At the end of this post you can see the game highlights of Pitt vs Florida State this year and Lowe landing blow after blow to Florida State and Corhen landing blow after blow to Pitt. Lowe finished this game with 17 points and 10 assists while Corhen added 25 points and 8 rebounds against our frontcourt. You can see multiple low post moves by Corhen in 1 on 1 situations against our frontcourt. You can also see the versatility of Corhen, how he is guarding Lowe, Leggett, Carrington, as well as other players in this game and how he was used more as a swiss army knife type player this full season as opposed to Fede who camped out 5 feet and in to the basket all game long only playing and guarding 1 position, center. This is what I have been saying in regard to Corhen guarding a lot of different players which is why his defensive rebounding numbers are so low and why they can be a lot better. He spent quite a bit of time on the perimeter guarding better offensive players.
But the bigger more hidden takeaways from these 2 players and why Im really excited about this year and why I think these 2 players are going to be our top 2 scorers this year and form a dynamite combination.
Jaland Lowe started the last 17 games for Pitt at point guard. He was arguably Pitt's best player in the ACC Tournament. And here were Lowe's stats the last 17 games of the season
13.1 points per game
4.1 assist per game
3.7 rebounds per game
1.6 turnovers per game
41% FG percentage
41% 3 point shooting
Those numbers are excellent across the board and they are from a freshmen that had an injury early on in the season. The last time Pitt had a guard anywhere close to 15 / 5 /5
with those shooting percentages was Carl Krauser. Before someone chime's in, Bub Carrington was no where close to a 40% + 3 point shooter this year.
Now on to Corhen. This guy is versatile, on offense and on defense. He is no way, shape, or form locked into our center position all year long. He can absolutely play some 4 here just like he did at Florida State. We are talking about a guy that not only has inside post moves, but has been shooting midrange jumpers just under 50% the last 2 seasons combined and he makes a lot of them.
But here is perhaps the biggest thing with Corhen. Ive read about 4 or 5 preseason previews on Pitt and the ACC so far. A few of them mentioned Lowe's injuries early in the season holding his numbers back and why Lowe did not start early on in the season. A total of zero previews mentioned Corhen's injury this year. Corhen broke his toe in the UNLV game early in the non conference schedule in the 4th game of the season. He barely played the following 2 games which dragged his numbers down significantly as he tried to play injured coming off the bench. Then he missed 5 games in a row because of the injury. Then he came back injured and played a backup role off the bench. Then he healed or somewhat healed later on in the season and started playing starter minutes again. This guy was not healthy all season long. And of every player in the entire ACC that is returning next year, Cam Corhen has the 3rd highest offensive efficiency in the entire league of everyone coming back from ACC Conference play. You can see that in the link below, Hunter Cattoor graduated.
T-Rank College Basketball Ratings and Rankings. And fun.
barttorvik.com
I think a healthy Corhen is going to be an absolute load this year in the block and I think we can do a lot with him, especially when it comes to switching off defensively which is something Papa Kante is also very good with. And with Corhen playing with far better guard talent next year at Pitt setting him up to score, I think his stats are going to go up considerably. Corhen averaged 12 points per game in the games that he started. A healthy Corhen, with better talent playing with him, with more playing time as he should be playing close to or over 30 minutes per game, should equal quite a bit more production. I was excited the day we got this guy. Im even more excited now and I think he is being heavily slept on this preseason. And I think Im one of the few people that even know he was injured this year because nobody else seems to be mentioning it anywhere.
Now with a stud point guard, a 3 level scorer in Leggett, a potential 3 level scorer with Delalic, a 40% 3 point shooter in Guillermo or Zach Austin who was highly efficient on offense, and one of the most efficient players in all of college basketball as the potential center, its easy or should be easy to see why our offense next year has a very real chance of being absolutely lethal and one of the best in the entire country.
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