May 30, 2008

The Nova Notebook, by Villanova director of media relations Mike Sheridan, appears weekly during the fall and into the basketball season and periodically from May through August. In this entry we take a look at the maturation of Corey Stokes as he looks ahead to his second season in the program.

Nearly a full calendar year has passed since Corey Stokes first began spending the bulk of his time at Villanova. It all began with summer school classes shortly after he completed his studies at St. Benedict's Prep in June of 2007 and continued through a freshman campaign that started slowly but ended on the upswing.

Like most of the outstanding high school players who make the transition to college basketball, the 6-5 Stokes felt prepared for anything. He had the credentials, having played for coach Danny Hurley at national prep powerhouse St. Benedict's (N.J.) and earned a spot on the 2007 McDonald's All-American squad. With a pure shooting stroke, it seemed only a matter of time before he began stockpiling points at Villanova as he had at every stop along the basketball ladder leading him to the Main Line.

These days, Stokes can look back and appreciate just how far he has come in the last 12 months.

"When you are a high school player, you hear from people on the outside that taking the next step is easy," Stokes recalls. "They tell you that you can do one year of college and go right to the NBA. (But) I don't think that it works like that for most of us. You don't find out how hard it is going to be until you get here. Once you come into this, you learn how hard it is to get to the next level.

"It's a lot of hard work."

Stokes found that out as a freshman in 2007-08. After an effortless week of splendid shooting on Villanova's Labor Day tour of Canada and an equally impressive 18-point binge in an exhibition game victory over Bloomsburg in November, the path to stardom seemed direct and obstacle free. With talented backcourt sidekicks such as fellow guards Scottie Reynolds and Corey Fisher on hand to help get him shots, it appeared Stokes would be set for a long winter of raining triples down on opponents.

Alas, the best laid plans of the Nova Nation did not materialize in quite that fashion. Instead, Stokes labored to adapt his game to the tempo present at the elite level of Division I basketball. Perhaps most shockingly, as he did so his trademark soft shooting stroke abandoned him in much the same way that Ray Allen's did in the early rounds of the NBA's Eastern Conference playoffs. In fact, he connected on just 7-of-34 3-point field goal attempts (.205) in November and December.

"At first I was getting down on myself," he states now. "I would look at other freshmen I had played against and see them off to fast starts and wonder what I was doing wrong. Coach (Jay) Wright told me not to worry about that. He told me my time would come. My parents, coaches and teammates really helped me. When I didn't know what was going on, they just told me to keep working hard, that it would come together if I kept a positive attitude. That's what I tried to do."

Wright never doubted Stokes stroke. What he saw was a youngster battling to adjust to the pace at this level, particularly on the defensive end.

For his part, Stokes accepted his fate and put in extra work to adapt.

"It was a little harder than I expected defensively," he says. "At the high school level, you have to play defense but not every possession. At St. Benedict's, we were a lot better than some of the teams we played. When you come to college, everyone you play is good and you have to be ready to play every possession."

The attention to defensive detail likely impacted Stokes offensive skill in the early stages of the campaign.

"I know in the beginning of the season, I was working so hard on defense that it affected the rest of my game," he says. "As the season went on, though, I got my stamina up and that wasn't a problem."

It wasn't all physical energy that Stokes was expending early on. Part of the transition to college involves learning the nuances of defenses and the styles of a roster full of new teammates. As Stokes became more familiar with those, his gifts were more visible. His development over the season's final three months was steady and utterly essential to Villanova's surge to an NCAA Tournament berth and victories over Clemson and Siena. By late March, Stokes was a well-rounded weapon in the starting lineup, capable of driving the ball to the basket or, in several key spots, effectively shadowing an opponent's top perimeter scoring threat.

Stokes made only a minimal impact in Villanova's come from behind opening round NCAA Tournament victory over No. 5 seed Clemson. But both Wright and Reynolds came to him before the second round matchup against Siena, voicing confidence in his skill and urging him to be more assertive.

"Coach wanted me to lock down Siena's wing players and Scottie told me that he needed me to step up big," recalls Stokes.

Stokes responded with 20 points as the Wildcats defeated the Saints 84-72 to advance to the program's third Sweet 16 in four seasons. Eventual NCAA champion Kansas then helped limit Stokes to six points in a 72-57 loss.

Over Villanova's final 12 games in 2007-08, he averaged 13.0 ppg. For the campaign he averaged 6.4 points and 2.4 rebounds per outing.

Like his teammates, Stokes is already peering ahead to a promising 2008-09 season. He is back on campus now for summer school while also doing all he can to enhance his skills with an eye toward the increased burden of expectations that will greet a squad with its top eight players in minutes played back in the lineup. He hopes to continue to develop his ability to drive the ball to the basket and ballhandling to help take some of the heat of his fellow perimeter teammates, Reynolds and Fisher.

"We know that people might say it's a disappointing year if we don't get back to the Sweet 16 or past that," he says. "We can't get caught up in that. The important thing for us is to strive to be the best team we can be at the end of the season. We just have to work as hard as we can."

His first year's experience, with all its ups and downs, should offer Stokes valuable lessons.