The 6-foot-8 white guy sports a shaved head, speaks fluent French and dates Miss Kentucky 2005.
It’s Friday afternoon before practice, and Bernard Cote has already had a long day. The junior forward sat through two classes this morning and made an obligatory run to the Laundromat. A dinner date beckons with his girlfriend, Kristen Johnson, and her parents.
Cote met Johnson three years ago at the University of Kentucky, where he played sparingly for two seasons before transferring to Northwestern in the fall of 2004. Kentucky provides tutors for its basketball players for each of their classes, and Johnson was assigned to Cote’s communications course.
Johnson, who graduated from Kentucky in 2004, placed third in last year’s Miss USA Pageant. She lives with Cote in Evanston with their two dogs, Mac and Shelley – easy fodder for marriage jokes and assorted teasing in the locker room.
“He gets a lot of flak for it, but good flak,” said teammate Tim Doyle. “What man wouldn’t want that flak? He must be doing something right if he’s dating Miss USA.”
Doyle hosted Cote during his transfer recruiting trip to NU and said the team connected instantly with him. Cote, who also was being courted by Iowa, said the combination of his respect for coach Bill Carmody, NU’s style of play and the chance to reunite with former high school teammate Mohamed Hachad was enough for him to leave behind one of the most storied programs in basketball.
“When you’re 18, 19 years old and you get a scholarship from Kentucky, it’s kind of hard to say no,” Cote said. “Obviously with the history of the program, it’s always really impressive. I thought it would have been a really good situation for me.
“I think I really made a mistake picking that school. Things didn’t turn out the way I wanted them to. So I turned around and made the better decision the next time.”
While his school mascot didn’t change, Cote has adjusted to an entirely different setting. Even as a rarely used backup at Kentucky, he held celebrity status in a passionate college town that lives and breathes basketball.
Cote could not go to the mall in Lexington without being stopped for autographs. He remembers sitting at a restaurant with Johnson one time when a fan approached them, started chatting and then took a seat reserved for her parents.
“It’s just really crazy over there,” Cote said. “It’s fun, and it’s kind of flattering. You get recognized for your talent. But sometimes, for a college athlete, it can be a little bothersome.”
No such annoyances exist in Evanston, where Cote said he’s seldom recognized. The low profile appears fitting for someone with an unassuming – perhaps even shy – personality. Cote is polite and laidback; he speaks softly but articulately.
As an indication of his grounded attitude, Cote is probably one of the few Division I athletes who spends his offseason cutting grass and doing handy work. For the past two summers, he’s worked on the facilities maintenance crew for the athletic department because his student visa won’t allow for off-campus employment. Cote said he felt grateful for the job opportunity and earned praise for his work ethic.
“All the maintenance guys love him,” Carmody said. “They think he’s the greatest guy. He’s just a regular, normal guy.”
Cote is a fixture at Chili’s after home games, where he favors the burgers. He also has developed a taste for the Mediterranean cuisine at Pita Inn, a place recommended by Hachad. Cote and Hachad have been friends since junior year in high school at Champlain-St. Lambert in Quebec.
Their reunion in Evanston has a tinge of irony. Only one of them was originally recruited by NU. Carmody and his staff discovered Hachad during a scouting trip to watch Cote. A two-time All-Canadian honoree, Cote was somewhat of a hyped sensation in high school.
“He was kind of a role model,” Hachad said. “He was already recruited by a lot of colleges, so he knew what was going on. He knew how much hard work it took in high school to get to where he got.
“I always thought of him as being very helpful because he used to help a lot of the kids in our school, telling them advice about school and basketball.”
While Hachad and Cote only talked periodically during his Kentucky days, now the two are practically inseparable. They room together during road trips, train together in the summers and hang out back home in Montreal. They also speak exclusively in French – a bonus for running plays during practice. Cote was born in English-speaking Toronto, but he moved to Montreal at age 8 and considers French his first language.
A communication studies major, Cote said he’s interested “in a million things” after graduation, including pro basketball, coaching or continuing the family tradition in communications. His older sister works in public relations in Montreal, and their father serves as vice president of media relations for a tobacco company in Switzerland.
For now, Cote is content with focusing on the Princeton offense and making an impact on his new team. As for his head-turning romantic interest, he’s already flourishing in that role. Apparently, Cote played matchmaker for former NU center Davor Duvancic and Johnson’s best friend, Miss Florida 2005.
“I’m dishing out assists, I guess,” Cote said. “That’s how Doyle would put it.”
Reach Gerald Tang at [email protected].
