The end is coming quickly for Norris Cole, so he is trying not to blink.
View full size"I knew I could play, and had some skills, but at this level, everybody can play," the Vikings' Norris Cole says about his breakout senior season. "But when you can play that good, consistently, for 40 minutes, [the conditioning] separates the average guys from the good guys, the good guys from the pros. I want to be in the best condition possible."CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The end is coming quickly for Norris Cole, so he is trying not to blink.
For some, that rush of finality -- a season and a career on the basketball court, a degree forthcoming from the classroom -- can be overwhelming. But not for Cleveland State's standout senior guard.
"It's been exciting," he said. "I'm enjoying taking it all in. All the hard work that's been put in, this is a good payoff for right now. When we're not locked in, competing, I'm having as much fun as possible. I'm enjoying every second of it. You're not getting paid, so you can't look at it as work. It's basketball."
The past few weeks, Cole has received plenty of national exposure for his exploits on the court, as he has led the Vikings to the cusp of their first Horizon League title in men's basketball.
This week, the health science major was part of the student group that met with President Barack Obama at CSU during Tuesday's small-business conference. It was an experience that clearly left Cole on a high.
"One of my best senior year moments," he said. "It was a great experience to meet a lot of VIPs. A lot of people knew who I was. I shook a lot of hands, took a lot of pictures."
While the finish line is visible, the race is being run with the outcome still in doubt, at least on the court.
The Vikings (23-6, 12-4 Horizon League) host Milwaukee (16-12, 11-5) Thursday night in a game that with a victory will take CSU one step closer to a league title. Another win Saturday in a 2 p.m. game against Green Bay would make CSU the regular-season HL champion and the host of the league's quarterfinals and semifinals March 4-5. With a semifinal win, CSU would host the tournament final March 8.
For Cole, it is more confirmation of why he has worked so hard. There is a long way between freshman dreams and senior reality. There is a true distance between "I think I can" and "I know I can."
Scoring 20 points in one game is hard. Averaging 21.4 points, 5.9 rebounds and 5.6 assists is harder. Cole has paid the price behind the scenes.
"When it became consistent, that's when I knew it was the truth," Cole said. "A lot of hard work went into it. When you work hard, you [work hard for a reason]. You work hard for results, and this is a product of that hard work."
He said the key has been conditioning.
"I knew I could play, and had some skills, but at this level, everybody can play. But when you can play that good, consistently, for 40 minutes, [the conditioning] separates the average guys from the good guys, the good guys from the pros. I want to be in the best condition possible."
As a freshman, Cole had sports-induced asthma and was forced to use an inhaler. "I didn't like that," Cole said. He also wondered why all the top guards never got tired. It was because they pushed themselves. In the process of pushing himself, Cole learned something else.
"It's not physical, it's a mental breakthrough. It's when you go totally outside of your comfort zone, especially from my junior to senior year. I didn't let fatigue beat me at all; being able to push yourself while you're tired, your back is hurting, calves are burning, cramps, and still being able to go hard."
With two regular-season games to play, and he hopes much more to come, Cole is still going hard, trying to get the Vikings to the finish line first.
"We control our own destiny, which is good," the senior from Dayton said. "As long as we take care of our business, we can host [the HL tournament], which would be big for our school and our city."
And a fitting end for Cole's senior season.
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/sports/csu/index.ssf/2011/02/cleveland_states_star_guard_no.html
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