Simeon Cottle goes up for layup against West Georgia. Photo by: Jackson Louneoubonh
Simeon Cottle is looking to turn his preseason Conference USA Player of the Year recognition into a reality.
The Owls’ 6-foot-2, 175-pound senior guard was named the Conference USA Preseason Player of the Year and also preseason All-Conference honors.
“It’s not something I really want to get a big head about,” Cottle said. “It’s just a preseason award, but it is something that’s now on my mind to actually go work for and go get, and I see the opportunity out there, so now I just got to do what I got to do to go get it.”
Cottle was selected to the All-Conference second team for the 2024-25 season, averaging 18.0 points per game to rank fourth in Conference USA. The top returning scorer in CUSA also led the conference in free-throw percentage at 87.6 percent last season.
Cottle has increased his scoring average in each of his three seasons with Kennesaw State, improving 3.9 points per game in 2022-23, to 15.6 in 2023-24 and finally 18.0 last season. He had three 30-plus-point games in 2024-25 and set a program record for points in a postseason game with 32 against New Mexico State in the Owls Conference USA quarterfinals win.
The Owls fell short in the Conference USA semifinals last year, falling to Liberty in a hard fought 81-79 defeat. This year KSU was picked to finish second in the conference in the preseason CUSA poll behind only the Flames.
Cottle said the goal this season is to finish the job.
“I feel like a successful season would be us winning the conference,” he said. “We went to the final four last year, but we didn’t complete the mission, so I feel like us going there and winning it would be a full-circle moment for me.”
Cottle is the only remaining Owl from the 2022-23 NCAA Tournament team on which he was a freshman.
He said he learned a lot being a freshman on the 22-23 team and wants to spread the knowledge he learned as one of the older players on the current roster.
“When I was a freshman, I was learning and picking up the good qualities and abilities my older teammates gave me, but now it’s like I’m giving back all the things they poured into me and teaching those younger guys now all the little gems and things I was given.”
The Owls won their exhibition game 86-73 over West Georgia on Oct. 26 as Cottle scored 19 points on 7-for-15 shooting and 5-for-10 from three-point range.
He said while the team’s performance wasn’t perfect, he likes the path they’re on.
“I feel like we started off good and kind of slowed down some as the game kept going on,” Cottle said. “I feel like we got a couple things to work on, but I feel like we aren’t far off and we’re right on that path to being the team we want to be. We just have to keep dialing in and keep believing in what our coaches are preaching.”
With KSU beginning the season at home on Nov. 3 against Paine College, Cottle said his focus throughout the offseason was to build his body and stamina as he anticipates taking more hits and playing a lot of minutes this season.
He said he wants to be sure he can take the cheap shots and bumps that teams will throw at him throughout the season.
As Cottle enters his final season with the Owls, he said the journey has been nothing short of memorable.
“It’s crazy, it’s been a journey,” he said. “There’s been rainy days and there’s been sunny days, but it’s not always been a sunny day. I would say it’s more about the mentality of how you go about things and how you come back from things. I feel like my junior year was a big comeback year for me after my freshman year coach [Amir Abdur-Rahim] passed away so it’s just always been about reverting back to what I know and what work I put in on the court and just accepting that it’s always going to be a journey of ups and downs.”
Cottle’s teammate during the 2022-23 season, Chris Youngblood, recently became the first Owl to receive an NBA contract after signing a two-way deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Cottle said his goal is to become the second.
“[Chris] is motivation, for sure,” he said. “That’s what I’m pushing for because it’s always been my dream to play in the NBA, so that’s what I’m trying to go out there and work towards every day.”
