Freshman to Watch: Ike Cornish (2021)

It seems like each season in the Baltimore area there are a very select amount of freshman that come into high school and make an impact for their respective varsity team. It speaks to how skilled they can be at such a young age to play at the pace and physicality that the varsity level includes. In 2017-18, there will be yet another special group of freshman around the city to keep and eye on. The first one we will look at for PrepHoops is Ike Cornish of Dulaney High School. Cornish played his middle school ball for Cardinal Sheehan and plays AAU for Team Melo 14U. "We went undefeated and won the championship," Cornish told PrepHoops about his past eighth grade season. "I had a few games where I had 30 points and 20 rebounds. I'm a lot taller than most of the kids my age. Since some of my teammates were good shooters, I'd finish with 20 points and 10 assists in some games as well." The 6'5 combo guard can do a lot of different things on the court. As he stated, he has great size for not only his age, but his position even at the high school varsity level. Once he adjusts to the physicality, he should be a good rebounding guard. Scoring is a given with Cornish. He can shoot the ball with efficiency from all three levels. The game of basketball has changed with a tremendous amount of stress put on the three-point shot, so younger kids are adjusting accordingly. With Cornish's length, it's tough for smaller guard to get a good contest on his jumper. Defense is where the biggest shock for middle schoolers who jump immediately to varsity will experience. Because they were head and shoulders above their competition in middle school, a stress on playing locked in defense was likely nonexistent. Cornish's length and athleticism gives him the potential to be a good defender. Now, it's up to him to become quick enough laterally and be sure to make correct weakside help rotations. Like anything in life, experience is the best teacher, so once Cornish starts suiting up regularly this fall/winter with Dulaney's varsity team, the development will begin. "I'm trying to improve my ball handling and leadership," Cornish said. Head coach Matt Lochte will likely feature Cornish at the point guard position throughout the course of games. Cornish can handle the ball pretty well already, but assuring that his crossover and protection of the ball is consistent will be key. As stated earlier, Cornish can shoot the ball. He can shoot especially well off the dribble, which for Lochte, means he can feature Cornish and Che Evans in ball-screens that will cause many match up problems for opponents. Cornish is always a threat to utilize the screen and shoot a pull-up jumper, so it'll force the hedger to make either an extremely hard hedge, or be forced to switch. Not to mention Evans has the ability to pop out to the three-point line or roll hard to the basket and finish at 6'6. Dulaney lost a number of key guards from last year's team to graduation. Cornish will be vital in filling those voids in hopes to making a run to the Baltimore County Championship game. Cornish told PrepHoops that a handful of mid-major Division I programs have already expressed interest in him. In terms of film breakdown, Cornish watches D'Angelo Russell. He claims that since they are both tall guards, he can relate to him and wants to adopt his crafty passing skills into his own game.