Notre Dame Hitches Present & Future On John Mooney's Shooting
Many moons ago, first-year Notre Dame quarterbacks coach Tom Pagna attempted to correct an unusual throwing motion in a career backup’s technique. Meanwhile, head coach Ara Parseghian took Pagna aside to deliver a message.
“Leave it as it is,” Parseghian said. “The ball gets to where it needs to go.”
That quarterback was senior John Huarte, who would go on to win the 1964 Heisman Trophy in the first season under the new regime while capturing a share of a national title during a renaissance campaign.
The moral of the story was not to over-coach a good thing, which now applies to 6-9 Notre Dame sophomore forward John Mooney more than a half-century later.
Possessing a conspicuous hitch in his shooting motion after he elevates the ball, pulls it slightly down and then raises it back up again in one fell swoop, Mooney’s jumper as the "stretch four" in Mike Brey’s offense is one of the odder motions one might see in college basketball.
But it is getting to where it needs to go and has been one of the most lethal in the game the past month.
In the last eight contests he has played, Mooney has converted a remarkable 21-of-32 three-point attempts (65.6 percent). Entering last Monday’s game at North Carolina, Mooney was 15-of-26 (57.7 percent) beyond the arc the previous seven games. Against the reigning national champion Tar Heels in Chapel Hill, Mooney converted 6-of-6 from that distance. That tied the school's single-game standard (minimum five attempts required) set by guard Matt Carroll, one of the elite pure shooters in Notre Dame history who would go on to play 11 years in the NBA, in a Nov. 24, 2001 game versus Tennessee-Chattanooga.
Carroll always credited his marksmanship to the BEEF method — the acronym for Balance, Eyes (on your target), Elbow straight, Follow Through — which is no different for Mooney, other than the hitch.
“I’ve been feeling pretty confident in the shot lately,” Mooney understated. “It’s really a testament to Matt [Farrell], T.J. [Gibbs] and Rex [Pflueger] — they’re getting the ‘D’ to kind of commit to them and kick it out. I’ve been open on my shots. It feels good.”
While Mooney misses the minimum required to lead the ACC in three-point percentage (two made per game), his .524 leads percentage leads all ACC players with at least two attempts per game.
Surely, somewhere along the way the Orlando native who was named the 2016 Florida 8A Player of the Year had to have coaches tinker with his motion.
“Really, no,” Mooney replied. “It’s kind of how I’ve always shot the ball. People say it’s unorthodox but I don’t really think there’s one way to shoot it, as long you put the reps in and it’s going in, and that’s the only thing that matters.”
Brey had no qualms about how Mooney’s shot would translate to the ACC after watching him scrimmage with the team during his first summer sessions back in 2016.
“We didn’t really want to touch it,” Brey said. “It’s one of those things when he got here in the summer … he shot it well. You just didn’t want to mess with it. He’s one of those guys, you just don’t want to talk to him about stroke because he believes in it and he raises up and shoots it high — and it’s been an unbelievable weapon for us. He’s extremely confident with it now.”
More pertinent to Brey is Mooney’s high release point.
“The high release helps him shoot over the top of a lot of length and make what is maybe a crowded shot not so crowded because he gets it over the top of everybody,” Brey said. “The last guy who had his shot technique messed with is [2017 No. 1 NBA pick] Markelle Fultz, and now his shoulder is broken. Darn if we’re going to mess with anybody’s stroke.”
Nevertheless, it can’t be ignored that while Mooney has been in the proverbial zone with the three-ball, he also has converted only 16-of-30 (.533 percentage) from the foul line this season — including missing all three when the Irish were down only four points late in the North Carolina contest and Mooney had been fouled while taking a three.
“That’s something that has haunted him a little this year, not only Monday night,” Brey said. “The stroke is good and he’ll be fine from the line once he gets settled and a little more confident there.”
Eventually, Brey believes Mooney can be as effective from the foul line as 6-10 senior Martinas Geben, who this season is 57-of-68 for a .838 percentage.
“He just needs to calm down a little bit,” Brey said. “He’s such an anxious guy. One of the things I talked to him about is you’ve got 10 seconds on the foul line — maybe get your breath for five or seven seconds. You don’t have to shoot it in three. … He’ll be very good like Martin has gotten good over time.”
“I’ve always been a confident guy,” Mooney said. “You have to continue to get better and continue to help find ways to help the team win in as many ways I can.”
In the first five ACC games this year, Mooney actually started off 1-of-10 from three-point range. He doesn’t think it’s a coincidence that he began finding his stroke when freshman D.J. Harvey’s knee injury against Louisville on Jan. 16 forced him into the lineup more to take on a larger role. (Harvey is projected to return this weekend at Boston College in a smaller reserve capacity.)
In the first 18 games this year, Mooney reached double-digit scoring only once. Excluding the Feb. 3 outing at North Carolina State in which he played only eight minutes, and none in the second half to rest an injury, Mooney has averaged 12.1 points and 6.0 rebounds in 27 minutes of action in those seven games. In five of those seven games he tallied in double figures, with a career high 18 at North Carolina, 16 in a win versus Boston College (where the Irish play this Saturday) and his first double-double (15 points, 11 rebounds) during a Jan. 27 loss to Virginia Tech.
Working up more sweat has enabled Mooney to accelerate his development in season two, and in Brey's program it’s usually the third year when the full game begins to blossom.
“When you get into a rhythm early in a game, it carries over for the remainder of the 40 minutes,” Mooney said. “I think that’s been beneficial to me. If you’re in that rhythm, you think [every] shot is going in, and that’s been my mind-set.”
Odds are it can't continue at that pace this season. Odds also are that it will remain a prime weapon in coming years.
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