NORMAN — C.J. Cole was destined to play basketball at Oklahoma since he was a third-grader growing up in Sperry.
Centered in a crimson-colored bedroom wall in his new home were two interlocking letters — OU.
Cole's dream came true and, after a five-year stay with the Sooners, he will celebrate Senior Day alongside Jordan Woodard and Daniel Harper when Oklahoma welcomes TCU to Lloyd Noble Center at 2 p.m. Saturday in its regular-season finale.
It's a bit of déjà vu for Cole, who went through a Senior Day ceremony last season. But after being asked to return last summer for a fifth season by coach Lon Kruger — Cole had one year of eligibility remaining — he couldn't turn down one final chance to continue his life's passion.
"It wasn't one of those things that I know I was immediately going to do it," said Cole, a former walk-on who was presented a scholarship after his first year. "I was at the point where I thought I'd move on from basketball in my life. My wife and I talked about it and I realized that I'd rather have another year of hanging out with friends and playing basketball. I wasn't quite ready to get into the real world."
Cole isn't postponing adulthood. This young man — who has a chemical biosciences degree (3.97 GPA) — is hoping to get accepted into medical school. To play basketball this season, he had to take classes. Instead of taking light-lifting courses, he enrolled in astrophysics courses.
Cole explained that he wanted to challenge himself. The result: He was named to the Big 12 All-Academic team for the second year in a row. He also was given the Elite 90 Award at last year's Final Four for having the top GPA among Final Four participants.
"He started talking to me about his sophomore or junior year (in high school) about going into the medical field," Sperry coach Lance Kight said. "He was not only one of my best players, he is by far the smartest. The worst thing about coaching C.J. is he's smarter than you on the sideline."
Cole grew up in an athletic family. His parents — Chad and Gaile — attended Northeastern State, where they played football and basketball, respectively. His younger brother, Casey, plays basketball at Southwestern Christian, and younger sister Olivia plays volleyball at Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri.
Chad Cole remembers C.J. as a baby shooting over and over on a Little Tikes basketball goal.
"We didn't know if it would be basketball, but we knew he was going to be an athletic," Chad Cole said.
C.J. Cole played four years for Kight at Sperry. He averaged 22 points and 15 rebounds as a senior and guided the Pirates to a state tournament appearance.
"We're in Class 3A so he'd get double- and triple-teamed," Kight said. "He was like an athletic bull in a china closet. There wasn't anyone as athletic as him in 3A."
He only had one scholarship offer. Davidson, located in North Carolina, was interested. During Cole's recruiting visit, the school's most famous basketball alum — current NBA MVP Steph Curry — even pitched the school to the Sperry graduate.
But it ended up being Kruger's recruitment the next week that kept him in-state.
"I probably had a better chance of having playing time at Davidson," C.J. Cole said. "It was a nice school and offered a good education. But it was hard to turn down the chance to go to OU and play at OU, a school where I'd been a fan all of my life."
Gaile Cole was ecstatic that her son was just a few hours away instead of halfway across the country.
"We've definitely loved going to his games and being a part of the OU family," she said. "We definitely would not have had that opportunity at Davidson. Coach Kruger has been great, he's just a class act."
Cole hasn't played much during his five years at OU — he's only played 38 total minutes and made three baskets this season — but he's left a solid impression at OU and Sperry.
"I'm really excited for him," said his wife, Kristin Cole. "I liked that he got his goal as being a leader on the team, especially since the team is so young. He's the married guy and they think he's 20 years older than them."
Sperry hasn't forgotten Cole, who wore No. 33 in high school.
"We talk about C.J. probably every couple of weeks in practice," Kight said. "Just the way he carries himself as an athlete, a student and a married man. He's a role model for the kids at Sperry."
Cole will spend the next month waiting to see if he will get into medical school at Oklahoma or Colorado. No matter his next step, he'll always be proud of the path that life has taken him so far.
"I met my wife here. I met my best friends here. I learned a lot about working hard and about basketball," he said. "I learned a lot about chemistry and learned about topics that could benefit in the future in med school.
"I'm really glad I came to OU."
Source: www.bing.com
