I played soccer my whole life, from the time I was 4 years old until I was 15. I wasn’t playing basketball, but my dad was always telling me I should play basketball because of my size. – Maurane /corbin
SALT LAKE CITY — Maurane Corbin grew up playing just about every sport except basketball.
“I played a lot of sports when I was younger,” said the freshman from Quebec, who will likely make an immediate impact for the Utah women’s basketball team this season. “I played soccer my whole life, from the time I was 4 years old until I was 15. I wasn’t playing basketball, but my dad was always telling me I should play basketball because of my size.”
Finally, when she was 14, the 6-foot-5 forward gave the sport a try. “I did one year of playing basketball and soccer together,” she said. “But, after that, I just really loved basketball.”
In fact, it was sports that helped her make peace with her body type.
“I really was one of the tallest,” she said. “I have always been the tallest of my age group. Everyone stopped growing, and I just never did. When I was younger, I really didn’t like my height. But on the basketball court, it’s really nice to be tall.”
Corbin is one of Utah’s six freshmen, but Utah fans should learn her name — even if they can’t pronounce it properly — because she’s going to have an impact on the court.
“Athletically, she’s 6-4, 6-5 and very mobile,” said Utah head coach Lynne Roberts on the eve of the Pac-12 Women’s Basketball media Day event. “She’s exceeded, already, our expectations. She’s even better than I realized, and I think that’s just because she plays so dang hard.”
Corbin played for the Canadian Women’s National team alongside senior standout Emily Potter and last year’s captain Paige Crozon two years ago, which is how Utah was first alerted to her potential.
“Potter and Paige came back and said ‘There is this kid you need to see, and you should recruit her,’” Roberts said. “That’s how we found her, and started recruiting her.”
Because Canadian teens attend a mandatory level of schooling right after high school, Corbin is 20 years old.
That physical and emotional maturity only add to her value for the Utes.
“She’s going to find minutes,” Roberts said, “a lot of the because she just never stops. The ball has a way of finding her, and I think it’s because she plays so hard. She just has a tenacity to her.”
Potter and senior Tanaeya Boclair accompanied Roberts to California for the daylong media event that will be streamed on the Pac-12 website. Rankings for the women’s teams will be released Wednesday morning. The men’s media day is on Thursday.
Corbin said she’s loved living in Utah for the past few months, even if sometimes it’s difficult to learn in the classroom and on the court in English.
“It’s hard because we speak French, and I’ve always studied in French,” she said. “It is harder in school, so sometimes it takes me longer to read things or write papers. And sometimes I don’t understand everything people say.”
Roberts said that’s where her hustle and attitude have served her well.
“She is just a good fit with our program,” Roberts said. “She’s just fun, high-energy kid.”