Article on Cook posted at CBS Sportsline 11/3/2000

["Ravi Singh" <kelticsfan@attbi.com>]

Article on Cook posted at CBS Sportsline 11/3/2000

http://cbs.sportsline.com/u/ce/multi/0%2C1329%2C2975565_55%2C00.html


NEW YORK -- The prized new freshman at St. John's has all of the traits
that have made up so many other New York City point guards over the
years. Tenacity, feistiness, a world of confidence and an unmistakable
New York attitude. 

But the one thing coach Mike Jarvis absolutely loves about Omar Cook?
The guy gets the point, no pun intended. 

"He does something that a lot of people today don't want to do," said
Jarvis. "He passes the basketball. I have a special affinity for players
who pass and share because that's the way the game is supposed to be
played." 

So a word of warning to any St. John's player in transition with Cook:
Keep your head up! 

"Pay attention at all times because he's a good passer, a real good
passer," said St. John's sophomore Donald Emanuel. "He's going to find
people the ball. 

In a perfect world, Cook would have shared the point with Erick Barkley
this season. But Barkley, yet another accomplished New York City-bred
point guard, opted for the NBA after two seasons at St. John's. He was
drafted by Portland. 

Cook and Barkley grew up in the same neighborhood in Brooklyn. They went
to the same high school -- basketball hotbed Christ the King. And now
Cook follows Barkley into the prestige of the Big East at his hometown
university. 

He does so knowing that Barkley helped vault the Johnnies into the Elite
Eight his freshman year. 

"Erick did so well when he came here," said the 6-1, 190-pound Cook.
"It's a lot of pressure on me coming in, but I'm ready. I worked hard.
This is what I play basketball for. 

"I was just sitting there watching them last year and saying I could be
out there right now. I've been waiting to play since last year, itching
since last year. I started at practice the first day letting my presence
be felt." 

Consider it felt. 

"The minute he plays, people are going to understand why he has the
reputation he has," Jarvis said. "He's a very special player. He's been
given some very special gifts. He uses those gifts. He has a great,
great sense of awareness on the court. He knows where people are. He
knows where people should be." 

Cook will kick off his collegiate career with a dreamy matchup with
Kentucky in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at Madison Square Garden on
Nov. 9. 

"Kentucky is a great opportunity for me," said Cook. "Starting right
against a top notch team with a good program, good tradition. It's like
I'm coming out with something to prove and I'm just going to play my
game." 

Cook isn't the only highly touted New York City point guard making his
debut in the Big East this season. There is also Andre Barrett at Seton
Hall and Taliek Brown at UConn. Time, statistics and won-loss records
will eventually show who is the best. 

"We grew up playing together, developed a great relationship," said
Cook. "I hope they do well ... but I also hope to get the edge and do a
lot better than them." 

It is that type of competitiveness that makes Cook the player he is. But
he's confident more than cocky, and he has a great appreciation for the
legacy he is joining. 

"It is fun watching old tapes. I watched a lot of Kenny Anderson. I grew
up watching Kenny, Stephon (Marbury), Speedy (Claxton), Erick Barkley,
those kind of guys," said Cook. "(Bob) Cousy and Tiny (Archibald), I
wasn't around to watch them, but there is so much history coming out of
NY and being a point guard makes it special." 

His coach at Christ the King already went on record as saying that Cook
is "the best passer ever to come out of New York, including Nate
Archibald and Kenny Anderson." 

But Cook laughs that one off. 

"I heard that for a couple of years now," Cook said. "I just pass
because I like to pass. I don't consider myself the best passer, but
I've been labeled that. I've been on a team where I've been the young
guy all my life so all I could do was pass it. I played with Ron
(Artest) and Erick (Barkley) so I always had to give them the ball. 

"I always patterned my game around my passing and worked everything else
around it. I just do what's necessary for my team to win. If it's
passing, playing defense, scoring, I'm going to do it." 

And St. John's, which lost not just Barkley but also Lavor Postell and
Bootsy Thornton from the team that won last year's Big East Conference
Championship game, will need him to do all of those things and fast if
the Johnnies are to be a factor in March. 

Cook isn't setting any major goals for the young but deep Red Storm this
season. Well, other than the moon. 

"National championship," Cook said. "Nothing less than the
championship." 

And it will take nothing less than instant stardom from Cook to make
that goal even remotely possible.