Isaiah "Ike" Cornish

6'6 190 Shooting Guard/Small Forward

Has the length to be a SF but might need to add some bulk. A 6'6 wing though? Essentially replaces BRod and Adelodun role. Already checks off a wing with length. If his skill set fits the "3 and D" moniker, he's exactly what the doctor ordered.

Redshirted in 21-22, played sparingly as a RS Soph last year for Maryland so his stats don't shed much light, but he was BIGLY rated coming out of HS. He was the #77 recruit nationally by 247Sports and #89 recruit in the nation by Rivals.

He has 3 years of eligibility remaining for Ohio since he came in after the COVID year.

Looks to be a great pickup as a 4 star out of HS, and with 3 yrs eligibility. Hopefully the prior groin injury not a lingering issue.

With the way the grid is shaping up - pretty obvious Boals plans to roll with a 4 guard/wing and 1 post lineup. Nothing wrong with that and it's essentially what we employed (at least offensively) when BVP or Clayton were our PF anyway.

Speaking of Clayton. Is he our starting post right now with Wiz and Ezuma backing him up? That would be my guess as we sit today. He certainly has the size. Just a matter of making him want to live/work down there instead of 30 feet from the basket.

Also makes me wonder if Boals and staff think Nicol, at 6'7, has the chance to grow or bulk up and move to more of a PF role instead of SF role - given all the depth and options now in the back court.

Dookies can keep crying a river about it - he belongs to us now. Maybe we will see Cornish & Corna grace the Convo floor in the near future!

Some comments from Maryland fans on the Cornish transfer

-----

"Former 4 star recruit, I still think Ike can play at the P5 level"

"I could see him going to a Butler or some P5 like that trying to rebuild"

"He wasn't a Willard recruit and Willard, for some reason, didn't see Ike as part of his future plans. I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that he needs to transfer down a level. Maybe just needs a new start with a different staff that actually wants him there; Cornish has skills but may just need the opportunity to display them in a new setting."

"Out of all our bench guys he was the one I didn't want to see leave"

"Ike had a nice looking shot. Very smooth getting to the midrange"

"Physically he reminds me of Andrew Wiggins"

"He got injured in HS and lost his entire freshman year. He still wasn't considered 100% last year"

"He always seemed engaged in the game and had a positive attitude"

Na, I think it’s pretty obvious we’re going to be running a 4 guard/wing lineup. Boals committed to it the latter half of the season when it was apparent Clayton wasn’t playing down low; but also wasn’t effective enough from the outside to justify starting. Hence, inserting BRod.

I’d be shocked if our starters aren’t Hunter, EJ4, AJB, Cornish, Big Transfer (Foster?). With Shereef and Brown getting 20-25 minutes a game.

I think the Maryland fan comments above are pretty encouraging in spite of his lack of PT. Apples and oranges between him and wiz.

Boals early in his tenure said he wanted to play a lineup of a point guard, three wings, and a center. We saw him transition to that in the middle of this season with Roderick alongside three guards and Wilson. I think we have the horses to do that full time now.

You can look at FAU this past season as a case study. They played a nine man rotation and seven of those were guards. They started four players 6'4'' or shorter. The seven footer was a decent rebounder, but neither he nor his backup were real board-gobblers or shot blockers. What they did do well was shoot a high percentage (both were above 60% from the field!) and stay on the floor (neither fouled out all season).

Assuming the last scholarship is used on a post player, I see an open challenge and competition for Wiz, Clayton, and Ezuma.

I think Mitchell is going to eat Sheldon's minutes and I don't necessarily see Nicol contributing much in year one. Probably one, maybe two bigs outside of the regular rotation as well.

I'm very interested in Hadaway's development. He has energy, aggressiveness, and played with the commitment to make positive things happen when he got time. I hope his skill is coming along to match.

We are pretty quick to relegate Miles Brown to 6 man status. This man has started the last 66 games for the Bobcats, and is coming off by far his best season. I just assumed he was a starter 30 min+ guy, which is why I mentioned EJ4 & AJB as potentially losing minutes due to Ike & Reef but not Miles.

This is correct, he had an offer from Furman.

Yea, I was going to say I think EJ4/AJB’s size and upside bumps Miles to 6th man. However, he’ll still get his minutes. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I thought he’d take a bigger step forward numbers wise going into his 4th season and this team needing an offensive identity for most of the year.

STATS
GP MIN FG% 3P%FT% REB AST BLK STL PF TO PTS
33 28.9 44.4 44.7 72.9 3.1 1.9 0.2 1.2 1.9 1.6 10.0
33 29.8 42.4 38.2 75.0 2.5 1.4 0.2 1.0 1.7 1.0 6.9

Figured he’d be pushing closer to 15ppg with Sears and BVP gone. All said, I think this is a good problem to have and it’ll be fine.

I posted in the portal thread earlier... I expect Miles to maintain his starting role. He was banged up for the MAC Tournament but was giving us 30+ minutes a night through MAC play.

My guess right now is that Jaylin/Miles/AJB are the starting guards with Elmore getting big minutes off the bench and starting for us the following year.

Also, college production>>>>>>>>>recruiting rankings this is why all the power programs and loading up on transfers...