Matt Cashore-US PRESSWIRE
If the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will be leaving the Big East after this season, Jack Cooley is going to do everything he can to make sure they leave as champions.
The 6-foot-9, 250lbs senior has gone from supporting cast member to team leader for the Fighting Irish in the past 18 months. Cooley averaged 10 minutes, 3.7 points and 3.1 rebounds per game as a sophomore and struggled early into his junior season.
Then after missing a game against the Maryland Terrapins that Notre Dame lost on Dec. 4, everything seemed to click for Cooley. He exploded in his next game on Dec. 8 going off for 22 points and 14 rebounds and would finish the year averaging a double-double.
Suddenly Cooley became a scoring and rebounding machine helping Notre Dame go on a nine game win streak that started on Jan. 21 by defeating the unbeaten #1 ranked team at the time, Syracuse Orange. Cooley averaged 15.7 points and 11 rebounds during the streak. They’d finish the season going 16-1 on home court with a big reason being Cooley’s relentless crashing of the boards.
Cooley credits his almost overnight transformation to taking the game much more seriously. No longer playing video games every spare minute he has, Cooley now spends his time focusing a lot more on basketball. He spent the summer in the gym getting stronger and fine-tuning his game around the basket as he wants to be considered more than Luke Hurangody 2.0.
He’s entered the preseason and already wowed coach Mike Brey over his development into a leader. Calling out teammates in practice when they slack off and maintaining high energy levels. Clearly showing signs of high confidence and rightfully so after putting on a show at the Adidas Nations camp in August. On Day one of camp, Cooley put up 17 points against Mason Plumlee and averaged 66.6% shooting over the five day period.
Notre Dame returns an experienced roster that is predicted to finish third in the Big East. That ranking means nothing to Cooley as he had double-doubles helping the Fighting Irish in wins a year ago against the teams ranked ahead of them, the Louisville Cardinals and Syracuse.
Cooley knows Notre Dame is good enough to win the Big East. What the rest of the conference is learning is that Cooley has become one of the Big East’s best players.
