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SG Daequan Cook (Ironi Hai Motors Nes-Ziona - Israel)

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DDN

5/24/06

Dunbar retires Cook's No. 14 jersey

Ceremony at school on Tuesday part of big week for OSU recruit.

By Mark Gokavi
Staff Writer

DAYTON | No male basketball player will ever again wear jersey No. 14 at Dunbar.

Daequan Cook had his jersey retired Tuesday morning during a senior awards ceremony.

It's been a big week for the Ohio State recruit. On Monday night, he was honored as the Agonis Club's high school athlete of the year. Tuesday night, he and his teammates and coaches received their Division II state championship rings.

"It means a lot," Cook said of his jersey retirement. "I put in a lot of work and dedication to the game and to the school."

The framed display shows his white home jersey along with a list of statistics (including 2,056 career points) and accomplishments in his four-year career.

"Shortly after the state tournament, I was walking by the trophy case and saw (Richard ''Tu Tu'' Brown's) jersey," Dunbar coach Peter Pullen said.

"Cook's just as deserving." Pullen gave the No. 14 blue road jersey to Cook's mother, Renee.

"When they told him they were going to retire it, I just cried," Renee Cook said.

Cook wore No. 7 in his early AAU days and 31 in middle school. Since No. 7 wasn't available in high school, he doubled his favorite number.

At OSU next season, it'll be back to the future. Since Jamar Butler wears 14, Cook said he'll go back to 31 for the Buckeyes. But he'll always be No. 14 at Dunbar. The only decision left is where the framed jersey will hang.

"It will bring back the memories of what I put in to get my jersey up on the wall," Cook said. "It's something that I'll always cherish."
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OSUBasketballJunkie;637781; said:
Rivals.com$

Cooks is considered the #11 shooting guard on the Rivals.com 2006-07 Preseason Top Shooting Guards list.
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what i dont understand is that he is the highest rated frosh SG...but in high school he was the 3rd highest behind ellington and henderson???

i always thought he was better than both of em...not by alot, but he looks like hes so smart out there, and so silky smooth
 
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DDN

Cook strong in OSU debut

Former Dunbar star scores 13 points in first game action on Buckeyes' basketball team.


By Mark Gokavi
Staff Writer

Thursday, November 02, 2006


COLUMBUS ? Daequan Cook first put on an Ohio State hat 18 months ago.

That verbal commitment at Dunbar High School ignited Thad Matta's heralded basketball recruiting class.

On Wednesday night, Cook finally donned his No. 31 Buckeyes uniform in front of 14,173 at the Schottenstein Center. During the 80-57 exhibition win over Findlay, Cook had 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting, a team-high 8 rebounds, 3 fouls, 3 turnovers, 2 assists, and one block in 21 minutes.

He also had a long wait until the butterflies went away.

"Usually it's after that first shot, but it took more than that," said Cook, who entered with 15:33 left in the first half. "After I got that dunk, I felt a little better."

Cook cracked up the assembled media after the game, leading the newcomers in answering a question about defense. "In high school, I didn't play defense; I didn't play defense at all," he chuckled. "But coach told me here if I wanted to play, I had to play defense."

Ironically, his first points came when he stole the ball from Findlay's Marcus Turner and slammed it. The 6-foot-5 guard hit 2-of-4 from 3-point range and 1-of-2 free throws. His second 3-pointer put OSU up 59-43.

After Cook's verbal commitment, Greg Oden and Mike Conley did the same.

So did David Lighty and junior college transfer Othello Hunter. Though Oden is out until January with a wrist injury, the others finally had a dress rehearsal.

"People consider us the 'Thad Five' and that's what we go as sometimes," Cook said. "But it felt good being together as one. Now, it's just time to work."
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crazybuckfan40 All I can say is think Michael Redd in the pros with a better ability to get to the rack.
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I really dont like that comparison. If I were to compare his game to anyone it would probably be Tracy McGrady. Both players are smooth and make everything look effortless because of their athleticism. Cook has good leaping ability, and he showed it last night with his 8 rebounds.
 
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smitty03;650459; said:
I really dont like that comparison. If I were to compare his game to anyone it would probably be Tracy McGrady. Both players are smooth and make everything look effortless because of their athleticism. Cook has good leaping ability, and he showed it last night with his 8 rebounds.
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Yeah well I was thinking buckeye player in the past ten years. I do like the Tmac comparison, but I would think a poor man's Tmac.
 
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All I can say is think Michael Redd in the pros with a better ability to get to the rack.
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Along the same lines.....I have always had the opinion that Cook has a similar game to Ray Allen, but with more explosiveness around the rim.

Last night was like Christmas for those of us who have followed the "Thad Five" since the very beginning of their recruitment. :biggrin:
 
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OSUBasketballJunkie;650754; said:
Along the same lines.....I have always had the opinion that Cook has a similar game to Ray Allen, but with more explosiveness around the rim.

Last night was like Christmas for those of us who have followed the "Thad Five" since the very beginning of their recruitment. :biggrin:
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Absolutely on target with the Ray Allen comparo, though Cook has a lot more "want it" when it comes to rebounding. Very explosive in traffic and around the rim. My wifey specifically called out DQC and Mike Conley as players she wants to see more of during this season. (She and I both were a bit bemused by Twig's performance; he is very athletically gifted but seemed pretty tentative last night.)

Ho ho ho! Should we call him "Thaddy Claus?" :tongue2:
 
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Q&A with Dunbar grad, OSU freshman Daequan Cook
By Mark Gokavi

Staff Writer

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Daequan Cook, the basketball player, is doing well in his transition to the college game. Daequan Cook, the freshman student, is still getting used to life at Ohio State. The Dunbar High School graduate took a hip-hop dance class this past summer ? fitting since many experts pick the Buckeyes to make the Big Dance in the spring. The 6-foot-5 guard already has gained his "freshman 15" pounds, but that's been more muscle than McDonald's. Cook recently addressed wrist injuries, early-morning weights, cooking and NBA dreams.

Q You hurt your wrist three times. What lingering effect is there?

A To this day, I still sometimes kind of favor it. At certain times, I'll just lay the ball up instead of going up high-flying because sometimes you get worried about it breaking.


Q What's been an adjustment?

A The coaches never really told us at the beginning when they were recruiting us that we were going to have to get up at 5:30 in the morning and lift weights.


Q What is dorm life like?

A Sometimes we go to the grocery store and we all take turns cooking since we're all in a dorm room. A couple times, we cooked some tacos and some steaks.


Q Are there agents and boosters crawling around?

A We keep ourselves distant from people like that. We all were born and raised to know right from wrong, and when it's time, we'll talk to them. But right now, that's not on our minds. ... We just depend on our family, the people who have been in our circle since Day 1.


Q What has surprised you?

A Ohio State University is big. It's huge. When we walk from class to class, it's like 20 minutes of walking. In between classes, it's like a 12-minute break and you've got to make your classes in between there.


Q How long will you, Greg Oden or the others stay in school?

A It depends on how well I play and how well I progress every year. I really can't tell. Greg loves school. That's the main thing. If there wouldn't have been the (NBA draft) rule, he probably still would have went to college. He's very serious about school.


Q People say coach Thad Matta is a big kid. What's he like?

A He's a great coach. He's there to talk to you whenever. We'll go to his house a lot and we get to swim. It's nice to have a coach like that, one who wants to have fun.


Contact this reporter at (937) 225-6951 or [email protected].



What others are saying about Daequan Cook

"I think he's going to turn a lot of heads and shock some people. It's just like natural. He'll be out here coming off screens and he'll be just shooting around. And then we'll get in open gym and he's hands down the best player on the court. He's doing things like 'How did he do that?' "

? OSU junior center Matt Terwilliger


"He has an eagerness to get better, that's one of big things I love about him. He doesn't think he's arrived yet. He wants to be better, and he wants to work on his game. He does have a unique sense of humor. He has the ability to make people laugh." ? OSU coach Thad Matta
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http://www.daytondailynews.com/s/co.../college/osu/2006/11/07/ddn110806osucook.html
 
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Dispatch

OSU MEN?S BASKETBALL
Cook provides jolt of energy off bench

Friday, November 24, 2006

Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

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He was a McDonald's All-American in high school, a two-time player of the year in Ohio, and he shared the MVP award in a national all-star game. Recruiting mavens called him a "one-and-done" prospect, someone who might play only one season of college basketball before tossing his name in the NBA draft.
Before he was all that, though, Daequan Cook was a kid who watched five other players on his AAU team be introduced as starters.
"Not saying I couldn?t have started," he said. But it was his first year on the AAU team and "I had to work for it."
Now it?s Cook?s first year on the Ohio State basketball team, and he has wowed the crowds with alley-oop dunks, acrobatic up-and-unders, baseline fadeaways and prorange three-pointers. He leads the fourth-ranked Buckeyes (5-0) in scoring and ranks second in rebounding entering their game against Youngstown State tonight. He has scored 20 points or more three times already.
The fact he has done it off the bench makes it all the more remarkable to everyone but Cook and his coach.
"I feel really comfortable," Cook said. "It?s not like my first time ever not starting."
"I love it," OSU coach Thad Matta said. "He comes in and gives us a great jolt of energy."
Matta coaches a selfless, conscientious, all-out brand of basketball. He has eight scholarship players available until 7-foot center Greg Oden returns from wrist surgery, and he has sold the eight on the premise that all of them are starters even if only five of them can be. They average between 18 and 31 minutes per game; Cook gets 23.
"As long as you play hard and aren?t in foul trouble, you?re going to get a decent amount of time in," Cook said, "and that?s all I?m really worried about right now."
Recruiting at the level Matta does can involve egos that need to be gratified. They aren?t evident in Cook and the three other freshmen ? Oden, Mike Conley Jr. and David Lighty ? who had their pick of major programs.
"Sometimes you get the type of team where you?ve got players who are always selfish and out for their own," Cook said. "On this team, we?re always making the extra pass."
Matta said he was never concerned about this group.
"The thing I like as well as their skill level is, I think these guys have an understanding of how to play and an appreciation for our system and how we?re trying to do things," he said.
"I really believe these guys are probably more happy with being 5-0 ? than they are with who?s starting and that kind of stuff. I think they know we?re a man down and like the fact that everybody?s having to pitch in and doing their part to help the team."
Cook started the season?s second exhibition game, committed three fouls in an exuberant nine minutes and fouled out in 16. Coming off the bench, he hasn?t had more than three fouls in a game.
"I think it maybe slows his mind down a little bit and he has maybe more of an understanding of what he needs to do when he gets in there," Matta said.
Cook, who typically enters after the first timeout, said he uses the first four minutes to study defenses, see where open shots are available and get a feel for the pace of the game.
"It?s a mind-set," said Ron Lewis, who played the role last year and is starting now. "You just have to come in and be active, and he?s been doing a great job of that."
[email protected]
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DDN

Cook exchanges Tar Heel blue for scarlet, gray

Ohio State plays North Carolina in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge tonight.


By Mark Gokavi
Staff Writer

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Daequan Cook's hoop dreams used to be in vivid, North Carolina Tar Heel blue.
"When he was younger, much younger, he just said he wanted to go there because of Michael Jordan," said Cook's mother, Renae. "He used to watch his tapes over and over again."
Before he got to Dunbar High School, Cook could be seen wearing that baby or sky blue.
"Yeah, but I don't think that was North Carolina," she said. "I think that was a fashion thing. He does like the color blue."
Along with his scarlet-and-gray-clad Ohio State teammates, Cook invades Chapel Hill tonight. OSU plays the Tar Heels as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge (9 p.m., ESPN).
Ohio State (6-0) is ranked No. 1 in the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll and No. 3 by the AP. Carolina (4-1) is ranked sixth and seventh, respectively.
In the offseason, OSU coach Thad Matta added what's been considered one of the best recruiting classes ever.
The so-called "Thad Five" of Cook, Greg Oden, Mike Conley Jr., David Lighty and juco transfer Othello Hunter was then passed by the Tar Heels' freshmen on some recruiting lists.
Cook, Oden and Conley played with and against three of those guys ? Wayne Ellington, Ty Lawson and Brandan Wright ? in the McDonald's All-American game in San Diego.
If North Carolina coach Roy Williams had his way, Cook would have been a Tar Heel.
"We recruited Daequan; I went to Dayton at least a couple of times myself," Williams said during a teleconference Tuesday. "I think that he's an outstanding scorer. He's extremely athletic and he can take the ball to the basket and finish with authority. He can really shoot the basketball."
Those lists don't mean much, but . . . "At first they were naming us the No. 1 recruiting class and now it's Carolina," Cook said recently. "When we play them, we'll really see who has the best recruiting class."
Of course, it's not a true test because Oden still is out, recovering from wrist surgery.
"You can't compare a lot of people to Greg," Cook said. "He's the No. 1 player in the country regardless of age, height, years. It's just politics."
Cook's Carolina dreams have turned into Ohio State reality.
He leads OSU in scoring (17.8 points per game), is second in rebounding (7.0) and third in assists (1.7) despite coming off the bench.
Renae, who will be at the game, said tonight is special.
"It's something he'd like to do, either play for (the Tar Heels) or against them," she said. "He's very happy with his choice (of school). He has no regrets. It's just going to be exciting for him ? to get that experience."
 
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