Dec. 12, 2011
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Junior Jack Cooley (Glenview, Ill.), coming off career-high outings in wins over Maine and Dartmouth last week that helped engineer a 2-0 week for the Irish men’s basketball team, has been named to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll. It marks the first conference award for the Notre Dame forward in his career.
Darryl Bryant of West Virginia was honored as the BIG EAST Player of the Week, while Providence rookie LaDontae Henton garnered the rookie-of-the-week accolade. Cooley was joined on the Honor Roll by Cleveland Melvin (DePaul), Gorgui Dieng (Louisville), Jae Crowder (Marquette) and Herb Pope (Seton Hall).
Cooley averaged 22.0 points, 11.5 rebounds and 3.0 blocked shots in wins over the Black Bears (87-78) and Big Green (65-47) that helped the Irish extend their home court win streak to 26 games, the second-longest consecutive home win streak in school history. He shot 72.7 percent from the field (16-22) from the field in the two games and was 92.3 percent (12-13) from the charity stripe.
Against Maine, he tallied the first 20-plus point performance of his career as he scored a career-high 22 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for his second career double- double. In the contest, he connected on seven-of-11 shots from the field and was eight-of-nine from the line and blocked two shots while playing 27 minutes.
Cooley followed that performance up 48 hours later with another 22-point outing against Dartmouth as he connected on a personal best nine field goals on 11 field goal attempts. He also blocked a career-high four shots in the game. He nearly posted his second straight double-double as he also finished with nine rebounds.
Cooley has started eight of the 10 games he has played and is averaging 8.3 points and a team-leading 7.9 rebounds. He is shooting 55.8 percent (29-52) from the field and leads the team with 12 blocked shots.