SG Daequan Cook (2009 NBA 3-point Shootout Champion)

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Lets try to stay on topic of this thread which is Cook, not Upper Sandusky...thxs in advance.

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

SCOUT


3/14/05

Cook was named Co-Player of the Year for Division II. He averaged 22.6 points, 11.5 rebounds and 5 assists during the season.

[crazybuckfan40]

Is he the favortie to win Mr. Basketball in Ohio also?

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

LINK

3/15/05

Three of four players of the year are packing for state tournament

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Three players headed for this week's state boys basketball tournament and another who just missed his fourth consecutive trip to the final four lead the 2004-2005 Associated Press Division I and Division II All-Ohio teams announced Monday.

The players of the year in Division II are Upper Sandusky's Jacob Diebler and Dayton Dunbar's Daequan Cook, whose teams will meet in the semifinals.

In Division I, the top players are Johnny Wolf, who helped Cincinnati St. Xavier back into the states, and Jamelle Cornley, whose Columbus Brookhaven team lost in the regional finals to fall short of a fourth consecutive appearance at Value City Arena.


Dieblers are everywhere on the Division II team, it seems. Jacob, a 6-foot-3 senior, averaged 18.8 points, 11.1 assists, 7 steals and 7.8 rebounds a game for the state's No. 1-ranked team. His "little" brother, Jon, a 6-6 sophomore, is on the second team after averaging 24.9 points, 7 rebounds and 2.9 assists a game. And their father, Keith, grabbed coach of the year honors for leading the Rams to the poll crown, a perfect 25-0 record so far, and its Thursday afternoon date with Dunbar (22-4).


Thursday's first Division II semi pits Wooster Triway (23-3) against surprising Columbus Linden McKinley (11-14). The winners square off Saturday afternoon to decide the title.

Cook is a 6-5 junior who averaged 22.6 points, 11.5 rebounds and 5 assists a game.

Joining Cook and Diebler on the first team are: Korey Spates, Warrensville Heights (6-1, sr., 26.5); Morgan Lewis, Painesville Harvey (6-3, sr., 20.1); Dwayne Jackson, Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit (6-3, sr., 21.0); Chad Fender, Poland Seminary (6-2, sr., 18.2); Dante Jackson, Greenfield McClain (6-5, soph., 24.9); Brian Kreefer, East Liverpool (6-7, sr., 27.4); and Mike Fout, Columbus Hamilton Township (6-4, jr., 28.8).


In Division I, Cornley is a 6-6 senior who hit for 21.1 points and 13 rebounds a game while shooting 60 percent from the field. The Penn State signee led his team to a 16-4 regular-season record.


Wolf, a 6-2 senior, recorded 24.3 points a game for St. Xavier (21-5), which battles crosstown rival Moeller (22-3) in Friday's final semifinal. The earlier game matches Mansfield Senior (24-1) against Canton McKinley (25-1), with the finale set for 8:30 p.m. Saturday.


That semifinal also matches the division's coaches of the year.


Mansfield Senior is led by Gregg Collins, who has won more than 300 games in a career that includes two state titles while at Lexington.


Canton McKinley, the No. 1 team in the final Associated Press regular-season poll, is led by Dave Hoover, who is bringing his Bulldogs back to the state tournament for the second year in a row.


The rest of the first-teamers in Division I included: Dallas Lauderdale, Solon (6-9, soph., 18.0); Travis Walton, Lima Senior (6-2, sr., 19.4); B.J. Raymond, Toledo St. John's (6-6, sr., 20.8); and Bret Wackerly, North Canton Hoover (5-10, sr., 18.3).


<!-- -->Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

SCOUT

3/16/05

<TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=0 width="98%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top bgColor=#ffffff>
Daequan Cook

</TD><TD noWrap width=3></TD><TD vAlign=top>Dunbar And Upper Sandusky Prepared For Battle
By Kyle Lamb
Date: Mar 16, 2005

Don't forget the other portion of March Madness -- the Ohio high school tournament. While everyone fills out their picks for the NCAA Tournament, the Ohio high school boys tournament is down to the final four. One of the most intriguing matchups is in Division II, where top junior prospect Daequan Cook and Dayton Dunbar take on undefeated Upper Sandusky. Kyle Lamb has a preview.
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It’s not often a team of Dayton Dunbar’s caliber plays the role of underdog. Especially when you consider two of the state’s best three players play for the Wolverines.

However, come Thursday afternoon in the Division II state semifinals, that’s precisely what will happen when Dunbar will meet up against the No. 1-ranked team in the state, Upper Sandusky (25-0).

For the Wolverines, this was how it was supposed to happen. Led by junior Daequan Cook, a 6-5 guard averaging 21.7 points and 12 rebounds per game, Dunbar has overcome many obstacles because of talent and embracing a new system.

“Well, we actually feel like we’ve been an underdog all season long,” said Dunbar head coach Pete Pullen. “We feel like we haven’t been respected enough, in some cases, by even our own fans. Either we haven’t won by as many as we should have, or when we’ve lost, we shouldn’t have lost to the teams we lost to. This really is a role we have felt like we’ve been playing under all year.”

Pete Pullen, a former girl’s head coach for Dunbar, took over in the off-season after long time coach Mitch Watterman, was terminated by the board of education. Although Dunbar was slow to adapt to a new man and a new style, they are playing their best team basketball of the season.

Dunbar isn’t the only team in this game who had to adjust to change.

Under first-year head coach Keith Diebler, Upper Sandusky has won 25 consecutive games averaging 89 points a game with an up-tempo style of play and tenacious full court press. Led by his two sons, Jake (6-3 senior point guard ) and Jon (6-6 sophomore post), both committed to play basketball at Valparaiso University, Diebler left a successful program at Fostoria where he won over 20 games.

The three have taken over at Upper Sandusky and meshed perfectly with a group of talented scorers to become one of the elite teams in the entire state. In addition to both Dieblers, Upper Sandusky gets 15.5 points a game from 6-3 senior wing Greg Micheli and nearly 10 points a game (8.8) from 6-7 forward Miles Weaver.

The two teams share more than just first-year head coaches at their respective schools.

Division II shared player of the year honors with two starters in this game—Dunbar’s Cook and Upper Sandusky’s Jake Diebler.

Diebler averaged 18.8 points, 11 assists, and 7.5 rebounds a game for the Rams this season. His father Keith also won the Coach of the Year in Division II. Joining his brother and father receiving hardware, is the youngest Diebler, Jon, who was a second-team All-Ohio selection averaging 26.0 points and 6.3 rebounds a game while shooting 45.7 percent from 3-point range.

Despite all of their accomplishments and accolades, Diebler doesn’t buy into being the favorite. He is treating Dunbar as the talented they that they really are.

“I think they are one of the top teams in the state,” Diebler said of Dunbar. “They have one of the top players in the state, if not the entire country, and we know they are going to be a tough test for us.”

Tough tests have been rather few and far between for the Rams this season. In their regional final game against Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary’s, Upper Sandusky rallied from three points down at the end of the first quarter to an impressive 85-55 victory, outscoring the Irish by 33 points in the game’s final three quarters.

Between the two regional contests, the youngest Diebler, Jon, scored a total of 70 points (35 a game). It’s a sign that Upper Sandusky is even better now than they were earlier in the year.

“We’re hoping what we’ve done and been successful with all year will work for us this game,” the elder Diebler said. “We just played on Saturday, so we don’t have a lot of time to get ready for a game like this, so we will just plan on doing what has got us to this point.”

Upper Sandusky will not only have to contain Cook, but they will have to remember 6-9 Aaron Pogue, a sophomore forward who is nearly 280 pounds.

Pogue is averaging 16 points and 11 rebounds on the season.

“They have a good team,” Diebler affirmed. “Between Cook and the Pogue kid, they have some very good players, and you can’t just take one guy out of the equation.”

On the other hand, when Upper Sandusky begins pressing and tries to force the tempo of the game, Pullen knows his Dunbar squad will have to handle it.

“In our case, we definitely have to handle the pressure,” Pullen acknowledged. “We have to play better than what we did in our regional final game against Taft and not have another 25 turnovers. They will really come at us, they are quick, and they like to score points off their defense. We have to control the ball.”

“I would say I’d rather make them beat us offensively, and not turn the ball over because that means they are getting easy points,” Pullen concluded as the keys to the game.

In the game against Cincinnati Taft, Dunbar committed 25 turnovers. The biggest feat, however, is the fact they survived in overtime (80-72), despite Cook fouling out with just a couple of minutes left in regulation.

It was an encouraging sign of where this team has come from, for Pullen, that they were able to survive with Cook on the bench.

“Our kids knew we weren’t doomed without Daequan,” Pullen said. “Mark (Anderson) said ‘Don’t worry guys, this is on me’, and I think the kids just sort of had confidence in themselves. Our kids believe in us, and we know who got us here and who leads this team, but it’s not just one guy and I think they had to step up and show that.”

With Upper Sandusky, it’s all about team.

Diebler is impressed with how easy and quickly he’s been able to make the transition to Upper Sandusky this season. He couldn’t expect anything more from his team, school, or community than what he has got.

“These kids have made me look real good as a coach, and I couldn’t be more proud of what they have accomplished,” Diebler said. “They have a 3.9 GPA as a team. That’s the sort of effort and attitude they have. They get a lot of credit for believing and maintaining our system making it work at a high level.”

“I attribute everything to the community, the kids, and the school for accepting us with open arms. This group has really meshed quickly,” Diebler added.

For both teams, this is what you practice and play for all season long. Arguably the two best teams will be doing battle come Thursday afternoon for the right to advance to the state championship.

Pullen tells his kids something even Diebler would concur with.

“I told our group that at this time of year, there’s only 16 teams left practicing, and only four in our division,” he explained. “That’s what you work hard for—to be in this position. We couldn’t be happier to be where we are.”

On Thursday, there will be no underdogs—only two good teams giving it all they have got. Of course, if you consider Upper Sandusky the favorite or consider Dunbar the underdog, it’s a mentality both teams are prepared to deal with.

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My high school during my days used to play in the same league with Upper, so I am familiar with them. I had the opportunity to see them play my school this year and they are very, very good. It should be a great challenge for Dunbar and Cook.

[crazybuckfan40]

Originally Posted by bucknuts44820

Lets try to stay on topic of this thread which is Cook, not Upper Sandusky...thxs in advance.

just messin with ya bn44820

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

good one crazybuck.....the above article also had comments from Upper Sandusky players, just trying to give some insight to what Dunbar will face.

[crazybuckfan40]

Thats what I was trying to do also.

Its all good tho.

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

SCOUT$

3/16/05

<TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=0 width="98%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top bgColor=#ffffff>
Daequan Cook

</TD><TD noWrap width=3></TD><TD vAlign=top> Cook Enjoys Chance To Play At The Schott
By Steve Helwagen Managing Editor
Date: Mar 17, 2005

Dayton Dunbar junior standout Daequan Cook tallied 26 points, but it was not enough. Upper Sandusky rode hot three-point shooting to an entertaining 95-90 win in a Division II state semifinal game. Afterwards, Cook discussed playing in Value City Arena as well as his future.

Cook ended up scoring 26 points, but Dunbar dropped a 95-90 decision to the high scoring Upper Sandusky Rams. Dunbar finished 22-5.

He is interested in Ohio State, North Carolina, Michigan, Cincinnati, Wake Forest and Michigan State.

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[crazybuckfan40]

Dang I bet that game was crazy. I was hopin to get to watch Cook on ONN on saturday. Doesnt look like I am going to be granted that wish.

[Bestbuck36]

What did Cook have to say about playing in VCA??

[crazybuckfan40]

Nothing really just said the win over Illinois made him want to play there alot.

[jimotis4heisman]

scored a quiet 23 in a 95-90 barn burner of a lose. not a good long distance shooter, very flat and hard shot. 1-9or10 on threes. a good pull up jump shooter though. does not attack the basket prefers to pull lup at 5 feet. very fluid player with excellent hands. reminds me of a great defensive back when the ball is in the air, fluid slow motion movements but always gets it. very good ball handler, on full court press the press breaker was posting him up and daquean would run the ball all the way down the court and dish for a layup. plays maybe a little to unselfish. effort seemed to be lackluster, often times wouldnt even jog down to the offensive end. honestly this team was absoltely terribly coached, if those guys were coaches not bus drivers...

also had a player on his team worth a mention #44 pouge 6-8 very solid build. underutilized but an absolute load. physically larger than dials, but was not used in any half court sets (they never ran any "sets" that i saw) good hands and great quickness for a guy his size. like cook had a tendency not to run the floor, on both ends.

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

LINK

3/21/05

In Division II, brothers Jon and Jake Diebler shared the most outstanding honors.

The Dieblers were the anchors as No. 1-ranked Upper Sandusky (27-0) captured its first state title ever with a 94-86 victory over Wooster Triway on Saturday.

Jon, a sophomore, scored 32 points and had 14 rebounds in the final, while Jake, a senior, had 14 points, nine assists and seven rebounds despite being saddled with foul trouble for most of the game.

Jon totaled 61 points and 23 rebounds in two games, while Jake had 29 points, 19 assists and 16 rebounds.

Joining them on the all-tournament team was teammate Greg Micheli (47 points, 15 rebounds in two games); Triway's Jamie Breneman (49 points in two games) and Linc Rottman (41 points); Columbus Linden McKinley's Shaun Gunnell (25 points, 14 rebounds in a semifinal loss); and Dayton Dunbar's Daequan Cook (26 points, 12 rebounds in one game).

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

RIVALS.COM (Kentucky Site)

3/21/05

Kentucky has not been recruiting him heavily, they have other targets. Cook is considered the #1 shooting guard in the class.

Cook is receiving heavy interest from Wake Forest, North Carolina, Michigan, Cincinnati, Michigan State, and Ohio State. He hasn't named a leader, but he is an AAU teammate (Spiece Indy Heat) of Greg Oden and Mike Conley, both of whom are linked with Wake Forest as well.