I did some digging to find the statistics for that year's Bobkittens squad, and this isn't necessarily true. During that 09-10 season, Cooper was the 2nd leading scorer at 13.5 PPG, shooting the 3-ball at a pretty underwhelming 31.9% clip. That would rank 4th on this year's Zips squad (among the main players). The keys to their success that year were Tommy Freeman and Armon Bassett, whom O-BooWho fans actually say is the guy that got Groce to Illinois by jump-starting the run. You could say Cooper's PG abilities as a floor general made Groce a rich man, but if my memory serves me correctly, Cooper shot them out of a decent amount of games.
There is absolutely no reason the Zips can't go on a similar run as that 09-10 Bobkittens team, and it starts with this game against Miami.