Senior defenseman Cole Kastner — the men’s lacrosse team’s towering defensive captain who has for years menaced opposing offenses — announced Wednesday via social media that he is transferring after this school year. He is switching both schools and sports and will spend his final year of eligibility playing basketball at Stanford.
The senior is reviving a basketball career that has been dormant since he graduated high school. He declared his intention to play basketball in May, when he entered the transfer portal. He told reporters Saturday that basketball has always been his favorite sport, and that he had always dreamed of returning home to play it.
The 6-foot-7, 215-pound Kastner starred as a high school basketball player at the Menlo School in Palo Alto, Calif., averaging 17 points, 10 rebounds and three assists per game as a senior and landing on the All-State second team. The same length and raw athleticism that make him a formidable lacrosse player also helped mightily on the basketball court.
“I pretty much recruited him off a basketball highlight film,” Coach Lars Tiffany said Saturday. “I remember one play in particular. He stole the ball on a press and, from midcourt, took three steps and dunked the ball. I was like, ‘I don’t know too much about basketball, but that’s ridiculous as an athlete.’”
The transition from lacrosse to basketball has precedent across collegiate sports. Pat Spencer, a Tewaaraton Award winner at Loyola, used his final year of eligibility to play basketball at Northwestern in 2019-20, and Thomas O’Connell played lacrosse at Maryland before journeying to St. John’s to play basketball in the same year.
Kastner is a Tewaaraton nominee himself, and he has had another exceptional season anchoring Virginia’s defense. But Kastner will be an asset wherever he is for one simple reason highlighted by his coach.
“He encourages people,” Tiffany said. “He makes people better with positive words. He brightens up a room. He brightens up a locker room. He brightens up a practice field. When he talks, we all listen.”
Kastner’s relocation is also a homecoming — Stanford is just two miles from the Menlo School. So this always seemed a natural fit, especially given the recent transfer portal exodus that has emptied Stanford basketball’s locker room. The Cardinal presently has five players in the transfer portal after the offseason firing of Coach Jerod Haase.
Kastner had talked to Haase’s staff during the basketball season, visiting a practice over his winter break and establishing communication. He also talked to the staff at California, where his father played football. But in the end, he emerged as the first transfer to commit to new Stanford Coach Kyle Smith.
In an interesting twist, Kastner will suit up next season against his soon-to-be former school — Stanford’s transition to the ACC means it will confront Virginia every year in conference play. The thought of the matchup has crossed his mind.
“It’ll be real special for sure,” Kastner said.
The game will occur at Stanford next season, eliminating the possibility of Kastner playing a game for the Cardinal in John Paul Jones Arena. But Klöckner Stadium, which borders JPJ, will always be home for Kastner, no matter what color his jersey is. In his last few weeks as a Cavalier, he will do his best to bring one final trophy back to the stadium he has inhabited for so long.
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