Forever UC Bearcats: Saying Goodbye To Cincinnati’s Seniors
By Chris Bains
- Hometown: Mason, Ohio
- High School: Mason
- Seasons At Cincinnati: 1 (but played baseball and football prior)
- Nickname: That other white kid!
- Best game: Middle Tennessee State; December 21, 2013
- Best play: 1:24 left in the MTSU game, he grabbed a defensive rebound!
Derek Cox came to earn a spot on the basketball team in an unusual manner. In early December, guard Jeremiah Davis III announced he was leaving the program to transfer closer to his home in Muncie, Indiana. With one-third of the season gone, it put Mick Cronin in a tight spot. In order to fill the void that the sophomore left the UC head basketball coach added Cox, who was a practice squad player on the football team at the time. He wound up walking onto the basketball team which would become his third program in four years at Cincinnati.
One side note, I find it very impressive that Cox played three different sports at UC despite never being on scholarship. In essence he didn’t come to school on the university’s dime yet is contributing to the betterment of those programs. Also, playing that variety of sports shows his incredible athleticism. At my ripe old age of 25, I can’t imagine playing one full sport let alone three.
Anyways, while Derek Cox never saw much playing time, he was instrumental in preparing the other players for gameday. At 6’3″, he is on the taller side for a guard. As such, Cox helped younger back court players like Troy Caupain and Kevin Johnson adjust to the longer guards they would encounter at the collegiate level. In essence, any kind of development that those players, along with GeLawn Guyn, boasted during this past season can in some ways be attributed to the efforts of this senior on the practice court.