Player of the Week: Darious Moten

Darious Moten, a fifth-year engineering student and forward on the celebrated Mercer Men’s Basketball Team, is a few short months away from rounding out his career as a Bear. A Carrollton, Ga., native, Moten has had a major impact on the basketball team, especially in the last three seasons. As a junior, he played in 35 of 36 games, averaging 12.2 minutes per appearance and scoring 4.8 points per game.

After graduating a large class of senior starters following the famed victory over Duke last season, Coach Bob Hoffman has turned to Moten as a go-to pressure player for the Bears. As the team prepares to embark on round two of Southern Conference games, the Bears have a 13-11 overall record and an 8-3 record in the SoCon. As the second highest scorer on the team, Moten has contributed heavily to these wins. Scoring an average of 11.3 points per game, Moten stepped up this season as a captain of the team and looks to make an even bigger impact to round out his career as a Bear.

While Moten is an engineering major, his favorite “class” has nothing to do with the subject.

“I'm a mechanical engineering major, and my favorite class is probably my afternoon nap,” said Moten.

Moten has played basketball for over a decade now, and there are a few professional players that he truly looks up to.

“Kobe (Bryant) and (Michael) Jordan are my favorite athletes. Jordan was my favorite when I was younger, and Kobe has been my favorite for about the last seven years,” said Moten. “I love their work ethic, and I would like my game to resemble Kobe's because he has great footwork.”

As a Bear, Moten not only appreciates the opportunity to play basketball, but he also treasure the connections he has developed with his mentors.

“My favorite thing about Mercer is the size,” said Moten. “It allows you to have relationships with your professors that you wouldn't get that at bigger schools.”

Along with many other Bears, Moten’s favorite moment while at Mercer is their thrilling win against the Duke University Blue Devils. While last season was obviously a highlight for Moten, he is also excited to show Mercer fans how much the 2014-2015 team has improved.

“In our last games of the season, fans should see a better more mature team as we grow,” said Moten. “They will also see some important games the last weekend of the season.”

Because he is a fifth-year senior, Moten has been with the Mercer Men’s Basketball Team for both their highs and their lows. He has seen the team improve year after year, and he values the contributions that Coach Bob Hoffman and the players have given to the program.

“Over the past five years, I've seen this team complete a full ‘life’ cycle. When I got here, we were young and inexperienced. Over the course of five years, we matured into probably the greatest team to ever come through Mercer. Now as a fifth-year senior, I see similarities between this team we have now and the team we had when I got here,” said Moten. “We're young (and) inexperienced and have struggled a little at the start, but one major difference is that the upperclassmen have been in this system and understand it. When I got here, none of the seniors had been recruited by Coach Hoffman, and many were still figuring it out. I think having five guys who played big minutes last year has helped us in this ‘transitional’ year to still be good enough to compete for a conference championship.”

After his career ends as a Bear, Moten hopes to continue playing basketball, preferably overseas.