University of Minnesota Athletics
Leah Cotton Feature Story
11/25/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The Golden Gophers' newest guard, freshman Leah Cotton, has made quite a first impression as she embarks on her Minnesota basketball career. Adjectives such as fiery, tough and electric might be appropriate for the 5 foot, 8 inch youngster from Kansas City, Kan., but somehow they seem too complicated. Cotton's game, like her personality, breaks down much more simply than that. Cotton has fun playing basketball and is fun to watch. It is as simple as that.
"I think of myself as someone who like to have fun, someone who looks to first and foremost have fun and play the game afterward," said Cotton. "If I'm not having fun, I'm not enjoying what I'm doing."
All one has to do is spot the Gopher who sports number 11 on the court and see the almost consistent smile on her face to know that Cotton is having a ton of fun playing basketball for the Gophers. It's hard not to crack a smile yourself if you happen to catch the interaction between head coach Pam Borton and Cotton in what should be termed a teaching moment along the sidelines during a game.
Rookies often are the targets of such moments when they trot off the court, sometimes to applause but other times as the result of a youthful mistake. What you see in this case, however, is a notably serious coach in Pam Borton and a player in Cotton who no matter what seems to be smiling.
"I can't help it," Cotton says, yup, with a smile on her face. "Coach is very serious. She always has a compliment followed by something brutal at the end and I can't help but laugh because it's funny to me. At first she's smart and then she gets all serious and I'm still smiling. I definitely take it all in though."
What Borton sees on the court from Cotton has the coach smiling. Cotton has brought and aggressive attacking offensive style to the Gopher backcourt. She is fearless as she drives to the basket. And Cotton can change her shot mid-air, draw contact and finish. Her game has drawn plenty of "ohs and ahs" from the Gopher faithful already this season.
"I like the physical contact," Cotton explained. "It makes the game more fun."
Watching Cotton play, one can't help but wonder how she became the aggressive competitor she is today. If you are the youngest child in your family, this will be easy to understand. Oh, the battles of sibling rivalry. When you're the youngest, you learn at an early age you need to stand your ground or you'll quickly be pushed aside. Cotton credits her sister Elise., two years her elder, for developing that fierce competitiveness in her game.
"When my sister and I would scrimmage in practice I swear she'd be trying to lay me out," Cotton adds. "Of course, in turn I'd try to do the same."
And as it turns out, it wasn't just on the basketball court that these battles would take place.
"We'd go home and fight over little things like who was going to get the last piece of chicken or who would have to do the dishes. It was all in good fun though; fun and games."
That get-after-it attitude needs to be channeled at times as well. Playing with a motor going 100 miles an hour, Cotton is quickly learning that there are time when one just as to slow down a bit.
"There is definitely a time and a place for my physical play," Cotton admits. "I'm one of those people who get too aggressive early in the game and pick up a lot of fouls. I need to learn to calm that down until the end of the game so I can play harder and more aggressive then."
Case in point, Cotton remembers well her first action as a Gopher versus Lamar. "I subbed in for Ki (Kiara Buford) and I was just shaking I was so nervous. For my first shot I drove for a lay-up and the ball went clear over the backboard. That was my first shot."
Cotton says she works to calm herself down by remembering some of her mother's advice. "Whenever my mother was at a game, she would tell me to calm down and have fun with it. When I start to over think or worry about what I'm doing, I don't do my part. So, I always have my mother's voice in the back of my head telling me to calm down and do what you do best."
The best is surely yet to come for this gutsy Gopher.
"Leah is a player who is going to get better and better every day," said Coach Borton. "She is so young that all she's does is to goes out there and plays. I wish there were some other players who would just go out there and do what she does. She's fearless, she's aggressive, she's instant spark and she's brings a different energy level for your team."
If Cotton's performance in last weekend's Subway Basketball Classic is any indication, Cotton is picking up the nuances of playing Division I basketball pretty quickly. Cotton scored 11 points in both the Illinois-Chicago and Colorado games.
Looks like Leah Cotton will be giving Gopher fans plenty to smile about in the years to come.
Article by Becky Bohm
