Local notebook: Moore gets NBA shot, CSUB baseball racks up commitments
Jun. 30—An unconventional player will hope to take an unconventional path to the NBA.
Taze Moore, a longtime standout for Cal State Bakersfield men's basketball, has signed to compete with the Brooklyn Nets in the NBA Summer League.
After enduring five leg surgeries early in his career, the guard from Southaven, Miss., started for two seasons, earning first-team All-Big West honors as a redshirt senior in CSUB's first year in the conference in 2020-21. He then used an extra year of eligibility from the pandemic to transfer to Houston, where he gained more of a national profile for his unparalleled athleticism, and averaged 10 points and five rebounds per game, highlighted by a 21-point showing in the second round of the NCAA Tournament against Illinois.
Moore, who turned 24 on Wednesday, was not selected in the NBA Draft — although as he noted on Twitter, he apparently can't think of 15 players better than him, let alone 60 — but will have a chance to impress with Brooklyn in Las Vegas right away. The Nets' 2022 Summer League slate begins at 4 p.m. July 8 against Milwaukee.
Get your game on: In a sort of epilogue to the 2021-22 sports season, the Central Section All-Star Game festivities took place last weekend in Lindsay. The series of matches, organized by Ben Orozco, features the valley's brightest soccer stars, many playing in their final game as high schoolers. The series of games features Kern County players on a "South" team facing off against "North" counterparts from Fresno and Madera counties, plus an "East" vs. "West" matchup (drawn from Tulare, Kings and more of Fresno). The South girls, coached by Bakersfield Christian's Derik Watson, fell 2-1 last Friday on a last-minute headed winner from Fresno-Bullard's Aniston Renovato. The boys earned a measure of redemption for the South the following day in a 3-2 victory, with recent Garces graduate and incoming Stanford freshman Fletcher Bank assisting on all three goals and earning Most Valuable Player honors.
Extending the streak: Volleyball has become the second program at Bakersfield College to post its fall schedule (after football). The Renegade squad was perhaps the most successful local college sports team during the 2021-22 academic year, going 22-2 with a pair of playoff wins before a disappointing 3-0 defeat to American River at the state quarterfinals in Fresno. Carl Ferreira's team will hope to better that result in 2022 — the team's roster hasn't been posted yet but most of last year's contributors were freshmen, including outside hitters Kami Marion and Meagan Williams, middle blocker Tia Jules and setter Samantha Smith. Regardless, year-over-year consistency has not been a problem for the Renegades despite personnel turnover; BC hasn't lost at home since Nov. 21, 2017. The schedule features some formidable nonconference foes early, highlighted by a matchup in Santa Barbara against San Diego Mesa, which swept BC last season. Then conference play begins Sept. 28 at Santa Monica.
Covering all the bases: The CSUB baseball program continues to reload after an up-and-down second season in the Big West, announcing the commitments of a trio of transfers for next season: utility player Riley Kasper (Saddleback College/UC Irvine), catcher/infielder Konnor Palmeira (Hawaii/Everett Community College) and right-handed pitcher Trevor Pruitt (Texas-Arlington), bringing the official size of its recruiting class to 11.
The Roadrunners have also secured the commitment of Chris Hernandez, a local pitcher from Independence with one year of high school left, for the following season. Hernandez went 7-4 with a 2.40 ERA for the Falcons in 2022 while accumulating 121 strikeouts, according to stats from MaxPreps.
The news comes as two more former Roadrunners — per social media posts from PNW College Baseball Report — have been revealed as entries in the transfer portal: DJ Massey and Nino Vultaggio. Massey did not play during his one season in Bakersfield, while Vultaggio had one appearance.
Reporter Henry Greenstein can be reached at 661-395-7374. Follow him on Twitter: @HenryGreenstein.
