No more Cookin’: NCAA denies appeal

After months of waiting, ex-Pitt basketball player Mike Cook’s appeal to the NCAA for a sixth… After months of waiting, ex-Pitt basketball player Mike Cook’s appeal to the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility was denied Wednesday. Cook’s season came to an end last year on Dec. 20 against Duke in Madison Square Garden when he planted hard while driving through the lane during overtime. Cook crumbled to the floor in pain and left the game. An MRI later showed that Cook had suffered from a torn ACL along with a medial and lateral miniscal tear. Cook sat out the remainder of the season, missing all of Big East and postseason play. He hoped to garnish one more year as a Panther. Last month he told The Pitt News that he had expected to know the NCAA’s decision earlier in the summer but was optimistic at the time and was keeping a positive attitude. He said that since it had gone so long without a decision, it might improve his chances. He and Pitt are now left disappointed. According to NCAA rules, a player may be guaranteed an extra year if he played in less than 30 percent of his team’s games. Cook played in 11 of Pitt’s 37 total games (31 regular season, six postseason), but the NCAA only allows one postseason game to count in the total when figuring the amount of games played. So while he really played in just under 30 percent of the games, the rules about counting the postseason puts Pitt’s total amount of games to just 32. That means that in the eyes of the NCAA, Cook played in 34 percent of Pitt’s games. Still, Pitt appealed to the NCAA for the extra year after the medical hardship waiver was denied by the conference, hoping Cook could be granted because of extraordinary circumstances. It was then denied by the NCAA Division I Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee. Brian Regan, who was named the director of men’s basketball operations this past summer, said he is not familiar with exactly how the committee decides upon who does and does not get extra years of eligibility, but that the coaching staff and team would be disappointed to see him go. And although Cook isn’t expected to be at full-strength for some time, he said Pitt would have liked to have him back. ‘It’s a shame,’ said Regan, who works with scheduling, planning and other day-to-day basketball operations. Former women’s basketball player Mallorie Winn was granted a sixth year of eligibility from the NCAA last year after she suffered a similar knee injury in the 2006 preseason. But since it was before the season started, Winn was not counted as playing in any of the team’s games that season. A Philadelphia native, Cook originally attended East Carolina University before transferring to Pitt in 2005. He sat out one year due to NCAA transfer rules before starting 48 consecutive games with Pitt. He averaged 10.4 points and 2.8 rebounds per game in his 11 games last year. Pitt was 40-8 in two years with Cook in the starting lineup. He graduated last spring with a degree in communications and will be given the chance by the University to stay in Pittsburgh while he continues to rehab his knee.