Maryland Community Newspapers Online
Quinn Cook spent this past winter helping the DeMatha High School basketball team master the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference. Now he has a chance to help Team USA master the world.
Cook, a Bowie resident who recently finished his sophomore year at DeMatha, has been selected to play for the USA Basketball Under-16 Team in the inaugural FIBA Americas U-16 Championships. The 6-foot-1 point guard is part of a 12-player roster that will travel to Mendoza, Argentina, for the FIBA Americas tournament June 17-21.
"Right now I'm on cloud nine," Cook said Tuesday after a workout with the team at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. "It's one of my all-time dreams to put on a USA jersey."
Cook started preparing for the national team training camp after receiving an invitation in March. Nineteen players attended the camp, which started Saturday. Cook said the biggest obstacle was getting used to Colorado's high altitude.
"The first day in Colorado, the altitude was just crazy," Cook said. "The conditioning was the hardest part of it for me. The basketball comes, but the conditioning got me. You have to drink a lot of water and eat correctly."
The U.S. team will participate in pool play against U-16 national teams from Brazil, Puerto Rico and Venezuela, starting with a matchup against Brazil on June 17. Argentina, Bahamas, Canada and Mexico also are participating in the tournament. The winner will qualify to play in next year's FIBA U-17 World Championships in Hamburg, Germany.
USA U-16 coach Don Showalter said Cook has demonstrated the ability to run the team well and get the rest of the lineup involved. One critical element Showalter will be looking for is his team's ability to use its athleticism against its international competition.
"We're going to be more athletic than the teams we play," Showalter said. "We need to use that on a 94-foot court. If we get caught in a half-court game against Brazil or Argentina, we're going to have a tough time. That's where guys like Quinn come in. He and our other guards can do a nice job of putting on full-court pressure. He comes from a great program and does what you ask of him."
Cook averaged 11.1 points per game last season at DeMatha and was the Stags' leading scorer with 13 points as they beat Gonzaga (D.C.), 62-61, in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference championship game.
His activities with USA Basketball come at the perfect time in his summer schedule. Cook's club team, D.C. Assault, is idle this month and will begin a heavy tournament schedule in July, traveling to Cincinnati, West Virginia, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
"If I wasn't here, I'd be at home, working on my game, being a kid," said Cook. "It's overwhelming. This is all I think about, just making it [in basketball]. It's a blessing and I just thank God and my family that I'm in position to do great things. I don't want to mess it up."
