How EKU’s Isaiah Cozart morphed from a ‘nerd’ into a college hoops star

For the first three seasons of his college basketball “playing career,” Isaiah Cozart had the best seat in E.A. Diddle Arena to watch the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers play.

A vertically challenged 6-foot-7 pivot man who is blessed with a 7-2 wingspan and a knack for blocking shots, Cozart had signed with Rick Stansbury and WKU in the class of 2019 after shattering the all-time Kentucky high school career mark for blocks with 716 in a stellar career at Madison Central.

In Bowling Green, however, Cozart found his path to playing time obstructed in his first two WKU seasons by current San Antonio Spurs big man Charles Bassey. Once Bassey departed, Cozart’s shot at filling his position was again impeded when Western added the 7-foot-5 Jamarion Sharp.

As a result, Cozart spent a third season anchored to the Hilltoppers bench. When he ended his junior season having played only 263 minutes of college basketball in three years, Cozart’s patience finally eroded.

“After my junior year of me sitting, I was kind of like ‘It’s been three years. It’s time to look for another situation,’” Cozart said Tuesday.

Exactly 164 miles east of Diddle Arena, there was a jolt of electricity in the office of Eastern Kentucky University men’s basketball coach A.W. Hamilton when the name “Isaiah Cozart” appeared in the transfer portal.

Not only was Cozart, having grown up in Richmond, a hometown hero, his potential as a rim-protecting post player would fill a void on the Colonels’ roster.

“Me and my assistant, Mike Allen, we jumped in the car and went down to see (Cozart) immediately,” Hamilton said. “Met him at a coffee shop right off (the WKU) campus. We spent as much time as Isaiah would let us spend with him.”

From that meeting, the seeds were planted that eventually brought Cozart home — and created one of the more unlikely success stories in Kentucky college hoops. Over the past two seasons, the 6-7, 240-pound Cozart has gone from a guy who couldn’t get on the court at WKU to a player so valuable, he’s hard for EKU to take off the floor.

‘Kind of like a nerd’

When asked about Cozart, the affection in Allen Feldhaus Jr.’s voice is easily discernible over the cell phone.

“I could tell you Isaiah Cozart stories for days,” says Feldhaus Jr., the longtime Madison Central High School boys basketball coach. “He’s kind of like a nerd. He was hilarious.”

Feldhaus Jr. first remembers his future star big man as a middle school student.

“When he was an eighth grader, he was all arms and legs. Had his pants pulled up above his waist. Like a Steve Urkel,” Feldhaus Jr. says, referencing the character actor Jaleel White made famous on the 1990s television series “Family Matters.”

Cozart had taken up basketball relatively late. Even as a high school freshman, however, he already had immaculate timing as a shot blocker.

“He was kind of thin and gawky as a freshman,” Feldhaus Jr. says. “He struggled with making a simple outlet pass. Wasn’t very skilled offensively at all. Couldn’t use his right hand at all. But he could already block shots. We had no size (on the varsity roster) that year, so we just threw him in the startling lineup after Christmas and it turned our whole season around.”

Over the next three-and-a-half years, “He was one of those kids who just gradually got better and better every day,” Feldhaus Jr. says of Cozart.

By the time Cozart was a Madison Central senior, he was one of the most-coveted prospects in mid-major recruiting. Successful out-of-state programs such as Belmont and Wofford prioritized him. EKU had been his first offer. A relatively late entrant into the recruiting derby, Stansbury and WKU won out.

“I felt like I kind of wanted to spread my wings a little bit and Western seemed like the more appealing option for that,” Cozart said. “(Someplace) that was far away but not too far away.”

‘He didn’t have the fire’

In the three seasons Cozart spent anchored to the Western Kentucky bench, something was lost. Once he got to Eastern, “He didn’t have the fire like he had at (Madison) Central,” EKU’s Hamilton says.

The Eastern Kentucky head man understood. A former high school star at Scott County in the late 1990s, Hamilton began his playing career at Wake Forest. After playing 152 minutes total in two seasons for the Demon Deacons, he transferred to Marshall.

“When I was at Wake Forest, I lost that (passion for the game),” Hamilton said. “You get to the point, you dread practice. You dread going to the weight room. So I totally related (to Cozart). I think the biggest thing we had to do, we had to get that love and drive and passion back for Cozie.”

Last season, the rim protection Cozart gave EKU had an immediate impact. However, Hamilton thought the big man had more to offer offensively than Eastern was getting.

Says Hamilton: “Probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever done as a coach, but I called him in and I was like, ‘Cozie, if you don’t demand the ball and you don’t call for it, the guards are not allowed to throw you the ball.’”

For Cozart, the “light came on” moment came during EKU’s four-game run to the 2023 College Basketball Invitational finals. Over those four games, Cozart had three double-doubles. He had 20 points, 17 rebounds and five blocks in a first-round win over Cleveland State. Against Southern Utah in the semifinals, Cozart went for 31 points, 13 boards and four blocks.

“The CBI, that definitely was a confidence builder,” Cozart said. “From there, it allowed me to expand on a lot more stuff.”

Buoyed by his strong finish to 2022-23, Cozart went to work over this past summer. To get in better shape, he would make regular 4-mile runs. He also gave up two of his favorite things in the world — visits to Taco Bell and the Dunkin Donuts assorted pack.

As a result, Cozart is playing this year about 10 pounds lighter than he finished last season. Feeling more mobile, he leads the Colonels in scoring (15.6 ppg) and rebounding (9.7) and leads NCAA Division I men’s basketball in blocked shots (90). Not even completely through his second and final season of eligibility at Eastern, Cozart has already set the school career record for blocks (184, through games of Feb. 14).

With EKU (14-11, 9-2 ASUN) clinging to a one-game lead in the ASUN standings over Stetson (16-10, 8-3), Cozart is hoping to lead the Colonels to the league regular season title — which would bring home-court advantage throughout the conference tournament. That would be a boost as Eastern pursues its first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2014.

In the meantime, the guy who couldn’t get off the bench at Western Kentucky is relishing being a standout at Eastern Kentucky while playing in front of his family and hometown fans.

“It means everything,” Isaiah Cozart says. “Especially after what I went through at Western.”

EKU basketball in position to use its home court advantage to reach the NCAA Tournament

He dethroned a ‘King.’ Travis Perry is the 2023 Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year.

Top 10: Reed Sheppard edges Juli Fulks, Lamar Jackson for 2nd in Ky. Sports Figure voting

See the 92 people, 3 horses who received votes for 2023 Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year

From Brad Cox to ZaKiyah Johnson, what Ky. Sports Figure voters said about finishers 11-25

At last, the drought is over. Kentucky is again producing high-level basketball talent.

Buckle up, Kentucky fans: SEC football as you have known it is gone in 2024

These three trends should worry Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops

‘I am so excited.’ Why a UK sports legend is coming back to Kentucky.