebrity status in New England. He delivered a first pitch at Fenway Park last Tuesday, before the Red Sox won the 14th of their 15 in a row.
“Very conservative first pitch,” Candle said. “I heard 35 times, ‘Don’t bounce the ball.’ Which we didn’t. I’ve been a Red Sox fan my whole life. Man, what a special place and what a special time in their history right now with what they’re going through, a fun team to watch here these last three or four weeks. It was really cool.”
Candle, on a trip East, went to a game at Fenway Park as a youngster and became a Red Sox fan.
“The first time you go to Fenway Park you fall in love with what that is,” he said. “You get plenty of opportunities to see baseball in the Midwest, but I don’t know that you get a chance to see it like that. Going there as a kid and falling in love with that place, and then I started to get older and latched on to them.”
The Red Sox beat the Orioles as Candle stayed to the end, then won the following game to tie the franchise record, set in 1946, with 15 wins in a row.
Summer Reading
Few had a longer, or more meritorious career in baseball than Dusty Baker, who came up as a kid with Hank Aaron’s Braves, won a championship with the Dodgers, then managed successfully in several places, finally winning the World Series with the Astros, and he’s a great raconteur. His book, “Crossroads. A Memoir in Baseball and Life,” 416 pages, written with Steve Kettman, is worth taking to the beach. It’s on Amazon, anywhere else you buy books.
Dom Amore: Clowns and Party Animals? These CT performers leading ‘Banana Ball’ back to Dunkin Park
Sunday short takes
*A few fun facts on the Red Sox’s first 15-game winning streak in April/May 1946: Ted Williams hit .442 with four homers and 17 RBI during the streak. Later in the season, the Red Sox had winning streaks of 12, eight and seven games to finish 104-50.
*Joe Time? The Ravens waived Diego Pavia this week, which cut down on competition for UConn’s Joe Fagnano to stick as a rookie, undrafted free agent quarterback. Lamar Jackson is the starter, Tyler Huntley the backup, Fagnano and Skylar Thompson competing for QB3.
*A few years ago, Tyler Van Dyke, via Glastonbury and Suffield Academy, was the top quarterback at Miami and projected as a high draft pick. Injuries derailed his career, and became one of the first of the NIL powerhouses as he transferred to Wisconsin and Southern Methodist. He has launched a new chapter as offensive assistant/analyst with SMU.
*Yard Goats righthander Jackson Cox, the Rockies’ second round pick in 2022, is leading all of minor-league baseball with 122 strikeouts in 92 1/3 innings for Spokane, Wash., and Hartford this season. Cox, 22, joined the Goats in June.
*UConn lefty Charlie West, drafted in the seventh round, No. 223 overall, signed with the Dodgers Thursday.
Dom Amore: Face to face with Steve Dalkowski, and baseball’s timeless tale
*Reader Phil Nelson from New Fairfield, who grew up in New Britain, wrote this week to say he remembers watching legendary flamethrowing Steve Dalkowski pitch in the 1950s, and Tigers Cy Young winner Tarek Skubel’s reminds him of Dalkowski, who died in 2020. Both lefties, Skubel (6 feet 3, 220) is much bigger than Dalkowski (5-11, 175) and may throw as hard, but has yet to take a hitter’s ear off, to reference one of the tall tales associated with him.
*UConn’s Kaitlyn Chen is really starting to establish herself in the WNBA, posting a career-high 20 points, with six assists, for Golden State in a loss to Washington, the Valkyries’ last game before the All-Star break. They’re starting to call her entries off the bench a boost of “Chenergy” in the Bay Area.
Last word
Taking nothing away from this weekend’s inductees, but it feels like the Hall of Fame ceremonies have been lacking in star power, and thus buzz, in recent years. Maybe the time to rejuvenate Cooperstown with Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Pete Rose is finally ripe?
