Cooper Neese excited to join the Bulldog tradition

Friday, December 11, 2015
Cooper Neese

CLOVERDALE -- Cooper Neese will be a Bulldog. The Cloverdale junior received a full-ride scholarship from Butler Tuesday and Neese verbally committed. Neese previously received offers from University of Evansville, Indiana State and Ball State.

The forward visited Butler in early September on an unofficial visit.

"The first thing was obviously I went on the first day and got to experience the locker room and as soon as you went in there and saw everybody clapping together and talking together, I could just tell it was a place I wanted to go to right off the bat.

"It was an easy decision," Neese continued. "It wasn't too hard to think about or over thought."

Butler is known for having plenty of long-range shooters on the floor and Neese definitely fits the mold but many in Clover Country believe Neese has much more to offer the Butler program.

"I think Cooper is a triple-threat guy," CHS coach Patrick Rady said. "He can put it on the floor and can shoot and he creates for others with his passing. He's muli-dimensional. Sometimes he gets labeled as a shooter, for which he is very good. But he is a really good passer and he can put it on the floor and go somewhere with it."

Rady also commented on Neese's off-court focus, saying the junior is a 'basketball nut.'

"He watches hours of film," Rady said. "He is continually looking at what he can do to get better. So it's not just on the court, which he puts in a lot of hours but he watches a lot of film."

Neese said he has enjoyed his time playing for Rady because of the knowledge he has been able to gain out of the Clover coach.

"It's been more than a blessing," Neese said. "He's helped me so much to grow as a man not only as a basketball player. He's always there for me and he has some of the best advice you can ask for."

Former Cloverdale coach Al Tucker, who coached the Clovers to seven sectional titles in the 1970s and 1980s said Cooper without a doubt has the necessary tools to contribute to the Butler way.

Tucker coached the late Chad Tucker, a Cloverdale graduate who is still the leading scorer at Butler University 2321 points.

"I hope that it's a good match for Cooper," Al Tucker said. "I know it's early in his high school career but that's the way they are doing it now. He's going to have to have to get stronger which he will be able to do and it would be nice if he got taller.

"I think he's got the skills all the way around," Tucker continued. "Butler will be shooting the ball and will want to hit the big shot," Tucker said. "Butler is wanting to get a lot of mileage out of their players because they won't have the talent level as the Big East schools do but they still can compete with them."

Neese said his enthusiasm for winning will be satisfied moving from such a storied high school program to a storied Division I program. While Butler has consistently made the NCAA tournament since 1998 but gained recent popularity in 2010 and 2011 when the Bulldogs went to back-to-back NCAA title games.

"I'm very excited," Neese said. "Obviously like I said I need to get my body right and do what I need to do to compete at that level. Who doesn't want to go and try to win a national championship? You can get remembered for going to the elite eight and something like that. You like to win, you don't like to lose."

Many would say that Neese can't lose especially with a family that will support his decisions and who will back up the student athlete's choice to join the Bulldog nation. Jerry and Sandra Neese are big supporters of Coopers decision to study at Butler.

"My mom's in love with Butler, always has been," Neese said. "We're obviously friends with Andrew Smith and Samantha Smith who are going through some tough times up there. My dad loves it too. He just wants the best for me. I kind of kept my brother in the loop to help me out in decision-making. He was there (Tuesday night) actually."

Rady said that it has been a pleasure coaching the junior who combines his fine offensive scoring with good passing skills to get his Clover teammates involved.

"It's phenomenal because he is so unselfish," Rady said. "Anytime you have a player who has gotten this kind of notoriety but at the same time make sure that he is one of the most fierce competitors I've ever been around."

Neese will have the rest of this year and next season at CHS where he will hope to build in the success of last season when he helped the team to a sectional title and a regional berth.

"It's an honor to play for Cloverdale as long as it's been here especially with the basketball tradition," Neese said. "I've said it before watching my brother go out there and put the pin stripes on to warm up. I just wanted to play even more. Now everything has come true and it keeps coming true I'm just extremely blessed."

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  • What a humble young man!! Way to go Coop!! I now see who I'll be watching and cheering on again. Go Bulldogs!!!

    -- Posted by kimperk05 on Fri, Dec 11, 2015, at 6:39 AM
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