Freshmen players prove themselves
By ANDREW SOUKUP
Associate Sports Editor
Meet Jordan Cornette, Notre Dame's "other" freshman.
While his classmate, Chris Thomas, entered Notre Dame with the highest expectations of any freshman in Notre Dame's recent history, few people knew what the lanky forward from Cincinnati, Ohio could do.
That's just fine with him, anyway.
"I knew Chris would come with a lot of fanfare, and that's been good for me," Cornette said. "A lot of people slept on me and didn't know what I could do."
Now, people know what Cornette can do. When he comes into games, he knows he's in there to do three things: grab rebounds, make the occasional 15-foot jump shot and play superb defense
In Notre Dame's 72-65 loss to Kentucky, Cornette came off the bench to defend last year's SEC Player of the Year, Tayshaun Prince. The Kentucky forward only scored three points during the 10 minutes Cornette was in the game.
And with Harold Swanagan sidelined by an ankle injury last Monday, Cornette started the game and played a career-high 31 minutes against Georgetown's Mike Sweetney — a player nearly 40 pounds heavier than the 221-pound freshman.
Despite taking a pounding from Sweetney, Cornette scored 11 points and grabbed three rebounds.
"I'm really proud of Jordan Cornette," Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey said. "To ask what we asked him to do on arguably the best player in the league and get physical with him, I'm really proud of him."
"I'm confident that whoever I guard, I can give him a tough challenge," said Cornette.
It doesn't take long to see that the freshman is one of the most confident players on Notre Dame's basketball team. He's not afraid to talk about his strengths, nor does he avoid addressing his shortcomings. He doesn't back down from any opponent and even drew a technical foul Monday night when he exchanged shoves with Georgetown's Harvey Thomas.
"I think the fact that I'm playing so much gives me confidence," he said. "I've gotten confidence through showing I can play and I've proven to people that I can do things and contribute."
"He's pretty mellow, a pretty calm kid," said Matt Carroll. "We try to get him more excited than he usually is. That's just the type of kid he is. He's one of the nicest kids, and he's got a lot of talent."
It doesn't matter if he starts in front of a national television audience or comes off the bench — Cornette knows his role on the team very well. He's not under the illusion that he's supposed to be a great scorer. Instead, the quick 6-foot-9 forward knows he gets in games because he plays solid defense.
"I'm very versatile," he said. "If I'm playing a big guy, my footwork will tire him out and I can play away from the basket. If I have a smaller guy, I can create post problems; I can't always body up guys, but I can get quick steals."
Cornette admits he felt nervous during Notre Dame's first few games of the year. But he got over his anxiety in a hurry when he started the second game of his college career. Since then, he's started three more times and averages a little over 14 minutes per game. And based on the way he's been playing lately, if Swanagan is unable to play this Saturday, Cornette will probably get the starting nod again.
"He's coming," Brey said. "It was nice to Jordan Cornette [play with intensity]."
And people are starting to notice.
All Sports Stories for Thursday, January 24, 2002
