July 22, 2004
Notre Dame, Ind. – Junior Rick Cornett (Country Club Hills, Ill.) will undergo surgery for a stress fracture in his left foot. The surgery will take place on Friday morning, July 23 at the Allied Physicians Surgery Center in South Bend. He is expected to be able to return to the court in time for the first official practice of the 2004-05 basketball season on October 16.
The 6-8 forward averaged 4.5 points and 3.4 rebounds during the 2003-04 campaign. Cornett scored in double figures in three games last season and was instrumental for the Irish in the final six games of the season. He averaged 10.7 points and 6.3 rebounds in Notre Dame’s three National Invitation Tournament contests. Cornett’s top performance of the season came against Purdue in the opening round of the NIT when he scored a career-high 16 points and grabbed six boards. In the outing prior to the game against the Boilermakers, Cornett netted a then career-high 15 points (on 5-6 shooting from the field and free-throw line) against Connecticut in the quarterfinals of the BIG EAST Championship.
Cornett’s other double-figure scoring outing came in the Irish win at DePaul when he scored 10 points, the first time in his career that he scored in double figures. He grabbed a personal best 10 rebounds in the season-ending loss to Oregon in the third round of the NIT.