Former Kentucky recruit Noah Cottrill has resurrected his college basketball career at Georgetown College.
Cottrill was recruited by Kentucky and Billy Gillispie in 2010 before committing to Florida. He de-committed from Florida and ended up at West Virginia. In a continual struggle with addiction, Cottrill couldn’t make it at WVU and ended up taking time away from basketball. He played a season at West Virignia Wesleyan before finding his way to Georgetown.
Now, he’ll lead the Tigers into Rupp Arena for an exhibition game Sunday night.
Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader caught up with Cottrill recently to discuss his long road to Georgetown:
“It’s been a long one,” he said of what led to becoming the starting point guard for Georgetown College. “Long, tough journey.”
Cottrill was once a basketball prospect who drew recruiting interest from Kentucky and Louisville. He committed to Florida as a ninth-grader. As part of an exhibition game against Kentucky on Sunday, he will play in Rupp Arena. It’s the kind of setting he once seemed destined for, not Georgetown’s Davis-Reid Alumni Gym, which has seven rows of wooden bleachers on three sides of its court, and 11 rows across from the benches.
“I am an addict,” he said before Georgetown’s practice Wednesday. “And I’ll be an addict for the rest of my life.”
He’s been hailed as the top high school prospect in West Viginia, the heir apparent to O.J. Mayo. A basketball celebrity while still in puberty. “At the highest of highs,” Cottrill said. “Not being able to go anywhere without being recognized.”
After leaving West Virginia University in the first semester of his freshman year, Cottrill entered a drug rehabilitation facility in Michigan. The player who led Logan High School to the 2010 West Virginia Class AAA state championship found himself “restricted in a room with no TV, no cellphone,” he said. “With your blanket. With a book to read. For 30 days. And talking to people that you don’t think you should be in a place with.”
