Ohio point guard D.J. Cooper was recently named to CollegeInsider.com’s freshmen All-America team along with 19 others across the country including Kentucky’s John Wall, Kansas’ Xavier Henry, and Georgia Tech’s Derrick Favors.
Rather than assembling a first, second, third, and fourth team like many publications do, College Insider listed all 20 players as one squad.
During his rookie campaign, Cooper averaged 13.5 points per game for the Bobcats as well as 5.9 assists and 5.4 rebounds per contest.
In Ohio’s final three games of the season against Akron, Georgetown and Tennessee, Cooper scored 62 points while leading his team to the MAC Tournament Championship and a birth in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Cooper scored a career-high 33 points in a Feb. 14 game at Akron.
The Ohio point guard lead the Mid-American Conference in assists, steals, and minutes, and was second in assist to turnover ratio. He was also among the leaders in points, rebounds, and free-throw percentage.
Nationally, Cooper ranked in the top ten in assists per game, and 14th in steals and is one of only two players to be ranked in the top 15 of each of these categories.
The freshman phenom also broke a school single-season record for steals with 85.
Previously this month, Cooper was named MAC Freshman of the Year, the fifth Bobcat to receive the honor.
Skilled in many aspects of the game, Cooper came close to a few triple-doubles and even a quadruple-double in some games this season.
In a Mar. 4 game against Bowling Green, Cooper showed his versatility by totaling 6 points, ten rebounds, eleven assists, and 7 steals.
Cooper came into the season as Ohio’s most heralded recruit, but it was not until the postseason that he made a name for himself nationally.
When Cooper dropped 23 points on Georgetown in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and led his team to a commanding win over the Hoyas, coaches around the country were all asking the same questions. “Who is this guy? And how did we not recruit him?”
After a 9th place finish in the MAC in 2010, expect D.J. Cooper and company to take the conference by storm in 2011.
