Grad transfer Matt Mooney commits to Texas Tech over Northwestern, Creighton

South Dakota grad transfer Matt Mooney announced his commitment to Texas Tech via Twitter on Monday afternoon.

The Wildcats made Mooney’s top three, along with Creighton and Texas Tech, but ultimately Mooney chose to join a program that made the Elite Eight and demolished Northwestern 85-49 in November. With star point guard Keenan Evans headed to the NBA Draft, Mooney should get a shot at the starting point guard role for Chris Beard’s Red Raiders team.

Last season, Mooney averaged 18.7 points per game and 3.1 assists per game on .445/.352/.829 shooting splits. He dropped 31 points in a loss to TCU and 23 in a loss to UCLA. The Wauconda, Ill. native began his career at Air Force in 2014-15 before transferring to South Dakota for his second and third years of college eligibility.

For Northwestern, this is a really big loss. With longtime starting point guard Bryant McIntosh graduating this offseason and guard Isiah Brown opting to transfer to Grand Canyon, guard depth, especially at point guard, will be thin next season. Evansville transfer Ryan Taylor helps fill in some gaps in terms of scoring, but Northwestern will have a big playmaking problem this fall given Jordan Ash’s limitations in that capacity (at least thus far in his career).

As a reminder, here’s what Northwestern’s scholarship chart currently looks like for the next four years, with the assumption that freshman big Ryan Young will redshirt.