Charles Cooke Transferring
We hardly even knew ya
We had such a nice little plan for this week. First Rob would post the ThrowbackThursday video of JMU beating UVA in ancient times and then I’d tout the new Student Appreciation Day that the football team is putting on this weekend. We were gonna be happy and not even visit the message boards and stay in our happy place at least through the Final Four next week.
And then this. Men’s hoops stud Charles Cooke has been granted his release and is transferring out. Rumors had been simmering on this one, but we had hoped they were just that, rumors. Now we know that Cooke will be following Bessick and Rivard in an apparent exodus from Matt Brady’s program. Along with Bessick, the Dukes have now lost half of that fearsome foursome of freshmen that helped lead JMU back to the NCAA tourney last year and had given so many of us such high hopes for the two years remaining as a group. Now only Ron Curry, who thankfully has probably demonstrated the most growth on the court of that group, and Andre Nation, whose talent we all gape at but whose ability to maintain eligibility is about as reliable as the insanely schizophrenic tweets of @NEWERAJMUFB, remain. Talk about a buzzkill.
Look, these are college kids and they seem to have tried hard for JMU the last two years. We wish them well. And we certainly don’t know Cooke’s reasons – maybe he thinks he’s the next Luke Hancock (except he can’t shoot), maybe he’s tired of hearing Nation Nation Nation even though Andre was on the court less than half the year and may not take things as seriously as his teammates, or maybe he even thinks JMU is headed for a lameduck year anyways after some last-minute conference change in the next 60 days. But what’s sad is it seems entirely more likely the kids either a) don’t believe in Brady and the staff and/or b) are getting really poor advice. Probably a combination of the two, but the one thing we know is that this group could have been special and had a legit shot at back-to-back (and thereby 3/4 years) NCAA runs and maybe even to develop into a Stephen F. Austin type senior-laden team capable of anything and now they’re either going to some other similarly mediocre mid-major or going to be a role-player at a perceived better program.
Needless to say, Rob, our resident hoophead didn’t take the news very well today, and I think it’s fair to say this news actually drags us down about everything related to JMU Sports, including the realignment mess. It just sucks we never get a chance to enjoy things like the afterglow of a great women’s hoops run, a creative new event like Student Appreciation Day, or the red-hot run the softball team is on because Athletic’s two prize bellcows (football and men’s hoops) and the administration always seem ready to drop the other shoe on us like a cartoon anvil.
Really freaking tough to win consistently when you can’t keep your talent….
There were games this past season, with and without Nation, when Cooke carried the scoring load for this Dukes team. This is a loss for the program, and Coach Brady really needs to pull in some good recruits to make up for these transfers. Bessick was weak inside, but had good length and potential if he could get stronger. I hope Brady can land a strong post player. Losing Cooke though is a real let down. He will be hard to replace. Maybe there’s another kid out there with good size, quickness and shooting skills who can compliment Curry in the backcourt as a shooting guard. Maybe Kent Jackson’s future just got brighter.
This past season wasn’t great, as expected, but it also wasn’t terrible. I know I kept seeing glimpses of what I know this team is capable of once they gain some more experience. I just couldn’t wait to see what these guys were capable of as seniors together.
I guess the Dukes fans in that alternate universe will enjoy seeing it now.
It is sad, but it is much better that he transfer than stay where he does not want to be. I had high hopes for this group.
I do think that this is going to continue to happen until JMU moves into a better league. There are not many mid-majors that have made the leap to being consistently good. It is possible to have a good year or two on the national scene, but to sustain it, those teams tend to move up to a higher tier mid-major conference. This is the only way you are going to consistently get good players and keep any consistency in the level of play. College kids are going to transfer. That happens at every school at every level. Unfortunately, schools from our level of mid-major cannot recover from the impact of the loss of a player as quickly as a team with more depth of talent.
Having said that…I will miss seeing Charles Cooke in a JMU uniform. I wish him the best no matter where he ends up.
These kids we’re losing are not transferring to bigger schools in “better” leagues. It seems to me that something is internally wrong here.
Losing Cooke is tough.. hard to have faith in Brady for the future after this season..
PS – LOL at jab at “NEWERAJMUFB” – guy is all over the place and comes off as a prick 24/7
I have a few questions:
* Do these defections free-up any scholarship funds?
* Could academics have anything to do with this?
* Didn’t similar things happen last year?
* Why do coaches receive such long extensions on their contracts?
In any event, all this does not reflect well on Coach Brady …
@jmuparent Yes, this move frees up a scholarship and the funds that go with it. Typically athletic scholarships are year to year anyway.
No telling what the real reason for Cooke’s departure, but rumor is he had issues with someone on the coaching staff. It’s just unfortunate.
I wouldn’t be so quick to jump on the “the problem is Brady” bandwagon. We could have a coach that could bring in and keep kids that win and then down the road find out they are compromising the integrity of the school. A coach that does things the right way is always going to have a hard time keeping kids that have been told all their life how great they are and how they can do no wrong. I am not pointing to any individual player, but a coach that requires that the kids actually go to class and take their education seriously is always going to have a harder time than a coach that puts basketball first.
The reputation of your school (and your degree) is far more important than championships in basketball.
I don’t know what is going on inside the program or if Brady is the right guy, but I can pretty much guarantee that nobody on this blog does either.
More to follow….
There’s too much of a history of players leaving for this to be seen as a coincidence or exception. Something is wrong with the way Brady recruits and treats players.