Cam Corhen played an excellent game against California on Wednesday.
Pitt’s big man, who transferred in from Florida State, opened the season with seven-straight games with at least ten points. However, he then had a streak of four-straight games with less than seven points. Now, he has put together two performances — one of 15 points against Sam Houston, and one of 19 points against Cal — that make it look as though he will still be one of the top scoring options for the Panthers this season now that they’re in conference play.
“Even when he didn’t score, I thought, at times, he played well,” Pitt head coach Jeff Capel said about Corhen’s play this season. “What I mean by that — Cam can really pass. Our guards get a lot of attention, and so I thought he was really good in some of his passes in the short rolls, spraying it out for threes or maybe a hockey assist. So, even though some people didn’t think he was playing well, I thought there were a lot of good things that he was doing. That’s what we tried to emphasize with him, is to do those things.”
Corhen, at 6-foot-10, has had only two games this year with more than six rebounds. However, one of those came against Cal on Wednesday. Capel said that Corhen’s rebounding is one of the aspects of his game that they have been working on improving.
“The thing we’ve challenged him [to do] since he’s been here is to rebound the basketball better,” Capel continued. “But, again, it’s a guy that’s, for the season, prior to this game, on the season, was averaging double-figure points, a little bit over five rebounds, and I think one of the top-five guys in field-goal percentage in this league. That’s an upgrade of what we’ve had. It’s not a knock on anything that we’ve had, but, I think there are a lot of things that he’s done.”
Corhen finished the game with a 7-for-8 shooting line. He also made five of his seven free-throw attempts, grabbed 11 rebounds, blocked a shot, and grabbed a steal.
“Today, he was able to take advantage of the attention with Jaland,” he said. “So, he was able to get in there and finish some plays. Sam Houston, he was able to take advantage of some lobs and finish some plays. So it was really good to see him do that. We feel really comfortable with Cam in those short rolls, 15-17 feet, shooting the basketball. He has shown in practice that he can do that at a high level. My thing, our thing, is we need him to continue to rebound, and for him to continue to do the things that we deem necessary and that what we value, and not necessarily what anyone else thinks.”
According to Synergy, Corhen owns a points-per-possession number of 1.22, ranking him in the 96th percentile among all players in D1 hoops. Corhen has been an excellent player when serving as the roller in pick-and-roll situations, and owns a 1.5 PPP rating in those situations (95th percentile). He has also been a dominant force when he gets the ball in transition, ranking in the 98th percentile with 1.67 PPP there.
