I'm a firm believer in the eye-ball test.
You will hear that statement often during Championship Week on ESPN when commentators bicker over should Team A or Team B go to the NCAA tournament.
What's the old adage say? If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck. Or something of that nature. At least, that's the way we said it in my family.
This isn't a knock against the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference administration because the guys and gals in the league do a good job.
This is a knock on all the women's basketball coaches located in the PSAC East.
Hello? Mansfield's Mallory Moore isn't a first-team all-league selection?
You are pulling my leg here, right? I don't have 20-20 vision, and haven't had it since my elementary days at Francis Willard Elementary School, but come on now.
That is the biggest monstrosity I've seen in recent memory in terms of picking all-star teams. And one of the biggest disappointments.
If you are a coach, and you are asked to pick, in this case, six of the best players in the division, and Moore isn't on your ballot sheet, you are slighting your league and kidding yourself.
Or you probably have deep-lying intentions to help one of your kids advance further up the list.
Hands down. Mallory Moore is a first-team all-PSAC player.
I don't need to see statistics. I'll show them to you in a few seconds because it proves my case further.
Just watch her on the court. That's proof enough.
I've had the honor of doing that - at Mansfield and throughout her high school career at Central Mountain - to know that she passed the eye-ball test. She is a legit talent that deserves all the honors she receives. She works hard to get them.
In my mind, she's a first-team all-PSAC East selection or should have been on every ballot. And I've seen enough games this year to base a pretty fair judgment on it.
Moore was a polarizing figure in the Eastern half of the conference.
She's a silky-smooth shooter, a 1,000-point career scorer, with the heart of a champion. She'll mix it up, and never back down from any player - no matter what team. She's a competitor in every sense of the word.
While an active rebounder on the glass, she's even more pesky in the front-court where she constantly picked the pocket of opposing players.
At times, she put Mansfield on her back and carried the Lady Mountaineers.
Teams couldn't stop her. Ask the upper half of the PSAC East
She netted 24 and 20 against Bloomsburg in both games this season.
She dropped 29 and 23 vs. West Chester.
Mind you, these are the final two teams representing the East in the PSAC playoff bracket. Not just any teams - two ranked No. 6 and No. 7 in the latest regional rankings, meaning two possible NCAA berths.
Against Millersville, a No. 3 seed from the East, she netted 23 points.
Those three schools were the only ones represented on the first team as each one put two girls on the squad.
Statistically, Moore led the entire PSAC in scoring with 18.8 points per game, 17th-best in Division II women's basketball, and was 11th in the conference in rebounding. Remember, she isn't a forward or center. She is a guard that was second - again in the entire PSAC - in steals with nearly three per game.
She was also fifth in the conference in free throws, and named PSAC East Athlete of the Week three times. No other player in the conference, either division, was named to that honor more than twice.
According to Mansfield SID Steve McCloskey, no PSAC player who had won the conference scoring title since at least 1990 had missed being named to first-team honors.
Yes, that's 20-plus years.
Want to know the biggest problem?
Mansfield was just 10-16 this season. Bloomsburg, West Chester and Millersville all had winning records. And unfortunately, sometimes the name on the jersey carries all the votes. It makes one wonder what would have happened if Mansfield had the same record as Bloomsburg? No doubt, she's a first-team selection.
No matter, it doesn't dampen the career Moore had at Mansfield, and the memories she created for fans alike in Tioga County. Similar to the memories created during her high-school career at Central Mountain.
She will be remembered for her hard work, dedication and passion for the game of basketball.
She's always been known as the tough-nosed girl from Beech Creek that never backed down from a challenge, and one of the best players in Mansfield history.
Moore never dropped the ball during her four-year career at Mansfield.
It's a shame the PSAC coaches can't say the same thing.
Tom Fox is sports editor at The Express. He can be reached at tfox@lockhaven.com.
