New Trier grad Steven Cook works for a basket underneath during action this winter. The Princeton University guard put together an award-laden senior season. PHOTOGRAPHY BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
It felt like 2013 all over again for New Trier boys basketball coach Scott Fricke in mid-March.
Four years ago, his Trevians’ memorable run in the Class 4A state playoffs ended with a supersectional loss to Simeon and future Milwaukee Bucks forward Jabari Parker at Chicago State University. Senior post player Steven Cook helped NT notch a school-record 28 wins and finished with averages of 18 points, seven rebounds, three steals, three assists and two blocks.
Now a senior at Princeton University, the 6-foot-5, 200-pound forward paced the 2016-17 Tigers (23-7) in scoring (13.6 points per game) and averaged an Ivy League-best 1.6 steals per game. The Princeton men’s basketball team captured the inaugural Ivy League Tournament championship — and an NCAA Tournament berth that accompanied it — by beating Yale 71-59 at The Palestra in Philadelphia on March 12.
Princeton, seeded 12th in the West Region, then fell 60-58 to fifth-seeded Notre Dame (26-9) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Buffalo, New York, on March 16.
Fricke took full advantage of his free periods at the school to watch Cook score 11 points and grab seven rebounds in the loss to the Irish.
“Steven played at a really, really high level in his last few college games — just like he did with us during the end of his senior season,” said Fricke, whose 2011-12 and 2012-13 teams — Cook’s junior and senior seasons — went a combined 52-11. “One of the best shot blockers I’ve ever seen [at the high school level]. He got significantly stronger in college after committing himself to time in the weight room, and he improved his ability to get to the basket and finish.
“I watched Steven on TV every chance I could.”
Though Cook, the basketball player, did not advance to this weekend’s Final Four in Glendale, Arizona, he’ll be there — as an honoree. The National Association Basketball Coaches (NABC) named Cook to its 2017 Allstate Good Works Team, a highly prestigious off-the-court honor in college basketball.
A total of 181 players were nominated for consideration last fall.
NABC selected only 10.
Cook — one of five Division I selectees — will be recognized at the NABC Convention in Glendale and join the other nine as a participant in a local community service project.
“It’s not just basketball with him,” Fricke said. “He’s also a smart kid who cares about others.”
Cook — an economics major, a first-team all-Ivy Leaguer and Princeton’s first College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-American since 1998 — works as an independent fundraiser for the Gidel Mother of Mercy Hospital in Sudan, for which he is spearheading an effort to generate more than $80,000; serves as the team’s liaison for community service for the Princeton Varsity Club; volunteers at the YMCA and other local organizations; and has interned for Heartland Alliance, an anti-poverty group based in Chicago.
Princeton benefited greatly from Cook’s deeds on basketball courts in 2016-17. He shot an impressive 43 percent (55-for-122) from three-point range and ranked second among teammates in rebounds (5.1 per game). Cook went 6-for-11 in three-point attempts in his final two games, including a 3-for-6 effort in the NCAA Tournament game.
“My biggest takeaway from that game was an Ivy League school can compete with any school,” said Cook, who ranks No. 15 in career scoring (1,148 points) at Princeton and poured in a career-high 30 points twice in his senior season (vs. Monmouth on Dec. 20 and vs. Harvard on March 3). “You hear it all the time — ‘Ivy League schools and mid-major schools are a step below schools from the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) and other big conferences.’ But we competed with Notre Dame [an ACC school). We competed very well.
“It was,” he added, “a real cool experience, being there with our group of 27 [players, coaches, trainers and professors who proctored mid-terms].”
Princeton went 14-0 in Ivy League games this winter. But — unlike in past years, when the league champion automatically qualified for an NCAA Tournament berth — the Tigers had to win twice in the inaugural league tourney to extend their season.
Princeton beat Penn 72-64 in overtime on March 11, before topping Yale for the title one day later.
“The was a great moment when we beat Yale,” Cook recalled. “Seeing our student fans rush the court, seeing everyone show pure elation, realizing we had clinched an NCAA Tournament berth … surreal, so much of that day was surreal.”
Four years ago, in another state, another contingent of rabid fans hoped to express similar joy for a team led by Cook.
Eventual state champion Simeon, alas, beat New Trier 63-54 in a supersectional at Chicago State.
“Our students came out in full force for that game,” Cook said. “Amazing. We had an amazing run. That was a special group of guys, our team, and I still keep in touch with several of them.”
And with Fricke. Following many of Princeton’s games this winter, Fricke texted thoughtful, supportive messages to Cook.
“To read, ‘We’re watching you, and we’re happy for you,’ from Coach Fricke was great,” said Cook, who scored his first basket as a collegian on a backdoor-cut layup — Princeton’s signature way of scoring in its perennially patient system — against Rice in 2013.
Cook plans to do everything in his power to play professional basketball. He’s figuring things out now, like the process of finding an agent, and he’ll stay in shape and shoot basketballs until the day he dons a cap and gown for Princeton’s graduation ceremony on June 6.
“He’ll have opportunities to play professionally,” Fricke said. “I hope everything works out for him.
“Steven,” the coach added, “did everything the right way when he was with us and throughout his years at Princeton. With us, he was a kid with talent, with aspirations, with an incredible work ethic. But individual accolades never meant anything to him; he wanted his team to win more than anything else.”