City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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A pair of dinners helped keep Chivarsky Corbett in Newark, Del.

The Tampa, Fla. native was one of five University of Delaware men’s basketball players to announce his intention to transfer in the spring following the firing of Monté Ross, and went so far as to commit to play at Texas-San Antonio, where he was announced as an incoming transfer early in May.

But then Delaware hired Notre Dame assistant Martin Ingelsby to take over the program later that month. Corbett, who had certainly enjoyed his two years at the school outside of the program’s struggle to win games, agreed to sit down with Ingelsby to see what he had to say.

Over two dinners near campus -- one at Marco’s, one at Klondike Kate -- Ingelsby laid out his plans for the program, and how Corbett factored into them. And Corbett was sold.

“He started talking about his offense and everything, and I fell in love with what he talked about,” he recalled after Delaware’s 64-49 win over Delaware State on Friday night. “I never wanted to leave...once (Ingelsby) got the job I felt pretty confident in him and I wanted to stay.”

Though the 6-foot-7, 200-pound wing was coming off an ACL tear that cost him all but four games of what would have been his sophomore season, his return was crucial as Ingelsby tried to put back together a program that won just seven games in 2015-16 and nearly lost most of its roster to transfer before his hiring; Corbett, Cazmon Hayes and Eric Carter all returned to school after initially announcing their intent to leave, though Kory Holden and Maurice Jeffers did not come back.

Corbett clearly wasn’t his usual self starting off the season, scoring a total of 14 points over the Blue Hens’ first three games. He found his scoring touch somewhat with a 16-point outing against Miami (Ohio), then -- after managing just three against Northern Kentucky -- had 11 against Austin Peay and 18 against D-III Bryn Athyn (Pa.) before scoring 16 points in the win over Delaware State.

After making a grand total of two 3-pointers over the opening three games (on eight attempts), he’s 14-for-28 (.500) in the five games since.

“He’s a guy that is finding his rhythm on the offensive end in this new system,” Ingelsby said. “I’ve been really impressed at his ability to hit shots. He does it in practice everyday. I don’t think he’s 100 percent, he’s working to getting back to his rhythm.”

Corbett was feeling it early on against Delaware State, dropping a 3-pointer from straightaway two minutes in and adding one from the left corner two minutes later to push an early advantage to seven.

His third triple of the first half broke a seven-minute first-half streak by the Blue Hens without a field goal. His fourth, 90 seconds after that, made it a six-point UDel edge.

“I got shots up pretty early today with coach and i was feeling pretty good,” he said. “I put in time every day and I’m starting to get into my right spots my teammates are finding me and I’m knocking down my shots.”

Corbett’s fifth 3-pointer was crucial, part of a 10-0 run by the Blue Hens that helped break the game open; Delaware’s defense closed things out from there.

He also added in eight rebounds and a steal in 29 minutes of action; he's yet to play any more than that as he continues to strengthen his knee and get back to the level of conditioning he was at beforehand.

"I’m like 90-95 percent [...] the knee doesn’t give me any problems anymore, so it’s just that I‘ve got to break through and get comfortable again,” he said. “I feel like I’m getting pretty comfortable.”

It certainly seems that way.