2/7/2023 basketball Edit

Corhen seeing more playing time than expected, learning on fly as freshman

Freshman Cameron Corhen has played 29 minutes or more in nine games. He has 16 points in back-to-back games for FSU. (Mike Olivella)

Bob Ferrante • TheOsceola

Editor

Cameron Corhen picked Florida State in part because the coaching staff has been willing to play freshmen. But he never dreamed he would see this many minutes.

When his roommate, Jaylan Gainey, tore his ACL in preseason practices, Corhen talked to assistant coach Stan Jones and knew immediately he would have a larger role.

“Coach Jones called me in his office,” Corhen recalled. “ ‘That’s a lot of minutes coming your way. … I know you're fresh out of high school. You're 18 years old, but it's time for you to grow up.’ ”

Corhen had to grow up fast. He has averaged 8.6 points and 3.4 rebounds, playing 24 minutes per game, but he has also poured in 16 points in each of his last two games. Corhen leads the team with 39 offensive rebounds, including five in the win at Louisville on Saturday — all of which resulted in putback baskets.

FSU (8-16, 5-7 ACC) has been depleted by injuries for a second straight season, including the losses of Gainey and versatile guard Cam’Ron Fletcher as well as the NCAA-mandated 16-game suspension for Baba Miller. While everyone from the coaching staff to fans can dream of what might have been with all three in the rotation from the start, the shorthanded Seminoles have instead had to battle and see how their freshmen develop.

“With young players, you don't want to sit around and have them try to figure out what their status is,” Jones said. “I think that's been one of the strengths of working with Coach (Leonard) Hamilton and our staff over the years we're very good on talking kids through their roles and their role evolvement. How we think it is starting and how we hope it ends. When that went down with Jaylan being out, you had to try to make sure his mind understood that he wasn't going to have the luxury of just playing a minimal role and dipping his toes in the pool.”

It’s tough to project which freshmen are ready for what they will face when they make the jump from high school to college athletics. Corhen had some advantages. His dad, Richard, played basketball at Georgia for Hugh Durham from 1981-84. His mom, Kelly, played high school basketball and has helped him with the mental side of athletics.

“They have different aspects of being those coaches,” Corhen said. “My mom, she's personal and the emotional coach. And my dad, he's a real quiet dude. Doesn't know how to do the other stuff. He just knows basketball. It’s like a tag team.”

Corhen logging heavy minutes

The 6-foot-10, 225-pound Corhen was a four-star forward who chose FSU over a large number of schools in Sept. 2021. FSU was a good fit and Corhen felt he would play right away.

“I liked the style of play,” Corhen said. “They play a lot of dues. Rotate dudes in. A lot of schools don't even play freshmen. I knew coming here I'd have a chance to get minutes and start going from there.”

Corhen played 20 minutes in the season opener, scoring 10 points in a loss to Stetson. But his minutes steadily rose and he became a regular in the starting lineup by mid-December.

“I thought I was coming in six, 10 spot minutes a game,” Corhen said. “Which I was fine with. I was cool with coming in slow and building my way up. I feel like I'm just grateful for that opportunity. And that's where my hard work comes from, because I know there's a lot of dudes who wish they could play, a lot of dudes who wish they could have the opportunity. I just have to keep grinding, keep getting better.”

Corhen has scored nine or more points in seven of his last eight games. He has also shot 50 percent or better in all but one of those, FSU’s road win at Pittsburgh. Corhen is shooting 81 percent from the free-throw line and has often been one of FSU’s best rebounders.

Hamilton would rather not play freshmen this many minutes, let alone veterans. His expectations on both ends of the court can wear heavily on players. But FSU freshmen have logged heavy minutes in recent years, from Malik Beasley (29.8 minutes in 2015-16) and Dwayne Bacon (28.8 minutes in 2015-16) to Scottie Barnes (24.8 minutes in 2020-21) and Matthew Cleveland (26.2 minutes in 2021-22).

But a player that FSU coaches compare Corhen often to, Mfiondu Kabengele, was able to take a redshirt season. Corhen averages 24 minutes per game but he has played 29 or more in minutes in nine games this season, which is quite the load for a big man.

“Very few freshmen come into this league without having to make some adjustments,” Hamilton said. “And when you’re in a situation like Cam has been where he basically has been the guy playing 30 minutes a game, that’s not as easy for them to adjust to at this level as maybe it would be if you have enough depth on your team. There’s nothing unusual about him not being quite as consistent but I do feel his effort has been good. Different schemes cause him more challenges because he’s adjusting to playing at this level in the ACC.”

Comparisons to Kabengele

Corhen's 3-point shot is a work in progress, although the heavy minutes have impacted the accuracy of his shot. (Mike Olivella)

Corhen has often been compared to Kabengele, a stretch 4 (forward) who developed his all-around game, was an ACC Sixth Man of the Year and was selected as a first-round pick in 2019. Thinking about the five offensive rebounds in the win at Louisville and the resulting 10 points, Corhen sees those as second-chance opportunities but also aspects of Kabengele’s game that he’s observed on film.

“Coach Jones always compares me to Mfiondu Kabengele,” Corhen said. “And that’s what he really did. A lot of it was offensive rebounding and get off block outs. I watch a lot of videos on him to figure out how to get easy points like that. Those are free points.”

Jones and the staff have pushed Corhen to watch film of Kabengele for years.

“We’ve encouraged that since we were recruiting him,” Jones said. “If not the top, he's in the top two or three guys in terms of amount of film they watch on their own without being asked to by coaches. I can see him, if he doesn't change his approach to the game, really having big jumps from year to year as it goes through his career.”

The challenges for Corhen to round out his game are evident. He’s just 6 of 26 (23.1 percent) from 3-point range, although he does have a good-looking jump shot. Part of the issue, Corhen and coaches admit, are the heavy minutes.

“I’m not shooting the ball as well as I usually have in the past,” Corhen said. “I’m scoring other ways. The legs aspect of it. Switching 1 through 5, I could guard the ball for 20 seconds, then my legs are dead, then I got to go shoot the ball. I have to adjust to that. I’m trying to work on my conditioning as well as shooting in practice.”

Switching 1 through 5 is an adjustment for Corhen, who is being asked to do things that a veteran has done in past seasons. While a forward like Malik Osborne excelled in defending everyone from a point guard to a center, Corhen has had to learn as a freshman for extended periods of time.

“It was definitely an adjustment but I feel like I adjusted pretty good just because, for a big man, I have quick feet,” Corhen said. “So it wasn’t the quickness aspect. It was just the mental part about it that threw me off. I feel like I’m adjusting pretty well.”

Gainey is Corhen’s roommate and has also helped with aspects of his game and teaching the freshman how to get in better positioning to block shots.

“He’s an older, mature dude,” Corhen said. “He is a great shot blocker. I ask him for tips about that because I’m trying to improve my defense, my shot blocking. He helps me a lot.”

Optimism for FSU's finish

Hamilton said a few weeks back that the Seminoles have been consistently inconsistent. That’s in large part a result of the injuries as well as a competitive middle of the ACC, where FSU is among five teams with between six and eight league wins. That also includes blue bloods like Duke and North Carolina, as well as Syracuse. The Orange are 14-10, 7-6 ACC going into Wednesday’s game at FSU (7 p.m. on ACC Network).

FSU has battled often, especially on the road in picking up back-to-back wins over Notre Dame and Pittsburgh. The Seminoles have also started flat in games, notably the three straight losses to Miami, Clemson and at NC State. A late lead at Louisville also nearly slipped away on Saturday.

“I think we may have taken too much out of that thinking we’re better than what we were,” Corhen said. “Because we came back and then Miami came in and beat us. We have to stay level-headed.”

Corhen is optimistic about how FSU can finish. With seven regular-season games left, he wants to see the Seminoles secure one of the top nine spots going into the ACC Tournament to avoid playing five games in five days. From there anything can happen, Corhen thinks.

“I feel like if we get four games in four days we can win the ACC Tournament and get a bid for March Madness,” Corhen said. “We just want to finish strong. … I feel like we've shown that we can compete with any team in the ACC, even any team in the country. I do believe we can do that.”

That is a bold statement considering what the Seminoles have been through this season. But if there are reasons to be encouraged about where the program is going, maybe not this March but in 2023-24, it’s because of freshmen like Corhen who are earning early playing time — far more than expected — and learning as they go.

“He's grown his game,” Jones said. “I think everybody can see he's added some versatility to spots he scores on consistently. He's extending his range, which we always felt like he had a potential to do that. And he's growing up from an emotional and a maturity perspective. He's still 18 years old.”