Courtesy of GoGriffs.com
Cam Palesse, a 6-foot-5 guard Waukesha, Wisc., has signed a financial aid agreement and will join the Golden Griffin men’s basketball program for the 2023-24 season, head coach Reggie Witherspoon announced today.
Palesse spent the two previous seasons (2021-22 and 2022-23) as a member of the men’s basketball program at Valparaiso. There, he appeared in four games during the 2022-23 campaign, while being sidelined for much of the season with a thumb injury. He made his collegiate debut Nov. 7 at Toledo, and scored his first career points Jan. 14 at Evansville. He sat out the entire 2021-22 season and earned a redshirt-year at Valpo, leaving him with three years of eligibility, starting in 2023-24. Palesse plans on majoring in business management at Canisius.
“We are excited to have Cam join our program,” Witherspoon said. “We recruited him out of high school, he comes from a tremendous high school program. His experience, his maturity and his approach to the game will certainly fit in with our current guys and it will only help to continue to help make us a better team.”
“When I came on my visit, I felt an immediate connection to the culture within the basketball program, the school and the city. There’s a family feeling to all of those and that was what I was looking for,” Palesse said. “I love coach Witherspoon’s ball screen offense and the way they get out in transition. The coaches were totally transparent with me and they said they want people here that want to work hard and earn it on the floor. I am also from Milwaukee, and the city of Buffalo feels a lot Milwaukee to me. Canisius checked off all my boxes. I feel like this is the perfect fit for me as a player and as a person.”
Prior to joining the Valparaiso program, Palesse played his scholastic basketball at Waukesha West High School. A three-time Classic Eight Conference First Team selection, and the 2021 Wisconsin Sports Network “Senior Wing of the Year” award winner, Palesse led the conference with his 30.7 points and 5.4 assists per game, while helping his school to a league title in 2020-21.The 2020-21 Classic Eight Conference Player of the Year and a finalist for the 2020-21 Wisconsin Mr. Basketball award, Palesse shot 57 percent from the field, 45 percent from 3-point land and 75 percent from the free-throw line in his final season at Waukesha West High, As a junior at Waukesha West, Palesse was good for 24.5 points and 6.7 rebounds per contest.
Canisius will return 54.8 percent of its scoring, 65.0 percent of its rebounding and 58.2 percent of its total minutes to the roster for the 2023-24 campaign. The 2023-24 season will be the 120th in program history.
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