As Mekhayia Moore accepted her MVP award at the 2022 Texas state tournament, her basketball trajectory appeared limitless. The unmistakable star of Brownsboro High School’s state championship team — “Our offensive plan was to get the ball to Mekhayia and everybody else get out the way,” her coach said —collegiate stardom was well within Moore’s reach.
Few knew, as Moore accepted her MVP plaque, that she had made the decision to end her basketball journey.
“Basketball has been my entire life since I was eight,” Moore said. “I missed vacations with my family, I missed hanging out with friends, I missed a lot.
“I just wanted to be a normal student.”
Moore’s journey to normalcy took her to Texas Christian University where she focused on her pre-med studies as a molecular biology major.
Then her college life, after a year and a half, took an abnormal turn last week — in Norman, Oklahoma —when Moore found herself checking into a Big 12 game as a member of the TCU women’s basketball team.
“Oh, my gosh,” Moore remembers thinking to herself as her name was called to enter the game. “This is really happening.”
TCU Athletics
It happened, for Moore, because of injuries to the TCU program. After starting the season with 14 straight wins and a No. 23 ranking, TCU was suddenly left with six players — four who could play with no restrictions—that led to the team forfeiting two games in mid-January.
As the team faced a crossroads, Moore was, for the most part, oblivious while enjoying the time she spent with friends going to dinner and movies and, “basically doing what every college student does.” The college life was everything Moore imagined when the Brownsboro, Texas, native was accepted to TCU as part of the school’s prestigious Chancellor’s Scholars Program.
“She was a great student, and she was excited to earn that academic scholarship,” said Jeremy Durham, her coach at Brownsboro. “But I was really pushing her to play college basketball because she was also a phenomenal player.”
A phenomenal player who shined at multiple positions.
Need a big rebound? Moore grabbed it. A big shot? Moore drained it. Moore’s performance in the state championship game where she played her typical three positions — 19 points and 14 rebounds — helped Brownsboro win its first girls state basketball title in school history.
Then Moore pulled a Barry Sanders, opting to leave the game in what appeared to be her prime. While she occasionally went to the gym and got up shots by herself in her first year and a half as a college student, she hadn’t played in a game as simple as 3-on-3 in that span.
And had no desire to do so.
Then her AAU coach sent her a flier announcing TCU’s open tryouts in an attempt to salvage the season derailed by injuries. That flier, announcing open tryouts on Jan. 18 and 19, was sent out on the afternoon of Jan. 17, just hours after it was announced that the game that night as well as the Jan. 20 game were forfeited.
The parent of one of Moore’s high school teammates emailed the TCU coaching staff, writing “You have a kid on campus who had a lot of honors as a basketball player in high school.”
Moore, initially, was uninterested.
“I texted my AAU coach and told her I was rusty, and I wasn’t about to go out there and embarrass myself,” Moore said. “And then I changed my mind. I decided to do the tryouts to have some fun.”
In between the “rusty” and “have some fun” moments was Moore’s trip to the gym to see if she still had it. On the evening day the flier went out she found herself in the gym with other students who were also intrigued by the rare opportunity to walk-on to a major college team.
“We played a few quick games and I was winded and out of shape because I hadn’t played in a year and a half,” Moore said. “But while playing with them was when I changed my mind.”
The tryouts were held over two days with about 40 women, most of whom considered their competitive days of basketball over. Candidates were observed shooting and put through various drills before the women played pickup.
“Honestly, I didn’t know what they were looking for,” Moore said. “I was nervous that the entire team would be there watching us, and I’m glad they weren’t.”
The next day, Moore got an email from one of the coaches asking for her high school coaches’ contact information.
“They asked about Mekhayia, and what kind of kid she was,” Durham said. “When they told me they were going to offer her a spot, I was happy for her. She’s special, and nothing that she accomplishes would ever surprise me.”
When the TCU coaching staff called Moore into a meeting, she still didn’t know where the journey was leading her.
“I’m thinking, ‘oh my gosh, I’m sitting in front of the coaches of this team,’ ” Moore said. “I haven’t been that nervous for an interview since my Chancellor’s Scholar interview, which is the most nervous I’ve ever been.”
Four women made the team: Sarah Sylvester, a sophomore who played on the volleyball team; Ella Hamlin, a TCU freshman who turned down several D-II offers to study nursing at TCU; Piper Davis, who helped her team win a state title in Idaho; and Moore.
“These four young ladies said, ‘whatever we need to do to help the team, let us know,’ ” said Mark Campbell, TCU’s head coach after his team’s recent win over UCF. “This is a dream come true to have an opportunity to be part of a college basketball team.”
TCU Athletics
The first practice for Moore…let’s just say it wasn’t as second nature as riding a bicycle.
“These girls are fast, these girls are D-I athletes and I’m a year and a half without basketball,” Moore said. “It’s gotten better and everyone on the team has been supportive.”
Also supportive have been family and friends who have rolled out to games — 20 deep at times — since Moore joined the team.
“They’re all wearing matching shirts with my jersey number on it, they’re in the crowd yelling,” Moore said. “And they’re loving it.”
On the night Moore played in her first game at Oklahoma — the last two minutes of a road loss— her posse bombarded her cell phone with videos of her grand entrance.
“At times, I really can’t believe this is happening,” Moore said. “It’s an amazing feeling. It’s surreal.”
Enough to persuade her to continue basketball after this unconventional occurrence where walk-ons were summoned to save a season?
“I don’t know what this means, really, so I’m just taking it one day at a time,” Moore said. “My goal is to just help this team with anything they need and to be one of the best supporters.”
A supporter still in disbelief about the revival of a career she thought she had put to rest.
“In that Oklahoma game, we were on the bench cheering and weren’t really expecting to go in even though the coaches tell us to be ready at all times,” Moore said. “Then it happened. It was amazing, and it’s a moment I’ll never forget.”
