WORCESTER, Mass.--Bellarmine University Assistant Men's Basketball Coach Drew Cooper is among five former athletes being inducted into the Assumption College  Athletics Hall of Fame on Oct. 23 at a ceremony at the school.

Cooper, a 1999 graduate of Assumption, became one of the great stories in Assumption basketball history as a key figure in the resurgence of the men's basketball program under Coach Serge DeBari. A Louisville native, Cooper earned a scholarship despite never having played at St. Xavier High School. He went on to become Assumption's fourth 2,000-point scorer, reaching 2,001 points in his final game--the Northeast-10 Conference title game at Saint Michael's College.

After averaging 15.6 points in 1995-96, Cooper was named the conference's top freshman.  He received first-team all-conference, Daktronics all-region and ECAC Division II North all-star honors in each of his final three seasons. He was also named a Division II Basketball Bulletin All-America as a junior and senior and an N.A.B.C. (coaches) all-region and All-America in 1998-99.

As a senior captain, he averaged 21.2 points and 8.2 rebounds as one of the dominant offensive players in the conference. He earned first-team all-conference, first-team all-ECAC North and first-team N.A.B.C. all-district honors. He then scored 27 points in the annual New England All-Star game. He was named the team M.V.P. and earned the Andrew Laska Award as the male athlete-of-the-year at the College.

Cooper played three years in the International Basketball Association in both Ireland and Germany.  He also coached at Babson College, Wheelock College and Northern Kentucky University before joining the staff at Bellarmine, where he has helped Coach Scott Davenport lead the Knights to a record of 66-27 and the first back-to-back 20-win seasons in school history.