Opponents keying on Cunningham

After back-to-back 30-plus point games earlier this season, the target has officially been placed on Jared Cunningham's back.

"Everybody's been keying on Jared," sophomore teammate Roberto Nelson said. "He has 20-something points per game, they'd be stupid if they weren't."

Coming into the season, everyone knew Cunningham would be good.

As a sophomore last year, he was All-Pac-10 Second Team and All-Pac-10 Defensive Team. He led the conference in steals and demolished the Oregon State sophomore steals record held by none other than "The Glove," Gary Payton.

Despite the aforementioned achievements, few expected him to start off the season the way he has.

"I think they expected him to be good, I don't think they expected him to carry our team like he is," head coach Craig Robinson said. "Right now, he is playing at an all-league clip. I don't know if people thought of him as that... I know I did."

Cunningham exploded onto the scene nationally when he had a career-high 37 points against the University of Texas on Nov.19.  That broke his previous career high of 35, which was set just three days earlier against Hofstra.

Currently, Cunningham averages 20.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game, but the last two games have been more challenging for him with defenses doing everything in their power to shut him down.

Teams have tried a plethora of different defensive looks to shut the junior guard down. Vanderbilt put their best and most athletic defender on him — they also ran a box-and-one defense.  It should be noted that box-and-one defenses are typically employed against teams with one dominant scoring threat.  In fact, greats like Ray Allen and Allen Iverson frequently faced box-and-one defenses in college.

The Commodores did manage to keep Cunningham in check offensively.  They held him to a season low nine points and handed the Beavers their first loss of the season, 64-62. Cunningham still affected the game with seven steals, but also turned the ball over seven times.

Cunningham scored only 12 points in Oregon State's next game against Towson  University, but the Beavers managed to win that one handily, 66-46.   

With teams putting forth so much effort to stop his scoring, Cunningham will be forced to find other ways to contribute.

"Those are good problems to have when you have a guy who the other team is completely focused on," Robinson said. "Jared is the consummate team player so his play doesn't change. If he's open, he tries to take it. If he's not, he looks for the next guy."

No matter how much an opponent does to shut down Cunningham offensively, there is nothing they can do to stop his relentlessness on defense. Despite all the attention his scoring has garnered, Cunningham is no slouch in other offensive categories. His speed and passing ability allow him to drive to the basket, draw double teams and dish the ball to his teammates.

"We have a lot of players that really haven't shown a lot of their offensive skills yet but early on I feel that I might have to score a little more and then later in the season, use my defense to help me score," Cunningham said. "A lot of players on our team, like Ahmad [Starks] and Roberto, you really haven't seen their offensive skills, but they'll come on."

The other Beavers know that opponents are gunning for Cunningham and it's up to them to step up if the team is going to have the kind of season they expect to have.

"We're going to try and make more shots so we can free up Jared," Nelson said.

Robinson understands that Cunningham is a marked man as the Beavers wrap up nonconference play and gear up for Pac-12 play. He is a major reason why the Beavers are 5-1, equaling their best start since the 2002-03 season, and defenses will use every weapon in their arsenal to keep him from scoring.

"He's going to face that from here on out," Robinson said. "He is one of the premier players in this conference so people are going to be thinking that if they shut him down, they shut us down."

Alex Crawford, sports writer

sports@dailybarometer.com