Matt Mooney Officially Leaving South Dakota
What started as a possibility a few weeks ago has now become a reality. Matt Mooney is leaving South Dakota with one year of eligibility remaining, calling it "...the hardest decision I've ever had to make in my life".
Mooney, the Coyotes leading scorer each of the two seasons he played in Vermillion, made his departure official in a tweet Sunday (April 15) afternoon:
Mooney first raised the possibility of his transferring shortly after head coach Craig Smith announced he was leaving for Utah State. At that time, Mooney said he had asked to be released by the school, but that he wasn't necessarily leaving, just keeping his options open.
According to his most recent tweet, Mooney confirms that he did meet with incoming head coach Todd Lee, writing that Lee 'made this decision very hard for me'.
Mooney came to South Dakota before the 2016-17 season after a year at Air Force.
In Vermillion, Mooney played in 68 games, scoring better than 1,200 points. His 19 points per game led USD in scoring both years. He helped the Coyotes capture the Summit League regular season title in 2017 and got USD to the conference title game in 2018.
Mooney was a first team All-Summit League player in both of his seasons.