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Assigned Reading: Former top 100 recruit Noah Cottrill kicked addiction, thriving in NAIA

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Noah Cottrill was once a top 100 recruit from West Virginia, a local kid that was eventually supposed to take over the reins of Bob Huggins’ program and lead them back to NCAA tournament glory.

Only it didn’t pan out that way, as Cottrill found himself in the grips of an issue that plague so many from his home state: prescription drug addiction.

He eventually flamed out, getting kicked off the team for what Huggins at the time described as “conduct unbecoming of a Mountaineer”. That was in January of 2011. He was arrested in December of that year for possession of a controlled substance and larceny.

He’s been sober ever since.

From the Charleston Daily Mail:

“That was rock bottom,” Cottrill said. “I was arrested in a vehicle with people I should not have been with. I take full responsibility for that, but that was my rock bottom. I said ‘no more’ and I called my brother and my family and I told them what was going on.”

Cottrill left the state and entered the Brighton Center for Recovery in Michigan. He spent 30 days there. He had no computer, no cell phone, no basketball.

“I had to work on myself off the court before I could even think about lacing up the shoes again,” Cottrill said.


It’s not West Virginia, but Cottrill is now averaging 21.7 points for Georgetown, an NAIA program in Kentucky. He’s still fighting to remain sober, but hasn’t slipped up since he went to rehab, he told the Daily Mail.

He spoke to the paper because he believes that getting his story out there will help other kids dealing with the same problems he had.

We can help get that story out as well.

(You can read the Daily Mail’s full-length feature here.)