Cook eager to make first impression

It wasn’t easy for Mike Cook to sit out at first. He wasn’t used to the anonymity that came… It wasn’t easy for Mike Cook to sit out at first. He wasn’t used to the anonymity that came with the blue warm-ups he had to wear sitting near the end of the Pitt bench while his teammates made names for themselves.

“It was hard at first,” Cook admitted. “I lost a lot of my touch around the basket. I felt I really couldn’t get the touch in practice, but it was fun watching these guys play as the season went on, seeing the success they were having.”

That was part of the reason Cook wanted to transfer to Pitt. He saw the opportunity to play for a nationally renowned basketball team in one of the nation’s toughest conferences, so he left East Carolina after his sophomore year.

He also left behind the prowess of being the Pirates’ leading scorer in 2005. He left the accolades he received as a freshman in the Conference USA the year before. He parted ways with several familiar faces of teammates from his hometown of Philadelphia.

He left it all behind — because it was too easy.

“I didn’t really feel like I was being challenged at East Carolina,” Cook said. “I think I just wanted to be at a better institution and at a better basketball program.”

So Cook left the fame, traded in his uniform for a set of blue sweats and plunked down on the bench. He watched every Pitt game from a cushioned courtside seat identical to the ones that well-endowed spectators watch games from on the opposite side of the court.

But that would be the only time Cook would sit. Whenever the cameras were off and the stands empty, Cook went to work. He ran. He dribbled. He shot. But most important of all, he studied.

“I really tried to buckle down my academics last year,” Cook said. “Last year was a big year for me in the classroom, and I really just tried to concentrate on my books. Then in the off-season I started working on my jump-shot losing weight.”

And the work paid off — quickly. Along with the rest of his teammates, Cook participated in the Pittsburgh basketball club’s newly formed Pro-Am Summer League and started turning heads.

While the competition in the first-year league that featured a mixture of college players around the area paled in comparison to the NBA-caliber opposition in the Philadelphia Pro-Am leagues Cook used to play in, his game stood out, leaving many Pitt basketball fans asking, “Who is Mike Cook?”

“Mike is a guy that people are anxious to see,” Dixon said. “It seems like he wouldn’t be that much of a surprise because everybody’s already talking about him. Now it seems like you get into the off-season and everybody talks about the ‘new guy’ and he fits into that category.”

Cook isn’t new to Dixon, or the Pitt coaching staff. When they heard the 6-foot-4, 230-pound combo guard/forward was looking to transfer, they merely picked up where they left off two years before.

“We recruited him out of high school and I felt he’d be a good piece with the guys we were losing,” Dixon said. “We just heard he was looking to move and…we check every box score so we knew he was doing well and putting up good numbers [at East Carolina].”

Cook scored 15 points per game as a sophomore, the year when he led the Pirates in scoring. He also scored 10.4 points per game as a freshman and was named to the Conference USA All-Freshman team.

But all that’s behind Cook, and, according to Dixon, only better things are yet to come.

“I like transfers because you get them a year to sit out, get older and, if it’s a good redshirt year, it can be very successful,” Dixon said. “He had a great redshirt year and that’s a testament to his work ethic. I think he’s really improved and he’s going to continue to improve.”

And Dixon is the primary catalyst to Cook’s improvement. From the minute he arrived on campus, Cook realized his new coach was the motivator he was looking for.

“That’s the first thing coach Dixon did to me — he challenged me,” Cook said. “First in the classroom and then on the court. He just never lets me settle.”

So far, Cook has met that challenge. He’s improved his game. He’s lost weight. He has people penciling him into the Panthers’ lineup without ever having played a minute for Pitt.

He’s poised to rip off the blue warm-ups and walk onto the hardwood floor in a brand new Pitt uniform. Cook even believes there may eventually be a spot for him in the Panthers’ starting lineup next to the guys he had to watch all last year.

“I’ll just see what happens,” Cook said. “I’m just excited to be out here and know that I’m going to be playing in a couple weeks.”

Whatever happens for Cook, it sure hasn’t come easy.