Cardinal men’s basketball adds Michael O’Connell

The Stanford Cardinal men’s basketball program added their fifth member to the class of 2024 with the signing of Blair Academy’s Michael O’Connell.

He’s the fifth player to sign for the class and just further solidifies this as the best recruiting class in the Pac-12 by a longshot.

O’Connell was a standout lacrosse player for Blair Academy while also averaging 18 points and five rebounds/assists a game as a senior. He was a First-Team All-State, First-Team All-League selection while leading his team to the MAPL Championship in New Jersey. He previously had played for Chaminade in New York, where he was a three-time All-League player and the NSCHSAA Player of the Year in his junior season.

Stanford head coach Jerod Haase spoke to GoStanford.com about O’Connell’s signing:

“Michael is a born leader and proven competitor - the type of person that will thrive in our culture,” continued Haase. “His success playing a variety of sports at such a high level proves how special of an athlete he is, and he will only continue to improve on the basketball court over his career at Stanford.”

His success at other sports was mainly in lacrosse where he was ranked as the No. 81 overall prospect by Inside Lacrosse. He had previously signed a letter of intent to play lacrosse at Maryland but instead opted out of that and chose basketball where he’ll now suit up for Haase and the Cardinal.

“Maryland Lacrosse is awesome. I verbally committed to them in the ninth grade. Coach John Tillman is great. He understood my love for basketball and how great of a school Stanford is. He was very supportive of my decision,” O’Connell said in a Rivals.com interview. “My decision on Stanford is getting the opportunity to receive a world-class education. Also, to play for Coach [Jerod] Haase and to win a Pac 12 Championship.”

At 6’2, 180 pounds, O’Connell is a talented point guard and was rated as a three-star recruit. He had nearly a dozen scholarship offers for basketball alone but was previously relatively unknown before transferring to Blair. He played extremely well in a loaded conference with a loaded team, giving him and Cardinal fans hope that he can indeed continue that in major college basketball.

O’Connell joins five-star SF Ziaire Williams, three-star PF Max Murrell, three-star SG Noah Taitz and three-star PF Brandon Angel as signees for the class of 2024, the top-ranked class in the Pac-12.

Welcome to The Farm, Michael!