Name: Marshawn Cocroft

School: Kaneland, senior

Sport: Basketball

What he did: Cocroft averaged 20.6 points across three games to help the Knights stay undefeated on the season. He also surpassed 2,000 points in his career in a win over La Salle-Peru.

Cocroft was voted as the Athlete of the Week via an online vote.

Here is his Q&A with sports reporter Joel Boenitz.

How do you feel you performed on the court this week?

Cocroft: I feel like I performed really well. We had a great crowd against La Salle-Peru and they’re a very good team, so coming into that game I knew I needed a big performance. I got to 2,000 points, but that wasn’t my focus because I knew that was going to come. I just wanted to move past them and get a higher seed in conference.

You were tied in that game heading into the second half. What was the mindset to come out with a win?

Cocroft: We’re just taking things a game at a time. We know that teams are going to be gunning for us because we’re undefeated and they want to be the ones to end the streak, so we just gave it our best to prevail.

You also surpassed 2,000 career points in that win. How did it feel to hit that milestone?

Cocroft: It felt great. I like to stay humble, I’m not really a talky person, but it felt really good. Not many people have gotten to that point or even gotten to 1,000 points. So to get to 2,000 just proves to me that the hard work has paid off.

You’re 23-0 so far after going 32-2 last season. Does this year feel any different from last year?

Cocroft: Yeah it does. We did lose two seniors from last year, but we still kept our core guys. It started in the summer though, going to these live shootouts and playing great teams. We just kept getting better and better and we kept pushing each other. We’re very competitive, so we just bring out the best of each and every one of us on the team.

Since you got to Kaneland, the team has gone 55-2 and had two winning streaks of 20+ games. What’s been the key to your success?

Cocroft: I mean it starts with the players. Coach (Ernie Colombe) tells us things, but he always says it’s on us to decide how hard we’re going to go and play. And we know we have a target on our back as we try to keep the streak alive. But we love to do it, because now the little kids that are starting to play basketball are all coming to our games. Our coaches would say it’s now bigger than basketball, because now we might have kids who want to play basketball, and when they get older and into high school, they’ll help out the program and just keep making it stronger.

What’s your mindset for finishing out the season?

Cocroft: We want to keep taking things one step at a time. We just want to finish out the season strong and go undefeated in the regular season. And when the postseason comes, we take one game at a time, go out on the court and perform our best.

Favorite musical artist to listen to before a game?

Cocroft: I listen to Drake. He’s very calm and gets me going.

Favorite pre-game snack

Cocroft: I like to have some Skittles. I’m a candy guy, I like my candy.