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D.J. Cooper now stands alone in the NCAA record books. In Tuesday's 72-69 win over Buffalo the Ohio point guard set a record that no one has ever achieved before in the history of college basketball.
With 8:31 left on the clock down 19-23, Cooper caught a pass from T.J. Hall and launched one of his patented deep 3's from near mid-court. He nailed it, cutting the Buffalo lead to one. With that 3-pointer, his second on the night, Cooper had eight points in the game. Those eight put him over 2000 for his career--2002 to be exact--giving him a unique set of career numbers never seen before. I'll let ESPN's Jay Bilas, who was already a Cooper fan before tonight, tell you more about Cooper's achievement.
Congrats to Ohio U's D.J. Cooper, the only player in NCAA history with 2,000 points, 900 assists, 600 rebounds, and 300 steals.
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) March 6, 2013
Let that sink in for a minute. In the more than 100 years that college basketball has been played in the U.S., no player in Division I history has ever had a career like Cooper's. Sure there are plenty of individuals with many more points or rebounds than Cooper. There are 11 guys with more assists than Cooper. 19 players have more steals than him. But no player in history has ever achieved the all-around career numbers Cooper now has.
Points | Assists | Rebounds | Steals |
2018 | 912 (12th) | 610 | 321 (18th) |
But that wasn't the only history the senior point guard made on the night. His first 3-pointer on the night, the 261st in his career, broke his tie with former Ohio teammate Tommy Freeman for Ohio's career record for made 3-pointers.
Cooper is having an amazing season, breaking records and climbing leader boards on a game-by-game basis over the past few weeks. He's already helped steer his class to becoming the most-winning class in Ohio history, shattered the Mid-American Conference career assists record and is quickly climbing the NCAA career assists and steals leader boards.
It's fair to say Cooper has had one of the better college careers in NCAA history, now he has a record to prove it.