By Chris Williams, CycloneFanatic.com Publisher After last week’s coaching change, Iowa State’s basketball program went five-for-five in keeping their signees and commitments.
Fred Hoiberg also managed to keep his lone 2011 commitment at this point in time. On Sunday afternoon, Elgin Cook, a 6-foot-5, 180-pound small forward out of Milwaukee Hamilton told CycloneFanatic.com that despite Greg McDermott’s departure to Creighton, he will wants to be a Cyclone.
“I am still committed to Iowa State,” Cook said. “I’ve heard that he (Hoiberg) is a great guy. I know that he played a couple of years in the league. He knows the right things to do.”
It didn’t take long for Hoiberg and Cook to touch base after the hiring.
“I have talked to him a few times,”Cook said. “He is excited to keep me. The style of ball that I like to play is a lot like the style that he is going to coach.”
The strength of Cook’s game is his outstanding athleticism. Just take a look at the video posted above. The initial dunk in this Milwaukee Hamilton highlight video is Cook throwing it down over an opponent.
But there is more to Big 12 basketball to dunking. Cook knows that and he’s currently working on other parts to his game.
“I’m making some progress. I’m doing a lot of things that I initially did not do,” Cook said. “I need to gain a few more pounds and get stronger. I also need to just watch college basketball. I need to learn about how they play.”
Right now, Cook says he weighs 180-pounds. Cook said that the Iowa State coaching staff wants him to get up to the 190-pound range by the time he steps on campus. Iowa State associate head coach T.J. Otzelberger has been Cook’s primary recruiter since he committed to the university last fall.
As a junior, Cook was named the City (Milwaukee) Conference Player of the Year while leading Hamilton to the conference championship. Cook averaged 15.9 points and 7.5 rebounds on the season.
