Carlai Moore - Women's Basketball Coach - Murray State University Athletics

Carlai Moore

Title:
Assistant Coach

Carlai Moore (first name pronounced: car-LAY-ah) begins her first season as an assistant coach at Murray State.

“My role on the staff is to better our posts,” she said. “I work with our strength and conditioning coach and handle our equipment. I will also work with film exchange.”
The 2007 graduate of Southern Illinois comes to Murray State after an impressive four-year playing career.

Moore was the first SIU player in eight years named to the All-Missouri Valley Conference First Team last season. She led the Salukis with 13.5 points per game, grabbing 4.9 rebounds per contest and shooting 56.0 percent from the field.

In 2005-06, she led SIU with 17.6 points per game and averaged 4.7 rebounds per game, hitting 54.8 percent from the field. She was named MVC Newcomer of the year and landed a spot on the All-MVC Second Team.

At Southern Illinois, she scored more points than any other transfer to the university, with 890 points over 58 games in two seasons. Over her four seasons, she amassed 1,540 career points.

She played for two seasons with Missouri-Kansas City from 2002 to 2004, while Jody Adams was an associate head coach there. At UMKC, she was the Mid-Continent Conference’s sixth Woman of the Year in back-to-back seasons, named to the 2003 MCC All-Newcomer Team and 2004 All-MCC First Team.

In 2003-04, she led the Kangaroos with 13.0 points and 8.7 rebounds per game, tying for second on the team with 61 assists.

In 2002-03, Moore was second on the team with 9.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per game.
“It’s a great feeling, being a coach at the Division I level,” Moore said. “It’s an opportunity for me to give back. I hope to help young women develop both on and off the court.

“As a recent graduate, I still look at things from a player’s point of view. I find it helpful to take that approach in order to help connect with our kids on the court. It’s my way of giving back to the players.”

With a degree in speech communications and an emphasis in interpersonal communications, Moore believes her degree gives her an advantage with communicating with the players.

“I think speech communications gives me an extra tool to use when communicating with the girls,” she said.

Moore is the only person on the MSU staff or squad to have any experience working with head coach Jody Adams.

“Jody is very personable, both on and off the court,” Moore said. “She wants to get the best out of you. She’s very intense; she pushes you past what you think your potential is.
“Off the court, she’s great for instilling leadership in young women. Jody has been taught by the best and has a lot of experience in coaching, especially at the mid-major level. Those tools become very beneficial for her when she is coaching these young women. To play for someone who has been taught by Pat Summitt is great, but to play for someone who knows the game, who cares and wants nothing more than to see you succeed — now, that’s something special.“

The move from player to coach was a fast one for Moore, and it has her thinking about her potential career.

“Throughout my college career, I didn’t think that coaching was the road for me,” she said, “but after Jody offered me an opportunity to try out the coaching thing, I really enjoyed it.”

Moore has one brother, Craig, who is a junior at Arkansas-Pine Bluff. She also has a sister, Chalee, who is a junior in high school.

“I never thought that I’d be coming to Murray State, but it’s a great program to come to,” she said. “We have a great group of young women who will work hard for us, and that’s all you can ask for.”