Cornell lacrosse 2023

[billhoward]

I don't believe Rob Pannell was even ranked by IL so I take all of the above with a grain of salt.  And it is important to remember that lax is a team game.  Ten people on the field who are willing and able to support each other is likely to guarantee success more often than having ten selfish AA's on the field.

You're thinking thinking perhaps of Virginia's Bratton twins from Long Island, subject of a 2007 NY Times magazine article, The Boy Wonders of Lacrosse? Suposedly capable of playing at a whole different level of athleticism. One was suspended multiple times then kicked off, the other suspended. They did not mesh with the team, it was reported multiple times, and they were also Black, so that may not have made it so easy to mesh with the team and vice versa.

A WaPost blog story on their suspension was written by We Showed Baltimore author Christian Swezey: Shamel Bratton dismissed from Virginia men's lacrosse team; team votes to suspend Rhamel Bratton indefinitely. Swezey gets around.

The Rob Pannell story was he was a good but not head-turning HS player (not seen as at the Jeff Teat level and maybe not at the CJ Kirst level (#9 ranked by IL as a senior)). His goal was Quinnipiac. (Hey, Mike French's plan post HS was to work in a GM factory.) He took a prep year, caught fire, and Cornell lured him away from Bobcat-land.

[dag14]

I know the Pannell back story well:  I was his faculty advisor at Cornell....

I remember serving on a panel during Trustee Council weekend with Dave Petramala in his first or second season in which we discussed the challenges of recruiting in the Ivy League.  I didn't know him well at that time but I was particularly impressed with his candor as he noted that Cornell might not be the best fit for high school lacrosse stars because a lot [not all] of those guys are often looking for the so-called elite program so that they could continue to see themselves as better than everyone else.  There are DI coaches who can successfully work with those players but that has never been the culture at Cornell.  If you are a star, to be welcomed at Cornell you also have to be the guy that will do all he can to support his teammates, not just excel at a position.  

Pannell comes to mind as a great example.  After his PPL Redwood's team won an important game this summer, in large measure because of his 5 or 6 assists, Rob said in the postgame interview that he thrives on setting the other guys up.  Jeff Teat is much the same.  If he has an open lane, he heads for the goal.  If he doesn't, he finds a guy who does.  

Think about who wins the Hardhat Award after each game:  it is often the guy with the most takeaways or groundballs, not the guy with the most points.

[billhoward]

Thanks for the trip down Recent-Memory Lane. Everything I know about Richie Moran and the Cornell ethic — Hard work! Ground balls! Ivy school, blue collar ethic! — rings true for not just the Moran/Harkness era but throughout Cornell's 55 or so years of lax dominance. Teamwork also pays off in all kinds of business life which is why being a jock helps you later (boosts the team manager, too).  A loner is not going to correctly dissect a prospectus solo, or find the cure for cancer alone.

[mike1960]

Will definitely take a five-star FOGO.

[mike1960]

A terrific new commit to the Big Red defense.

https://nlfrankings.com/player/cooper-simpson/

[billhoward]

A terrific new commit to the Big Red defense. https://nlfrankings.com/player/cooper-simpson/

Cooper Simpson is only #67 on the rankings, he's only 6-foot-0, a defenseman, and he's not graduating for another year and a half. It does say "high GPA." So how good will he turn out to be? OTOH Gavid Adler is only 5-foot-8, was all-county in HS but only a finalist for county defensive POTY ... and he helped hold Maryland scoreless for half a game.

For those looking for info on where players of a year or two ago have gone, or where current players are committed, nlfrankings.com could be a bit more polished.

[BearLover]

A terrific new commit to the Big Red defense. https://nlfrankings.com/player/cooper-simpson/

Cooper Simpson is only #67 on the rankings, he's only 6-foot-0, a defenseman, and he's not graduating for another year and a half. It does say "high GPA." So how good will he turn out to be? OTOH Gavid Adler is only 5-foot-8, was all-county in HS but only a finalist for county defensive POTY ... and he helped hold Maryland scoreless for half a game.

For those looking for info on where players of a year or two ago have gone, or where current players are committed, nlfrankings.com could be a bit more polished.

He's #57 in the rankings. I doubt Cornell has many players on their roster who were ranked higher than that in high school.

[billhoward]

Interesting. In the list view, he's #67. Drop into the profile, he's #57, and there's no Cornell logo showing his commitment. Whereas the last five-star player, #21, a Yale commit, has a Yale logo on the page. Although it's still almost two years from now that these players show on campus.

It seems other schools get a few more five-stars signed. We get a lot from four- and three-stars, or less, and/or they develop.

I felt badly when Virginia got the Bratton twins signed in 2007, such stars the NYTimes magazine did a story on them. They were not quite as impactful as expected.

There's also team chemistry and coaching. I am super-interested to see how Cornell fares against Maryland in their scrimmage Sunday outside Philadelphia.

[Al DeFlorio]

I am super-interested to see how Cornell fares against Maryland in their scrimmage Sunday outside Philadelphia.

May not tell us much.  Read somewhere a number of key Cornell players are nursing injuries or taking the semester off.  Hearsay, so who knows what's real.

[scoop85]

A terrific new commit to the Big Red defense. https://nlfrankings.com/player/cooper-simpson/

Cooper Simpson is only #67 on the rankings, he's only 6-foot-0, a defenseman, and he's not graduating for another year and a half. It does say "high GPA." So how good will he turn out to be? OTOH Gavid Adler is only 5-foot-8, was all-county in HS but only a finalist for county defensive POTY ... and he helped hold Maryland scoreless for half a game.

For those looking for info on where players of a year or two ago have gone, or where current players are committed, nlfrankings.com could be a bit more polished.

He's #57 in the rankings. I doubt Cornell has many players on their roster who were ranked higher than that in high school.

There's one 5-star in this year's freshman class, Jack Cascadden (I believe he was #10 at Inside Lacrosse) and for whatever reason Brendan Staub, who was the Nassau County Player of the Year and an UA All-American is "only" a 4-star. Other 5-stars on the roster are Mikey Long, CJ Kirst, John Lombardi, Angelo Petrakis, and Chayse Ierlan. I believe Aiden Blake was a 4-star from IL. In next year's class we have one 5 star, AJ Nikolic (son of Cornell hockey's Alex) and 3 4-star recruits. With six 4-stars in the 2024 class (and another, Rowan Nurry, who I saw IL's Ty Xander say will be a 4-star in the next rankings), we look to be doing very well.

[underskill]

How accurate are lacrosse recruiting rankings in general?

[Al DeFlorio]

How accurate are lacrosse recruiting rankings in general?

Long discussion on this thread at fanlax:  https://fanlax.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3832

[billhoward]

Being in the 2022 title game helped recruiting, obviously, for the class entering fall 2023. I think recruits see Connor Buczek as the real deal, younger even than Richie Moran in his first year, and likely to stay at Cornell. Fingers crossed.

[billhoward]

Which thread says: HS player ranking = inexact science ... some rankings reflect what schools are pursuing which players and how hard ...  some college coaches are great coaches, some are great HS-talent evaluators, some are both ... buying video evaluations may help get a HS player noticed ...

[Al DeFlorio]

Fall ball vs. Maryland sold out: https://www.usalaxmagazine.com/college/men/sundays-cornell-maryland-fall-ball-game-is-sold-out