Winthrop, Cooks will have consistency tested Saturday

It was a good sign when Xavier Cooks scored the first seven points of Thursday night’s win over High Point.

As much as any Eagles player, Cooks’ performances are indicative of what’s going to happen for Winthrop’s basketball team on a given night. Keon Johnson and Jimmy Gavin are consistent offensive factors for the Eagles, and Duby Okeke is one of the most effective shot-blockers in the country, but none of the Eagles can influence their team’s performance at both ends of the court and psychologically like Cooks.

Cooks looked like a sure-thing first team all-conference selection after the first two games of the season. The 6-foot-8 Australian scored 22 and 19 points in wins over Hampton and Truett-McConnell, averaging 10 rebounds in those two contests and showing the kind of potential that made Eagles fans drool at the possibilities.

But ups and downs have followed.

Cooks played really well in wins against Jacksonville State and Charleston Southern, but took himself out of a narrow win over USC Upstate and the crushing loss to Asheville when the Eagles coughed up a 23-point second half lead in a one-point defeat. In both games, the Aussie followed up foul calls with a quick verbal barb toward the ref, earning a technical foul and his coach’s ire. Cooks was held out the rest of the game and it hurt the team both times.

“I really struggle with keeping my composure sometimes, I really let the game get the best of me sometimes,” Cooks said. “The slumps I go through are usually foul trouble, tech fouls; I can control that stuff.”

Cooks said he’s always had temper flashes.

“It’s disappointing,” he said, tying his shoes before Friday’s practice. “Like the Campbell game; I get the tech and sit on the sideline and watch the team lose.”

Kelsey said Cooks’ attitude – never really a problem, just the temper flashes – has been great since the Campbell contest. Before the High Point game, Cooks said he felt ready, not nervous, and Kelsey said he’s one of the few players on the roster that everyone stops and listens when he speaks.

“He was terrific yesterday on the floor, but he was as good as I’ve ever seen him really the last several weeks in all other facets,” said Kelsey. “He’s been an unbelievably vocal leader for us. He has such a powerful voice in our locker room because people respect him so much as a player.”

Cooks is one of the more unusually talented players in the Big South and arguably one of its toughest defensive matchups. Kelsey said his ability to connect dots and see things before they happen is uncanny, something he demonstrated on the backdoor bounce pass to Josh Davenport that Davenport slammed home over two High Point defenders to make ESPN’s Top-10 plays of the night.

But Cooks’ outstanding first two games of the season may have ratcheted up the expectations a little too quickly. He’s still just a sophomore and it’s important to remember he’s living a half-world away from his family.

“I feel more comfortable this year,” said Cooks, adding that he enjoys the South’s football culture. “Last year I was just not used to at all the school, meeting people, but this year I’m so much more comfortable in the school world, in basketball.”

The enormous time difference between Rock Hill and Wollongong, Australia makes communication between Cooks and his family a challenge. His parents work during the day, so he can’t talk to them until after 5 p.m. in Australia, about 1 a.m. in the American Eastern Time Zone.

Cooks said Christmas is a tough holiday for him, and that missing family and friends’ birthdays back in Australia stinks.

“But we’re just so full-on here that I don’t really have time to dwell on being home,” said Cooks, who visited cousins in Washington D.C. this Christmas.

Full-on is a good way to describe the Eagles’ schedule this week with three home games in six games. Winthrop has no time to let the High Point win marinate; Cooks and company are right back at it Saturday against a Liberty team buoyed by the addition of two transfers that became eligible Jan. 1. It’s a chance to show the team’s progressed and that the win over High Point wasn’t a false dawn.

“That’s what it’s all about. This team is gonna be tested tomorrow. We saw how we handled adversity, we handled it really well,” Kelsey said. “Now, can we handle a little bit of success?”

This story was originally published January 15, 2016 at 6:14 PM with the headline "Winthrop, Cooks will have consistency tested Saturday."