| Erwin sophomore wants to be `the best ... a legend in Alabama'
DeMarcus Cousins took a pass in the corner of the basketball court, quickly blew by his defender, drove the baseline and dunked with two hands. For one of the 50 or so people in the stands at Minor High that night - a player on a team not involved in the game - the simple two-handed dunk wasn't enough.
Never mind the game had long been decided. Never mind that it was the first of seven games that DeMarcus Cousins' Birmingham Storm AAU team would play en route to the championship game of the 16-and-under division of the Metro Express Tournament. The kid in the stands wanted more.
"Man, that's sorry," the kid yelled. "That's the best he can do? That's sorry. Why didn't he tomahawk or something?"
Such are the expectations for the 16-year-old sophomore at Erwin High School who has been rated by some recruiting analysts as the best 2009 college prospect in the nation.
DeMarcus Cousins shook his head slowly when told later of the comments. He didn't hear the kid, but wasn't surprised.
"I hear it all the time," said the 6-foot-10, 235-pound DeMarcus Cousins. "The good advice, I'm going to take it. The bad stuff, I just let it go in one ear and out the other."
Watching DeMarcus Cousins offers a series of contrasts.
At times he's a player skilled beyond his age and basketball experience. At other times it's clear he has played basketball competitively for less than four years.
At times he's a young adult who looks an unfamiliar grownup directly in the eyes and says "Yes, sir" and "No, sir." At other times he's a youngster who sulks when things don't go his way on the basketball court.
He will disregard the seemingly constant abuse from opposing players. But sometimes he reacts wrongly when he's pushed, such as when he had a physical altercation with an adult connected with the Erwin basketball program and got suspended for the last half of the past prep season.
He weathers all the attention well sometimes, and sometimes he wishes to avoid the spotlight and spend time with his parents and five siblings.
All the contrasts are explained by one overriding fact, said Danny Pritchett, who is the head coach of the Birmingham Storm and a basketball mentor for DeMarcus Cousins: "He's just a kid. He's a big kid, but he's still a kid."
Football was DeMarcus Cousins' first love and he was happy playing that sport until he grew to be 6-foot-7 as a seventh grader. It was about that time that Birmingham Storm assistant coach Gary Williams walked into Erwin's gym to look at another player and spotted DeMarcus Cousins, who wasn't playing any organized ball at the time.
"I saw this big kid towering over everybody," Williams recalled. "I walked up to him and said, `Son, why aren't you playing on the varsity?'
"He said, `I'm just in seventh grade.' It was like deer in headlights," Williams said.
DeMarcus Cousins said he was interested in playing summer-league basketball. Williams ran home, called Pritchett to tell him he found a center and added: "You owe me a steak dinner after this one."
Pritchett was understandably skeptical. He called DeMarcus Cousins' parents, Jessie and Monique, to set up a meeting. Pritchett asked Monique Cousins how tall her son was - knowing that parents often embellish the height - and was told he was "around 6-foot-3."
When Pritchett met the player, he realized that wasn't right.
"His parents got out of the car first and they're both tall," Pritchett said. "When the son got out of the car to stand up, he never stopped standing. I said, `Yep, I think I can work with that.'"
It took a lot of work, actually. Jessie Cousins recalled the first workout with a laugh.
"Oh my goodness, it was atrocious," he said. "Clumsy? He couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time."
But Pritchett said DeMarcus Cousins was willing to work. The daily workouts often lasted up to three hours. And when he wasn't in the gym, he dribbled in his garage.
Results didn't come overnight, but they came.
DeMarcus Cousins became a star player on the Erwin High varsity as a ninth-grader, averaging 21 points, 14 rebounds and six blocked shots per game. He was the lone underclassman on The Birmingham News' Super All-State team.
Williams said he still hasn't received that steak dinner.
Last summer, the nation took notice of DeMarcus Cousins' basketball skills.
Dave Telep, Scout.com recruiting director, watched DeMarcus Cousins "put on a show" at the Nike Hoop Jamboree and said he "was one of the three best sophomores I saw, and that's not difficult to say."
Frank Burlison, a national basketball analyst based in Southern California, said DeMarcus Cousins, Renardo Sidney of Artesia High in Lakewood, Calif., and Derrick Favors of South Atlanta High are almost interchangeable as the nation's top prep big men in the class of 2009.
Jerry Meyer, the national analyst for Rivals.com, was so impressed that his organization selected DeMarcus Cousins as the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2009 class.
"He had that combination of size, skill level and athleticism that you sort of need to be an elite prospect," Meyer said. "We didn't really know who to put No. 1 at such an early stage. We thought DeMarcus Cousins was a good candidate."
With such rankings came the expectations and attention. No longer could he walk into a gym and be just another guy on the court. Teams devised game plans to stop him and fans showed up to see him play.
"I have heard coaches tell their kids to hit him as hard as you can," Pritchett said. "I have seen him in a game where every quarter he had a bloody nose. Because he's 6-10, they think he should take a lick. But when you get hit in the nose - even if you're 6-10 - it hurts."
Monique Cousins said she sometimes sees her son camp out outside the 3-point arc because he's tired of being hit from all angles. But, Pritchett said, words occasionally cut even deeper.
"I've seen him dunk 12 times in a game," Pritchett said. "Parents walk up and say, `I hate you for dunking on my kid.' Can you imagine how that feels? He's just having fun and doing the best he can and he has to hear that."
Some of the criticism of DeMarcus Cousins' game is probably justified. He acknowledges needing to work on his conditioning and some people suggest that effort is a problem at times. His ability to handle the basketball is admirable for a big man his age, but leaving that to the guards is a better option. And his accurate shooting range, while good for a player his age, needs to get better.
Meyer believes DeMarcus Cousins faces one more hurdle. "His greatest challenge is dealing with his temper," Meyer said.
Whether that assessment is accurate or not, DeMarcus Cousins' dismissal from Erwin's basketball team in January only fostered that opinion. The physical altercation with an adult occurred immediately after a loss at Pleasant Grove High School on Jan. 19. Details haven't been revealed publicly by school officials or the family, but Principal Van Phillips suspended DeMarcus Cousins from the basketball team for the remainder of the season. He remained as a student at Erwin but is attending classes at an alternative school.
DeMarcus Cousins is aware people will judge him for what happened, but chooses instead to focus on using that situation as a lesson.
"I just need to walk a straight line. People are always going to have something to say," said DeMarcus Cousins. "You just have to go through it, ignore what people say sometimes and keep moving forward."
Erwin didn't fold after DeMarcus Cousins left the team. The Eagles advanced to the Class 5A Final Four at the BJCC. DeMarcus Cousins was happy for his teammates, but missing that journey was hard.
"He was devastated," Jessie Cousins said. "He was upset with himself and wanted to be part of that. He internalized a lot of that and punished himself ... He realizes the mistake he made. He knows he had a part in that situation and he's paid for it."
DeMarcus Cousins can return to regular classes at Erwin in the fall and rejoin the basketball team. However, even though the family says it understands and accepts the suspension, Jessie Cousins said the family is still trying to decide if DeMarcus will return to Erwin. Transferring to another public school would mean the family would have to move, which would be difficult, Jessie said. But DeMarcus could attend a private school without a move.
He will continue to play with the Birmingham Storm, and probably move forward without the No. 1 ranking in his class. Meyer said the anticipated drop - maybe just one spot - has more to do with Sidney's progress than DeMarcus Cousins' disappointing high school season. But DeMarcus Cousins can jump back up with another strong summer.
His AAU team recently played against some of the top travel teams in the country in the Kingwood Classic in Houston and won its age division. DeMarcus Cousins will also participate in the top camps this summer.
He'll prepare also for a college recruiting process that won't heat up for another year. Because he's only a sophomore, almost all contact from college coaches comes through letters and talks with Jessie and Monique. Under NCAA rules, coaches can't have direct contact with DeMarcus Cousins unless he is on their campus, which is an advantage for UAB and Alabama. He has recently started playing pickup games with some current UAB players.
Jessie Cousins said the recruiting pressure is far from overwhelming right now, but he knows that will change. The family says DeMarcus is wide open on a college choice. The early list of contenders, according to Rivals.com, includes UAB, Alabama, Florida, Kansas State, Kentucky, LSU, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas and UCLA. That is even though many recruiting analysts believe DeMarcus Cousins will be good enough to jump to the NBA after only one year in college.
For DeMarcus Cousins, the college recruiting is just another step toward a dream.
"(Basketball) is my world, my life," DeMarcus Cousins said almost quietly. "I want to be the best. I want to be a legend in Alabama."
{More at www.al.com ]
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