FAYETTEVILLE — As best as Moses Moody can recall, he met Cade Cunningham at the Pangos All-American Camp in Los Angeles when they were in the seventh or eighth grade.
“At that point we were both highly rated and everything,” said Moody, who is from Little Rock. “But we weren’t really that cool back then.”
Moody and Cunningham are both very cool now when it comes to college basketball and the 2021 NBA Draft.
After being teammates and roommates at Montverde (Fla.) Academy the previous two years, the close friends will be on opposite teams today when the University of Arkansas plays Oklahoma State in Gallagher-Iba Arena at 3 p.m. in the Big 12/SEC Challenge.
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Moody, a 6-6 freshman shooting guard, is averaging a team-high 16.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.5 steals and 32.1 minutes for the Razorbacks.
Cunningham, a 6-8 freshman point guard from Arlington, Texas, is averaging 17.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.2 steals and 33.9 minutes for the Cowboys.
Moody and Cunningham are among two of four freshmen in the country to average at least 16 points and 5.5 rebounds.
“Yeah, I definitely take it personal and get locked in, dialed in,” Moody said of facing Cunningham’s team. “Just wanting to win and wanting to have a good performance.
“But when it comes down to it, I have to be mature about it and not look at it like the AAU matchup and just win the one-on-one matchup. It’s more about the team win given that we’re in college systems now. We played enough one-on-one games back in the day.”
Cunningham is expected to play today after sitting out the previous two games because he missed some practices when Oklahoma State paused team activities due to covid-19 positive tests, contract tracing and quarantining.
“I don’t know how much Cade’s going be able to go. A lot of it depends on how he’s feeling out there,” Cowboys Coach Mike Boynton said. “But I do expect him to dress out and be available to play.”
Mock drafts by CBS Sports and NBADraft.net project Cunningham as the No. 1 overall pick by the Detroit Pistons and Moody going No. 8 to the Sacramento Kings. They’re both lottery picks — the top 14 — in other mock drafts.
“You are talking about two really special basketball players,” said Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman, a former NBA head coach with the Golden State Warriors and Kings.
Moody matched his season-low with five points in 19 foul-plagued minutes in Arkansas’ 74-59 victory over Ole Miss on Wednesday night.
“Even though it was an off night for him, he helped as a decoy for us,” Musselman said. “He changes the geometry on the floor for us.
“He opens up the game for everybody else. He’s had a great year.”
The same could be said for Cunningham’s impact at Oklahoma State.
“Obviously Cade Cunningham is a special, special talent,” Musselman said. “His court vision, his strength, his size, his ability to shoot the three-ball. His post-up game. He’s one of the great passers in transition to get the ball to people.”
Moody has scored 11 or more points in 14 of Arkansas’ 17 games with a high of 28 at Alabama. After he was held to six points at Tennessee and five points against Auburn, he came back with 25 against Georgia and 26 at Vanderbilt in the next two games, respectively.
“I just think it’s hard for Moses to have consecutive bad games because he’s a good player,” Musselman said. “I didn’t think he played bad [against Ole Miss]. I thought he got in foul trouble, and I thought their defense did a good job.”
Boynton said he began recruiting Moody as a high school freshman at Little Rock Parkview
“He’s a terrific scorer. He can really, really shoot the basketball,” Boynton said. “He’s got impeccable footwork for a young guy.
“And one of the things I think he does well that doesn’t get talked about as much is he’s a really good offensive rebounder.”
Moody has 40 offensive rebounds and 56 defensive.
“He’s playing with a lot of confidence,” Boynton said. “And coming off what was probably one of his least productive games, I’d imagine he’s going to look to be pretty aggressive.”
Moody said he tries to stay even keel regardless of how he plays.
“I know what I can do, and me playing within the offense, a game like [Ole Miss] can happen easily just because I don’t need the ball in my hand all game,” he said. “I’m not chasing points all game. I’m just playing within the flow of the game.”
Cunningham — whose brother, Cannen, is an Oklahoma State assistant coach — also has shown the ability to bounce back from a subpar scoring effort. He led the Cowboys with 18 points in his last game, a 75-70 victory over Kansas, after scoring five when they beat Kansas State 70-54. His season high for points is 29 against Oral Roberts.
“I always say Cade is ‘That guy,’ ” Oklahoma State junior guard Isaac Likekele said. “He’s ‘that guy’ that any team would want him. He sacrifices for the team, make plays for the team.
“Cade never forces things. He lets the game come to him so smoothly. He’s really just trying to win at the end of the day.”
Boynton said Cunningham has been a joy to coach.
“I had pretty high expectations of him, and he’s been everything I’ve expected,” Boynton said. “The thing that I’ve enjoyed most is he does it with a humility about himself. He works his butt off.”
Moody said he spoke with Cunningham earlier this week, though not about basketball. They began talking on a regular basis when both knew they would be playing at Montverde, which they helped lead to a 25-0 record last season.
No doubt they’ll do some talking to each other today.
“It’s a cool matchup, a great game to have on the schedule,” Moody said. “But when it comes down to it, we’re in college now. … It’s more about the win than the matchup.”
Moody said that as a roommate, Cunningham kept things pretty neat. As juniors, he said, they shared a very small room.
“Our beds were like this far away from each other,” Moody said, holding his hands within a foot of each other. “We’d wake up in the morning, and if we happened to look in the same direction it’s like we’d wake up eye to eye.
“For the most part, we stayed out of each other’s way as much as possible. But that was my guy, that was my dog. We were roommates, classmates and teammates, so it was just 24/7.”