Basketball: Jeffery Taylor's Defense Could Be Categorized As Ferocious

Excellent college basketball blog Ballin' is a Habit gave Oregon State G Jared Cunningham some much deserved praise for the work he did on Vanderbilt's long-ball maestro John Jenkins. You should totally check that out.

Using AOG's patented Stat-Vision (TM and patent pending), I'm going to unleash a mean check-raise on BIAH and show you that, yes, Jeffery Taylor was the only person on the floor capable of completely stopping John Jenkins. In the world of professional poker, this is known as a "bear trap." This term works, especially here, mainly because Jeff Taylor is a freaking Grizzly.

Leading up to the Vanderbilt - Oregon State game, Jared Cunningham was coming off a pair of 30-plus point games and was making noise as one of the potential breakout stars of the season. As his stat line indicates, he isn't quite the same type of scorer as Jenkins; Cunningham relies heavily on his athletic ability to wreak havoc on his defenders, forcing them into mistakes that often put him at the charity stripe.

Through his first four games:

Enter Jeffery Taylor.

First, let us assume that Jeff is guarding Cunningham whenever he is in the game. Anyone that watched the game would have to agree that this is a fair assumption.

While Jeff Taylor was in the game, Cunningham went 2 of 6 from the field, 0 of 2 from three, and 3 of 5 from the free throw line for 7 points over about 28 minutes. When Jeff came out of the game, Dai-Jon Parker was saddled with the defensive responsibilities on Cunningham. Parker's rep as the best perimeter defender in his freshman class holds true, as he held Cunningham to 2 points over about 8 minutes.

Deeper analysis shows that the two field goals Jeff "allowed" Cunningham to score were off fast break situations created by Vanderbilt turnovers. Against Parker, Cunningham's made basket came as a putback off an offensive rebound. Two of Cunningham's foul shots were the result of a foul Taylor committed himself.

Outside of fastbreak opportunities, Cunningham was 0 for 6, with all of those misses coming against Jeff Taylor defense.

Essentially, in half court sets, Jeff Taylor limited a very dangerous and extremely hot (coming in to the matchup off that pair of 30 point games) scoring guard in Jared Cunningham to 2 points, all off free throws, in about 30 minutes of defense.

Stout.