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Cooley is lucky. He is blessed with height, quickness and ridiculous leaping ability. He is also blessed with someone who knew the road he was once headed down: his father, Arthur.

‘‘I guess it would be because of my dad,” Austin said. ‘‘He had a chance to go to Georgetown out of junior college. ... He didn’t feel like he would measure up. But I’ve got everybody telling me I can do it.”

Arthur Cooley readily admits he never put much stock in his own grades. In the early 1980s, he was a prep star at Southeast Lauderdale High in Mississippi, where Arthur said his number is retired.

‘‘My experience in high school was, my coach would go to my teachers and say, ‘Can you help him out? Because we need him tonight,’” Arthur said. ‘‘I took that for granted. B-CC’s not like that, and I’m glad. They don’t give [Austin] anything he doesn’t deserve.”

Arthur spent three semesters in junior college, and took school even less seriously there. He quit and moved to the Washington, D.C. area in 1983, attending various workouts in the hopes of continuing his playing career. At one, Arthur said he was spotted by a Georgetown assistant coach.

‘‘He invited me to practice with them,” Arthur said. ‘‘I never did go. There were two things in my mind. One, I thought I wasn’t good enough. And two, academically, I didn’t feel I could stand up to a college like Georgetown.”

This is the story Arthur Cooley told his son while they watched the end of the 2005-06 season from the sidelines. Before the start of this school year, Austin’s parents, Arthur and Kennan, and grandfather Jonathan Owens, sat him down. And they made a rule.

For Montgomery County, the minimum grade-point average a player must carry to be eligible is 2.0. But for Austin Cooley, the minimum is 3.0 — a B average.

‘‘‘Don’t waste what I had’ — he’s said that to him more than once,” B-CC coach Steve Thompson said of Arthur Cooley. ‘‘And I give mom and dad a lot of credit. It’s not easy to tell your kid he can’t play because of his grades. And they’ve done that three times this year.”

Kennan Cooley makes regular checks on Austin’s grades, not just when report cards come out. The first time the player slipped below a 3.0, his parents told Thompson to bench him for the start of the game. The second time, Austin missed the entire first quarter. The third time was just two weeks ago against Churchill; he didn’t play at all.

Since sitting out that game, Cooley has been a man on a mission. Friday against Paint Branch, he started the game with two dunks, then hit a reverse layup with 12 seconds left in overtime for the winning points. He had also dunked with 1:30 left in regulation to put B-CC ahead, 64-63, and hit a layup with 13 seconds remaining to send the game to overtime. He finished with 20 points, four rebounds, four steals and three assists.

‘‘At the beginning of the season, I wasn’t really stepping up like I knew I could,” Austin Cooley said. ‘‘Now I’m just trying to do whatever I can to help my team win. ... Now I’m trying to play the whole game to my full potential.”

It’s not just scoring — for the season, Cooley is averaging 13.4 points, second on the team behind center Maurice Pearson (13.6), who has signed with NCAA Division I Ohio University. He is also averaging 4.1 assists, 2.5 steals and 3.3 rebounds per game.

‘‘He just plays a really complete game,” Thompson said. ‘‘He knows when to give the ball up. He hits people when they’re open. ... He’s not a me-first guy. Early in the year, we had to say, ‘Austin, be a little more aggressive,’ because he’s that kind of player.”

Cooley makes no bones about what has changed for him. He said he hated the feeling of letting his teammates down at the end of last season. And he is now driven by his very real chance of playing Division I basketball. From here on out, it’s all about effort.

‘‘Last year, I knew that I had to put in more effort, even on the basketball court,” he said. ‘‘Last year, I wasn’t putting in as much effort as I could. I’m trying to step it up in every area of my life.”

There doesn’t seem to be any chance now that Cooley will miss out on college basketball because of grades. Which means there’s not much that can stop him. He doesn’t have any offers yet, but has been receiving mail — he lists George Mason (Va.), the South Carolina and Ball State (Ind.) as his suitors at the moment. And he’s just a junior.

Despite his size, Cooley likely projects as a point guard at the next level. His unselfish streak, slick passing and ability to get to the basket make him a natural at the position, which he already plays for the D.C. Blue Devils, his Amateur Athletic Union team.

Talent, though, was never going to be a problem.

‘‘He has so much natural ability that, without putting forth a whole lot of effort, he’s better than everybody else,” Thompson said. ‘‘But to play at the next level, there are a lot of guys with that talent. It’s that effort. If he said it, he’s right — he needs to put forth that more effort in the classroom, which he’s starting to do, and on the basketball court.”

Cooley had to learn that lesson the hard way, but learn it he did. He learned it early enough that he should get the chance his father never took.

‘‘A kid’s going to be a kid — until they experience it themselves, they won’t see,” Arthur Cooley said. ‘‘My wife and I continue to tell him, be glad you have this ability God has given you. Don’t take it for granted; use it to put yourself in a better position after high school.

‘‘When you’re 12, 13, 14 years old, it’s in one ear and out the other. But eventually, it clicks.”