Former Virginia lacrosse star is now living his dream of playing college basketball after transferring to Stanford

STANFORD, Calif. – Expect Lars Tiffany to cancel men’s lacrosse practice at the University of Virginia for one specific day in January. He already knows his players have no plans to be there.

The Cavaliers players long ago warned their coach that a group would be taking a road trip to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. At least a dozen of them will be watching former teammate Cole Kastner play basketball for Stanford against the Tar Heels on Jan. 18.

“I’ve already been warned, we’re not practicing that day,” said Tiffany, “that everyone is going to drive 3.5 hours – just out of love for him.”

The 6-foot-4 forward is finally realizing his lifelong dream of wearing a college basketball uniform after a decorated collegiate lacrosse career across the country.

Tiffany initially wondered how Kastner would do in lacrosse given his size.

“During the recruiting process we weren’t sure. We thought, “Can you be too tall to make an impact in college lacrosse?” You had these little guys with short sticks who were fast,” Tiffany said. “Changing direction, sideways movement, if you take too much of a sideways step and stride, won’t you be able to change direction fast enough to stay with them?

“But when you’re as athletic as Cole, he not only proved he could do it, he did it at an elite level.”

Kastner transferred to the Cardinal program as a graduate walk-on after college at Virginia, where he helped the Cavaliers win an NCAA championship in 2021.

Kastner is fine with it because he doesn’t know exactly how he would fit on the field. He is just very happy with this opportunity.

“Every day I feel it,” Kastner said. “It was great to be part of this group and this university. It is such a fortunate opportunity for me and I am so grateful for everything the University of Virginia and the lacrosse team have prepared me to have this experience and make my dream come true.”

He graduated in May and had hoped to earn a master’s degree. In January 2023, Kastner started thinking about the possibility of playing one basketball season somewhere.

Coming to Stanford has made it all the more special. He is at home, having grown up not far from campus in Palo Alto. His father, Eric, played football and rugby for rival California.

Kastner also had a prime example and fan: Golden State Warriors guard Pat Spencer was a four-time All-American lacrosse star at Loyola University before playing a season of college basketball at Northwestern.

“For me, it was just about following my dream, and if that inspired some other guys behind me, then that’s pretty cool,” Spencer said. “I’ve always loved lacrosse, but basketball was always my first love, so it’s pretty cool that it’s inspired some others. guys to make that similar journey.

The lacrosse community is small, so Kastner tracked him down.

“It had actually always been (in my mind), as soon as I saw Pat Spencer do it, who was a great lacrosse player and he played basketball for a year and is now doing a great job, a two-way contract with the Warriors,” Kastner said. “I had the chance to talk to him a few times and he encouraged me to go for it.”

There are also plenty of lacrosse skills that transfer over to hoops.

Kastner pretended to hold his lacrosse stick outside Maples Pavilion earlier this fall, demonstrating the lateral movements and similarities to defense in his previous sport to do so again on the basketball floor.

While the transition was far from seamless, Kastner was a welcome addition to the roster in coach Kyle Smith’s first season.

Kastner had been in contact with former coach Jerod Haase about joining the program, and even when Haase left and Smith took over, there were discussions about still giving him a chance – with no guarantees when it comes to playing time, role or minutes .

Smith wasn’t sure what to think about the idea at first until he kept hearing from everyone about “a local guy, he wants to come back” and what a great person Kastner is.

He realized he had to give the athletic big man a chance.

“I just shook it off, it wasn’t a sense of urgency, I wasn’t worried about it,” Smith said. “I must have run into 10 other people, ‘Hey, this guy Cole, I heard he’s coming back,’ and then I ended up talking to him for three, four weeks. I said, ‘I’ll tell you what, you have an incredible PR campaign.’ I feel terrible now, I made things difficult for him and I understand why everyone is singing his praises.’

Stanford guard Oziyah Sellers is from nearby Hayward and understands what it means for Kastner to be home.

“I had seen him play lacrosse, but I had never seen his highlights. Once he spoke out, I saw the highlight tapes they posted and he was taking shots all over the field, running people over,” said Sellers, a junior who transferred from USC. “It was great to see him in practice and see how good he is.”

For Kastner, this is an experience he will cherish.

“I couldn’t be more grateful.”

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