Moreland brings Beavs' energy

Eric Moreland is Oregon State's energizer bunny.

Whether he's starting for the Beavers or coming off the bench, Moreland provides good defense and is a spark plug for the team.

"[My role] is to keep the energy high. They want me to bring the energy a lot, and I'm an energy guy," Moreland said. "They want me to make sure I come to practice like that everyday and be like that in games as well."

A lot of NBA players have made entire careers out of being off-the-bench energy guys for their teams, but Moreland has aspirations bigger than that.

"Who inspires me? Kevin Durant, but I haven't transformed my game into that yet," Moreland said.

Durant may be the ultimate goal, but for now Moreland, will accept his teammate Jared Cunningham's comparison of Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan.

The two players have many similarities. Jordan and Moreland both are from Texas, are long and athletic, occasionally struggle with free throws and thrive off blocking shots.

"I actually love blocking shots. It feels real good," Moreland said. "It gets the crowd goin', it gets us goin', it gets the team goin'. There's no better feeling. It's the intimidation factor in that some people don't want to come in anymore."

Moreland's nickname might be Eazy-E, but he makes it hard as hell for opponents to get a shot off in the paint against him.

If blocking shots has a direct correlation with providing energy, then Moreland statistically provides the most energy in the Pac-12. He leads the league with 1.7 blocks per game. He's already set the freshman school record for most blocks in a season with 36.

Moreland also leads the Beavers — and is fifth in the Pac-12 — in rebounding with 6.7 per game.

Not too shabby for a kid with three years of eligibility left.

In a few years, don't be surprised if ESPN's Chad Ford and John Hollinger are drooling over Moreland and talking incessantly about his length and potential — two of the most cliche words used by NBA draft analysts. Still, regardless of how cliche those words may be, Moreland does possess tremendous upside.

"Ideally, I would like to play in the league," Moreland said. "I don't want to get too far ahead of myself and not talk about the team, but if we're talking about ideally, I'd like to see myself in the league."

Coach Craig Robinson probably isn't too keen on the idea of Eric Moreland or anyone else thinking that far in the future. The team's mantra of "one day at a time" frowns on that kind of behavior.

"I think the ‘one day at a time' thing is working out pretty good," Moreland said. "It's a good motto and you can use it in everyday life, too. Win every 24 hours you get."

Moreland has plenty of days left — and the work ethic — to turn his goals into reality. Moreland is known to be somewhat of a gym rat. He knows that he must develop a consistent jump shot and improve his postgame if he wants to make the jump to the next level.

"I like to be in the gym, I do," Moreland said. "I'll be in the gym a lot. I shoot a lot and then when I get out of the gym and take days off, which is not good, then I get inconsistent. I gotta get down in the block and work on some post moves and just do what I gotta do."

It seems there isn't much more to Moreland's life besides basketball.

"My passion is basketball," Moreland said when asked what his passion was outside of basketball. "I wish they had a major for basketball."

Unfortunately for Moreland, he had to pick an actual academic major, settling on HDFS, but only because a deadline forced him to pick something. The future is still greatly unknown to this young man.

"I need a backup plan. I do need to get it together with that because injuries happen, like last year, so I gotta really think about careers," Moreland said.

Regardless of future plans, Moreland is currently living in the moment and being a key contributor to Beaver basketball's resurgence this season. If he can stay healthy — Moreland sat out almost all of last season with a shoulder injury — he will be a valuable asset to the orange and black for the next three-plus years.

"Just staying healthy is a blessing, and I'm glad that I haven't got hurt yet; knock on wood," Moreland said. "It feels good to be out there with the team."

Alex Crawford, sports writer

Twitter: @dr_crawf

sports@dailybarometer.com