The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Cokley Quickly Making The Jump From High School To College
1/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Steve Ivine, UABSports.com
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Chris Cokley remembers the struggles of his early days as a college basketball player. Of course, it’s pretty simple for the UAB freshman to recall those days considering they weren’t that long ago.
“I think I made a big jump from two months ago when I was struggling a little bit,” Cokley said. “Now that I got a feel for the game, I’m fine.”
Truthfully, the 6-foot-8, 216-pound freshman from Savannah, Ga. is currently playing just about as well as anyone on the UAB roster. He carries a streak of three consecutive double-figure scoring games into Thursday night’s key Conference USA matchup against Charlotte at Bartow Arena. The last three games is only a start in charting how important that the talented youngster, who won’t turn 19 until July 27, has become for a UAB group that has developed into one of the best teams in the conference.
In five C-USA games, Cokley is averaging 9.4 points and 3.0 rebounds per game in just under 15 minutes per contest. He trails only Robert Brown in scoring in conference play and is shooting a team-best 68.9 percent from the field in all games. He’s also supplying big plays when called upon, like when he scooped up a loose ball and converted on a short jumper with no hesitation with three minutes left in Saturday’s 63-56 C-USA win at Southern Miss.
Understanding how he got to this point so quickly has to start from the first time he picked up a basketball at the age of 4. An older cousin introduced him to the game and taught him how to play. It quickly grew into a way of life. Cokley often visited playground courts, including early in the morning and late at night. He dribbled while watching others play and dribbled on the sidewalk when he was going places. When he fell to sleep, his basketball was with him.
“I just fell in love with basketball,” Cokley said.
He was always taller than most of his friends and eventually grew into the one of the top big men in Georgia. He led Savannah High to Georgia Class 3A state championships as a sophomore and junior. He averaged 13.6 points and 7.6 rebounds as a junior, upped those numbers to 15.5 points and 9.9 rebounds as a senior and was ranked a three-star recruit by Rivals.com. College offers came from a large numbers of schools, including Georgia and Ole Miss. His decision to commit to Jerod Haase’s UAB program echoes what many of his current teammates have said about choosing the Blazers.
“I felt at home with the atmosphere and the way Coach Haase and the rest of the coaching staff brought me in like I was their own kid,” Cokley said. “I kind of felt like this was my family, that’s why I chose UAB.”
It also helped that he was part of a heralded freshman group that included William Lee, Nick Norton, Jarvis Calhoun and Lewis Sullivan.
“It kind of made me happy because I know the years we’re going to have together,” Cokley said. “Our future together as freshmen and as a team seems bright. I think we’ll do big things down the line and this year and we’ll shock a lot of people.”
Cokley reached double figures in his second regular season game, contributing 12 points to a win over Young Harris College, and had two of his better games against UCLA and North Carolina. He had 13 points and six rebounds against UCLA and 10 points and five rebounds at North Carolina. Overall, he’s averaging 7.2 points, which is tops among the heralded freshmen class, and four rebounds per game.
“I think I’m way better than I was in high school, just because the work in the weightroom and in the gym and just being well coached,” Cokley said. “I just need to keep improving on the defensive end, help my team get key stops, and keep working on my defensive skills.”
If he can do that, then the struggles won’t return.
