Last Sunday Princeton beat Yale at the Palestra in the 1st-ever Ivy League title game to earn an automatic bid to this week’s NCAA tournament. The Tigers joined Vermont as the only 2 teams to not lose a conference game all season, and after playing in the NIT in 2016 they are back in the NCAA tourney where they will face #5-seed Notre Dame in a West Region match-up on Thursday afternoon in Buffalo. Yesterday HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with SR SF Steven Cook about being an Academic All-American and the fact that his team still had to win its conference tourney to make it to the NCAA tourney.
You play for Coach Mitch Henderson: what makes him such a good coach, and what is the most important thing that you have ever learned from him? He adds so much value to our program because he was such a successful player here himself. He went to 3 NCAA tourneys and was on a team that at 1 point was ranked in the top-10 in the nation. He taught us how hard it is to win so victory demands that you bring it every day in practice/games: you need a constant drive for success.
In the 2016 NIT you scored 22 PTS in a 5-PT OT loss to Virginia Tech: how close did you come to winning the game, and what did you learn from that game that you think will help you in the postseason this year? 1 of our advantages is that we have so much experience, which has helped us win in so many ways this year. The NIT felt like a big stage last year in a hostile environment, so we will be ready for anything this year on an even bigger stage.
In December you lost SR SF Henry Caruso for the year with a toe injury: how was your team able to overcome this obstacle? We also lost Hans Brase after he re-injured his ACL so those were 2 big hits to our team. It was a hard adjustment early in the season, which is why we struggled a bit, but it allowed younger guys like Myles Stephens/Devin Cannady to contribute in ways they did not have an opportunity to do in the past.
You had a tough non-conference schedule this year with teams like BYU/VCU/Cal/Bucknell: which team impressed you the most? All of those teams impressed us but VCU was probably the toughest team that we faced: it was such a hostile environment at their place due their great crowd. When you face tough situations early on and can look back on those games later in the season it helps you realize what it takes to win.
Your team swept most of the Ivy League awards this year (POY/DPOY/COY): do you think that you went 14-0 in conference play because your team was just better than everyone else? 1 thing about awards is that they tend to go to people on winning teams. There is a lot of talent around the Ivy League but we are a senior-driven team. We play together and can succeed as a cohesive unit, which is what separates us.
In any other year that would have been enough to earn a bid to the NCAA tourney, but for the 1st-time ever you had to win the Ivy League tourney to do so: did you think it was an unfair situation? I would not say that it was unfair. Our senior class always wanted to play in a conference tourney because it gives us more exposure and is 1 of the most exciting parts of March Madness. Playing against Penn on their home court was not easy, but as a competitor it is hard not to love those environments so we were still excited.
Earlier today you scored 15 PTS in a 71-59 win over Yale to clinch the conference title: what was the feeling like in your locker room afterward, and what was the reaction like when you got back to campus? It was unbelievable and pretty surreal for all of us: it has not really sunk in that we went 16-0, which is what we set out to do at the start of the year. There was a lot of hype/hysteria in the locker room so we just tried to appreciate the moment: even though it was just the day before it feels like it happened a week ago! The campus was really supportive with everyone congratulating us when we returned.
You are 1 of several seniors on the roster: how crucial will all of that veteran leadership be to your team’s success? That is what has carried us all year so I think it will continue to be a big factor for our team.
Earlier this month you were named a 3rd-team Academic All-American due to your 3.51 GPA in economics: why did you choose economics, and how do you balance your work on the court with your work in the classroom? I chose economics because it is a subject that has interested me since high school. I love it because it gives you a structured way to solve problems and look at the world in general. It is definitely a struggle to be a student-athlete at times but 1 of the most important things that I have learned during college is time management. You have to plan out your day and make time to fit in everything.
How do you feel about getting a #12-seed, and what do you know about Notre Dame? We are happy with whoever the committee matches us up against. Notre Dame is a great team with a lot of talent, which is why they made it all the way to the ACC title game, and I am looking forward to playing them on Thursday.