Amari Kelly, Ike Cornish Visit Mason

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Joseph Szymanski
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By Palmer Johnson

After three transfer recruits visited last weekend, two more are visiting this weekend. Amari Kelly, a grad transfer out of UNC Wilmington, and Ike Cornish, a rising redshirt sophomore out of Maryland.

Amari Kelly

Kelly is a grad transfer 6’9 big who was at Duquesne for three years, with one being a redshirt year, and then UNC Wilmington for two. He will have one year of eligibility.

Last season, Amari averaged 7.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, 0.7 assists, 0.8 steals, and 1 block per game on 57.8% from the field and 33.3% from three while hitting 64.6% of his foul shots. His foul shooting percentage isn’t particularly high, it definitely could be a lot worse.

When I watch Kelly, I see a more polished but less athletic Malik Henry. He certainly will have a role on this team if he comes to Mason.

Amari can make shots around the rim and can occasionally stretch out to the mid-range and three-point line, but deep shooting isn’t what you want him doing. He shot 4/12 from three last season, so it seems that teams will have to at least respect him out there.

His strength comes on defense, he gets into good positions and knows when he needs to risk jumping for a block. He’s a smart defender.

Kelly is a bit foul-prone, averaging 3.1 fouls in 23.4 minutes per game, but hopefully being a year older will make him a more disciplined defender.

I think if Amari Kelly comes to Mason, he would play a similar role to what Malik Henry did last season; be a big man off the bench that comes in when the starter needs to come off the floor.

Ike Cornish

Cornish is a rising redshirt sophomore who was at Maryland for two seasons. He will have three years of eligibility because he redshirted his true freshman season.

Ike is a 6’6 guard/wing who’s athletic, can slash, handle the ball, and has shown potential to become a great shooter.

He shot 35% from three in his junior year of high school on pretty high volume and shot 38% in his senior year on a lower volume.

Coming out of high school, he was a composite 4 star on 247Sports. Cornish was the 113th ranked player nationally and 3rd ranked in Maryland going by the composite rankings, but 247’s own rankings had him inside the top 100.

Ike held offers from many DMV schools, including Virginia Tech, VCU, Georgetown, George Washington, and Maryland. If he didn’t choose Maryland, it is likely he was going to stay in the DMV anyway.

After redshirting his true freshman season, he averaged 1.4 points on 35.7% from the field and 18.8% from three in 4.8 minutes per game as a redshirt freshman.

While his shooting numbers may look low, I think that the percentages are can be attributed to super low volume. I think if he played more consistent minutes he would have positive regression to the mean and would probably have had low-mid 40/30 shooting splits. Those numbers would likely rise if he played against the A10.

Earlier in the portal cycle, he was scheduled to visit St. Bonaventure, Grand Canyon, and Mason.

But with St. Bonaventure’s top assistant, Steve Curran, coming to Mason, it seems like Bonny is no longer an option.

When Ike went to Maryland in 2021, he used his redshirt season. I think that shows maturity since he decided to stay and develop his game instead of going somewhere else immediately.

He has ties to the DMV area, with him being from Baltimore. He left for South Carolina near the end of his high school career but came back to the DMV again to play in College Park. It seems like he likes the area and would be very willing to stay.

There is a clear connection between Cornish and Skinn, with Tony being on Maryland’s staff during the 2022-23 season. I think it is extremely likely that we will see him in a Mason uniform next season.

I think Ike would compete for a starting wing spot immediately. If he didn’t start, he would be a huge piece off the bench.

Closing Thoughts

I think that both of these guys would thrive at Mason, especially Cornish since he has more time to develop in Skinn’s system.

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