MOREHEAD, Ky. -
Xavier Moon remembers where he was when his world was rocked last April 20.
Moon was heading to class when his uncle, Jamario, called to say he needed to hurry home to Goodwater, Ala.
Moon's stepfather, Elbert Wilson, had been shot, murdered while mowing his lawn in Alexander City, Ala.
Moon, now a senior and a standout guard on the Morehead State basketball team, made a U-turn for his campus room. He paced.
Then he called assistant coach
Preston Spradlin (who now serves as MSU's interim head coach).
He asked Spradlin to meet him at Johnson Arena. They needed to talk.
Upon spotting Spradlin, Moon broke down in tears.
Wilson's death was only the latest in a series of rough times for Moon.
More on that later.
Goodwater, a town of about 1,400, is about an hour's drive south of Birmingham.
Moon was raised there in a non-traditional household. Yet, it is family that enables him to cope when things go bad.
He has four siblings. Quin Jones, 22, is a Marine. Brianna Thomas, 18, attends Auburn University. Then there are 12-year-old brother Namari Stephens and 8-year-old sister Maneia Stephens.
Moon's mother, Shilitha Wilson, was a 17-year-old basketball player when she became pregnant with Xavier. She continued to play briefly before he was born.
So Xavier was actually still in the womb the first time he "took the floor" for a game of hoops.
But it was Moon's grandmother, Ruby Thomas, with help from great grandparents Frank and Delphine Thomas, who raised him.
Although Moon stayed in touch with his mother, Shilitha was living in Indiana. And Xavier didn't find out until his junior year of high school who his father was – Brian Thomas.
Moon says he is close to all family members and speaks with his mother and father on almost a daily basis.
His grandmother and great grandparents instilled in him respect.
"They always taught me to respect my elders, be an honorable young man, carry myself in a way that, when somebody meets me, they can be like 'OK, he was raised right,'" Moon said. "My grandparents were big on that type of stuff. 'Yes, mam. No mam. Yes, sir. No, sir.'"
As for sports, Moon says he had a basketball in his hands since the day he could walk. However, he didn't play organized basketball until the seventh grade.
Two family members inspired his game.
First was his mother.
"She kind of envies me a little bit and we always joke around about her playing," Moon said. "She's always saying stuff like 'you shoot like me' or 'you make that move like me.' So I kind of looked up to her a lot, and she's the reason why I keep going. And I won't stop until I make her happy."
Then there was Uncle Jamario.
Jamario Moon came out of Goodwater to play for five NBA teams from 2007 through 2012. He also spent time with the Harlem Globetrotters. Xavier describes his uncle as "kind of like my father figure."
"He was always there to guide me. Everywhere he went, most of the time I was with him. … I felt like he was the best person that could have been there without my actual father being there. That played a huge part in my life."
"And me seeing what he was doing – what he was accomplishing and how hard he was working – it made me want to do the same. Seeing him actually make it to the NBA from where we were from, knowing that not many people do that and not many people have the willpower to keep going, it made me just want to work that much harder."
Xavier – now a 6-foot-2, 165-pound guard and a preseason All-Ohio Valley Conference pick – "just decided" to join team basketball in the seventh grade. He wasn't that good, he says, but he had to start somewhere.
At Central Coosa High School, he played junior varsity as a freshman, then three years of varsity ball. As a senior, he led the state of Alabama with a 35-point scoring average.
He attributes some of his senior-year success to his decision to play football that year. A quarterback, he says his football skills translated to basketball. "I got stronger. I got faster. I got better."
But he didn't receive a college offer until his senior season. Itawamba (Miss.) Community College, on hand to scout another player, spotted him.
Moon opted for an offer that came later, from Northwest Florida State.
There, he was part of a 22-6 team as a freshman. Then, he was Sixth Man of the Year as a sophomore, when the Raiders went 33-2 and won the National Junior College Championships.
From there, Morehead seemed like a natural fit.
"I think what attracted me to Morehead was this was really like home to me," he said. "It's not too much bigger than Goodwater. When I first got here, seeing the mountains and stuff, that was probably the only thing that was different. … From that, it just trickled down to the players, the coaches, the people in the town. Everybody was friendly from the time I got here to the time I left. And that's what kind of environment you want to put yourself in – around friendly people, people who support you, people that you know will help you in the long run."
His name leads to numerous nicknames. On campus, people call him X, Moon, Moonie and – his favorite – Moon Pie.
As for rough times, jog back to Moon's junior year of high school.
"When I found out who my father was, it kind of changed a lot because I had a whole other side of the family I had to get to know. And that was kind of tough, being the age that I was, not knowing who they were. But we still built a relationship. So my mother's in my life right now and my father's in my life right now. We have a great relationship."
The beginning of his senior year of high school, on Aug. 28, 2012, Moon's grandfather died from an E. coli infection.
"I was really close to him, but … it was kind of like 'OK, now you've got to step up and be there for everybody else in your family instead of mourning the loss of him.'"
Little more than four months later, great grandfather Frank Thomas died.
"That was tougher for me because I was always around him," Moon said. "We stayed in the same house for a number of years. And he was always somebody that I could come in and say 'hey, how you doing Granddad,' and he'd ask me how my day (was) going, give me money when I needed it. Losing him was probably the hardest thing that I had went through during high school. I actually saw him pass away."
Then came this year's death of his stepfather, Elbert Wilson.
Moon says Wilson was his mother's true soul mate. He stepped in and became the father figure to Xavier's younger brother and sister.
So how has Moon handled the tough times?
"My family's real close, so I think we cope together," he said. "Even when we're not together, we still try to keep being within a family. With me not actually being at home and not being able to see them, it's a lot tougher. I have to find other ways to cope with it myself, so I just try to stay active and keep my mind going, not dwell on the situation."
Sometimes, though, Moon will sit alone in his room and talk out loud.
He's talking not only to himself, but to his stepfather.
"I just talk and I ask a question. Or I say something and then I take a pause, and I just listen for a minute," Moon said. "It's kind of like I get that voice in the back of my head, like he's talking to me. So I sit there and just basically talk to him. Just ask him how he's doing. I mean, we're going to be fine down here. I know he's watching over us."
Per his request, Wilson's remains were cremated.
Moon's mother has the ashes in an urn. But, also, small heart-shaped "keepsakes" were given to Xavier, his siblings and Jamario.
"Wherever I go, no matter if it's an away game, a home game or I'm just on the road going somewhere, I always have it with me," Xavier said. "That's a big part of me right now. Just keeping that close to me."
Memories of his late family members serve as motivation, he says. Motivation to be a good person, to watch over family and to do his best with basketball.
A self-described "Netflix and chill guy," Moon was not raised on video games and doesn't have a game system now. He prefers being outside, close to nature.
An exercise science major, he wants to become a personal trainer or "some type of group fitness" guru. "Just stay active, because I'm an active person. So I might as well help others."
Moon is averaging a team-high 14.5 points through 11 games and he made history in the Eagles' 111-85 win over Central Arkansas on Monday night as he recorded the first triple-double in school history with 25 points, 11 assists, and ten rebounds - all career highs.
He rates his game as "above average right now." But he wants to become a better team leader, something that he regularly discusses with Spradlin.
In addition to a non-traditional family, Moon carries a non-traditional basketball resume.
"I did not play AAU basketball," he said. "I wish you could see the look on their faces when I tell (people) that I didn't play. Most people tell me that if I would have played, then I definitely wouldn't be at Morehead State.
"But, I mean, God makes no mistakes. Everything happens for a reason. It's the reason why I'm here. And I feel like that reason is to win the OVC Championship."
That, no doubt, would make his family proud.
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