Confident Cole counts down career with Colonels

By David Driver Special to The Gazette

George Washington University women’s basketball standout Kenan Cole played for three coaches during a four-year varsity career at then-St. John’s at Prospect Hall. She also played for other coaches during the summer AAU season, which meant she heard more than her share of different approaches to the game. Regardless of the changes, she left St. John’s as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 2,230 points with 1,109 rebounds in four years.
However, stability has not been a problem for Cole, where she is a starter on a team that began this week ranked No. 8 in the nation.
Cole has played all four seasons at GW under Joe McKeown, who is in his 18th season at the school.
“I have really enjoyed my experience here. He has definitely taught me a lot,“ Cole said of McKeown, who won his 400th game at GW earlier this season. “We are really playing well together. That has definitely made a difference.“
The Colonels won their 14th straight game Sunday, with a 75-41 win at home over St. Bonaventure University of upstate New York. Cole, who has started every game this season, had 15 points, four rebounds and four assists in just 22 minutes of play Sunday.
The Colonials are 21-2 and 10-0 in the Atlantic 10 going into today’s game at Charlotte, and Cole feels the team has Final Four potential in the NCAA tournament.
“I think so. For all of us, we don’t have just one player who carries the scoring load on the team,“ she said Monday. “We are going to need everybody.“
Cole, a 5-foot-10 guard-forward, is one of four GW players scoring in double figures. She is averaging 32 minutes and about 12 points and five rebounds per game.
“She has really improved every year, which is impressive because she has had to change herself from an inside player to more of a perimeter player,“ McKeown said before this season began of his lone senior. “She’s also a terrific student, something we’re proud of.“
Added Cole, “I guess I haven’t felt any added pressure.“
And she can handle the lofty rankings.
“A lot of people congratulate us on our ranking,“ Cole said. “It is cool we are ranked that high. We try not to let that interfere with how we play.“
Cole was born in Iowa, and moved with her parents to Germantown when she was in fourth grade. The family then moved to northern Frederick County, and Cole attended Yellow Springs Elementary School and Monocacy Middle School before spending four years at St. John’s.
Among her teammates at St. John’s were Marta Merkel, now a junior at Division III Randolph-Macon in Ashland, Va. Cole’s parents, Dean and Monica, still live in the county, and attend nearly every GW home game, and also travel to some away games.
“We try to get to as many as we can,“ said Dean Cole.
Cole, an only child, also made official college visits to Lehigh, Hartford and Drexel, but picked GW because of its standing in the Atlantic 10. She is majoring in mechanical engineering, has a grade-point average around 3.9 and is on track to graduate with her class in May.
On Feb. 8 she was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District team, along with teammate Sarah-Jo Lawrence, Shay Doron and Crystal Langhorne of Maryland and Jackie Adamshick of Villanova.
Cole was an all-academic player as a junior in the Atlantic 10, and won GW’s Academic Excellence Award. She averaged 8.2 points per game last season, 7.3 as a sophomore and 1.3 as a freshman.
She plans to attend graduate school, perhaps at GW, but has also mentioned to the Colonels coaches that she may want to play pro basketball overseas.
After two road games this week, GW will finish regular-season play with two home games before the Atlantic 10 tournament begins March 2 in Cincinnati. Cole injured her knee late last season, when she collided with a Richmond player on Feb. 19.
She missed the last two regular-season games, and then played in the three conference tourney games and in two NCAA tourney contests. GW’s season came to an end in a 66-53 loss to No. 6 Tennessee in the second round of the NCAA tourney last season.
Now Cole is preparing for a more-than-likely fourth straight NCAA tourney appearance, regardless of the outcome of the Atlantic 10 tourney.
“I am just enjoying every minute of it. I definitely have my sights set on the Atlantic 10 championship, and going past the second round of the NCAA,“ she said.