His label is tweener, a term used to separate five-star meat from two- and three-star gristle. Bowling Green, Cleveland State, Wright State, Butler and Penn State. These are the schools that ponied up a scholarship to Jamelle Cornley. Ohio State, ten minutes from Cornley’s home on the North Side of Columbus, passed on its Mr. Basketball signing instead a forgettable 6′9″ post player from Salt Lake City, Utah named Brayden Bell. Remarkably, no other Big Ten School, not even Northwestern, gave Cornley as much as second look. Sometimes, however, there is an Ed DeChellis, a coach who is discerning enough to see past facile labels into the soul of ballplayer.
One of the several pleasures of purist basketball fandom is watching players and teams who defy the easy categorizations of the meat market approach to the game and succeed, indeed flourish, where so many saw failure. - DJ Elsass.
Players like Carl Landry, Roger Powell, Greg Brunner, Mark Vershaw, and Geary Claxton quickly come to mind. There are many more. Over the past four seasons, we’ve been graced with the effort, passion and talent of Jamelle Cornley. Tonight he looks to end his career with a Championship against Baylor.
The Underdog
Despite his stellar high school career which included a State Championship, Cornley nevertheless entered the Big Ten through the screen door around back. For those who doubted whether he belonged, Cornley dispelled all such notions upon arrival in State College when bagged the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Year hardware. Since then, through injuries and disappointing seasons for his team, Cornley continued to play hard en route to garnering further nods for his play, including this season’s Second Team All-Big Ten honor.
As he’s done throughout his career and this season in particular, it was Cornley who led Penn State to its semi-final win against Notre Dame. When the mock-turtleneck donning Mike Brey’s underachieving and defense-impaired Irish mounted a late rally to threaten what had seemed an inevitable Penn State win, it was Cornley who demanded the ball. It was Cornley who imposed his will on the game. It was Cornley, with a bum ankle and bad shoulder, who would not be denied.
A Tweener Factory
All knocks on the recruiting powers of DeChellis considered and set aside, there’s no doubt he has developed a knack for finding the diamond in the rough. Before Cornley it was the four-year feast of watching 6′5″ Geary Claxton destroy preconceptions of a Big Ten power forward with pure desire. And while now a veritable star, sophomore Talor Battle fits the mold of a player with a talent and an immeasurable heart lost in the myopic shuffle of big-time recruiting.
On a different level, it’s also worth noticing effort of another two-star recruit, junior Andrew Jones. Over the season, Jones has given DeChellis a steady arch of development highlighted by last night’s dominant effort against second-team All-American Harangody in Madison Square Garden.
Watching a player like Cornley, a player free from the incessant ESPN hype-machine that sees little more than the obvious, continually reaffirms our love for college basketball. Seeing such a player like Cornley toil and excel night in and night out for four years is what still gives amateur athletics its potential to inspire and its reason to believe.
Been following PSU hoops since 1988 (what can I say, I’m a masochist?) and ‘Melle is my favorite player of all time by a country mile. Nobody will ever play with the amount of heart and intensity that he brought to every single game he played in. He’s tougher, stronger and quicker than (almost) every post player he goes up against. I am so happy for him and proud that he represents my alma mater. The only sad thing on a day like today is knowing that I will likely never get to see him play again. He’s laid the groundwork for a (hopefully) bright future for the program with his blue-collar work ethic and team-first attitude.
I speak for PSU alums and fans everywhere when I say, “Thanks for everything, Jamelle.”
He is Penn State.
Left by pennstateproud on April 2nd, 2009