ERIC MOORE: Total confidence

Know your role. That is what Penn senior center Eric Moore says to roommate Neil Aaronson. Realize the situation you are in, and know your role. And while he doesn't say it aloud to himself, Moore definitely knows his own roles. Know your role. Student, athlete, son, boyfriend, friend. Strike the delicate balance. Hurry to get things done, but always make time for those you care about. Know your role. Low-post defender, rebounder, inside scorer. Know your role. Shoot the three when open, lead by example, bulk up, guard the middle. Then play professional basketball. Huh. The critics will chirp that Eric Moore doesn't know his role. He doesn't know he is supposed to get an Ivy League education, contribute to his team, work hard, bulk up and then never touch a basketball save for weekends in some men's league at a YMCA somewhere. He is not supposed to play professional basketball. And Eric Moore wants to play professional basketball next year. So it is tempting to label him a naive dreamer. It is tempting to tell him to take his Wharton degree and head directly for Plan B -- perhaps a job in mutual funds. It is tempting to grab him and shake him and say, "don't you realize that 6 foot, 7 inch Ivy League centers just don't make the NBA, and even CBA and European teams are not exactly lusting after 6-7 centers?" But he is pretty damn big to try to shake. Besides, Eric Moore has heard the chorus of doubters before. Back when he didn't have muscles cloaking more muscles, he heard the doubters. Back when he wasn't topping the Ivy League charts in field goal percentage, he heard the doubters. Back when he wasn't being quoted in Sports Illustrated, Eric Moore heard the doubters. On the playground, the other kids told him he would never play professional ball. But kids say those kind of things. Old men usually don't. So it was a little more surprising when Princeton coach Pete Carril called the then-16-year-old summer basketball camper over and told him to forget about playing professional basketball. "I think his point was, 'hey, you can use basketball to get a good education,' " Moore said. "But all I heard was, 'you cannot do it.' I don't think that motivated me to work hard or anything like that because I was going to work hard anyway. I just didn't like him that much anymore." So Moore discards the doubters. If his NBA dream burns to embers, he will try Europe. If that doesn't work out, well, at least he will never ask that most painful question -- what might have been. "I want to give myself a chance," Moore said. "I do not want to look back and say if only I had worked hard and lifted that one summer I would have made it." Moore is not a naive dreamer. He is confident, but realistic. He knows the odds; he wants to roll the dice anyway. He has his whole life for things like mutual funds. So even if it is Europe for a few years, he wants to keep playing. And for all those tempted to bet against Moore, heed the words of his high school coach, Dan Dougherty. "In high school we ended practice at six," Dougherty said. "In most cases when practice ends, guys go home. Eric would take the ball off to the side and work on his drop step. Time is not the essence with Eric. Eric does not believe that two hours is his goal. His goal is how much will it take to get better. "If playing at the next level is what he wants, he will do it. Eric wanted to be a college basketball player, and he achieved his goal. If he wants to play, he will." And that is the catechism of everyone close to Moore: If he wants to do something, he will do it. "If somebody told him tomorrow that in order to make a team you have to climb this mountain and swim this sea to make it, he would do those things like they were nothing," Aaronson said. His dedication is not limited to the basketball court. "Almost everything he does is with a purpose in mind," Aaronson said. "He is even serious about being easy-going. That is important to him. He says, 'I am going to make sure I am nice to everyone.' He makes a concentrated effort to be nice to people." Everyone, that is, except his opponents in the low post. They end up with bruises in places they didn't know existed. In high school Moore's dedication reaped great rewards. As a junior at Episcopal Academy he started at center for the No. 1 high school team in southeastern Pennsylvania. And lest anyone think Moore played best supporting actor to Episcopal teammate Jerome Allen, note that as high school seniors Moore and Allen notched their 1,000th career point on the same evening. Now in his senior year at Penn, Moore paces the Ivies by hitting nearly 57% of his shots and also ranks 10th on the scoring charts. This past Saturday in the Quakers' win at Brown, he burned the Bears for a career-high 23 points, including three treys. "Yeah," Dougherty gripes. "He made three of them, so he will probably take 10 of them next game." Yes, confidence flows freely from Moore's tap these days. It should. He averages 12.8 points per game compared to 2.2 as a freshman. He will graduate this year from Wharton. His girlfriend is in the stands watching him play. He has proved the doubters wrong, and he has proved himself right. So he sticks to the same formula. Go to bed early. Work hard. Keep your priorities. Never read newspaper articles about your play. And know your role. And don't let anyone else define it for you.