If you look at the Rivals.com or ESPN Top 100 prospects each year, there is a list of schools next to each one that they are considering. Most are considering high-major schools in power conferences like the Pac-12 and SEC. Ray McCallum Jr. was no different. Three of his final four schools coming out of high school were Arizona, UCLA and Florida.
His fourth was Detroit-Mercy, a school whose basketball history is primarily defined by the fact that Dick Vitale coached there in the 1970s. Not exactly a hotbed for elite college prospects, but there was one thing drawing Ray Jr. to Detroit-Mercy. His dad, Ray McCallum Sr., was the head coach there. While many may think it was an easy decision for Ray to play for his father, he called it one of the hardest decisions of his life.
“It was definitely extremely hard,” McCallum Jr. says. “It was close to not going to Detroit. Coming out of high school, Florida, UCLA and Arizona, those are three teams that have a chance to win a national championship and are in the NCAA Tournament every year. I waited until one of the last days to decide, going back and forth, met with all the schools, all the coaches, and my family and at the end of the day, I went where my heart told me to go and that was to stay home with my dad.”
While the process was hard for Ray Jr., it was equally as tough on his dad. Think about it like this, McCallum Sr. had taken the job in 2008 and went 7-23 in his first season, before going 20-14 in his second year. The program, despite having an NBA player in Willie Green during the early 2000s, had not made the NCAA Tournament since 1998-99 season. Now McCallum Sr. had a chance to land an elite recruit that could change the program, an opportunity he was unlikely to have again anytime soon, but that recruit was also his son and as a father he only wanted what was best for him.
So putting his role as a father first, McCallum Sr. did what any dad would do, he helped his son sort through the recruiting process. He went on campus visits and sat through in-home visits with his son, and listened to other coaches pitch their schools. They wanted his son and they wanted him badly. While he may not change a program like UCLA or Arizona, he certainly helps them, and he had to listen to other schools chase after what had the potential to be his star player. Ray Jr. recognizes it wasn’t the most comfortable situation for his father.
“It was definitely a little awkward at first,” he says. “‘Cause he’s my dad, and Billy Donovan, Sean Miller and Ben Howland are coming into my home sitting at my kitchen counter with my mom, dad and I pitching me on the same things that my dad wants to tell me. But really he was my dad the whole time, he backed off and treated it like a parent. He was trying to put me in the best situation possible and if that meant going somewhere else, he was prepared to do that.”
The fact that his father was not overbearing throughout the process, helped Ray Jr. realize that what he really wanted to do was play for his dad. Had he been aggressive and relentless in recruiting his own son, it probably would have turned Ray Jr. off, not to mention aggravate his mother, who Ray Jr. says will occasionally serve as an intermediary in their relationship.
Keep reading to hear about McCallum Jr’s NBA chances…
So the fact that his dad, despite having everything to gain with his commitment, didn’t force it on him showed Ray Jr. that his dad was more concerned with his son’s happiness and success than his own. It proved to him that his dad would never let anything get in the way of the bond they have as a father and son and made the opportunity to play for him one Ray Jr. could not turn down.
Upon arriving at Detroit, things weren’t always easy for the younger McCallum. Despite being tabbed the Horizon League Newcomer of the Year award after his freshman season, during the postseason McCallum was home in Detroit, watching. The other three schools that recruited him were playing in the NCAAs and both Arizona and Florida would reach the Elite Eight. He wanted to be a part of that Tournament, so sitting at home was something he was bummed about, but it set the stage for his sophomore season.
As a sophomore, McCallum was a first-team all-conference selections and led the Titans in points and assists, but more importantly led them to a conference championship. By winning the Horizon League title, McCallum Jr. assured that he and his father would both be going to the NCAA Tournament. There was a strong sense of satisfaction not only for reaching the Tournament, but for reaching it at Detroit and doing it with his dad.
“We made the NCAA Tournament for the first team in 13 years that season so I felt proud and happy that I was able to help us get there and do it alongside my dad,” Ray Jr. says.
“It was so special. Growing up with my dad being a coach and seeing him be successful with some of his teams that he has coached, watching Selection Sunday as a team was just so special man. When we actually won the conference championship it was his birthday, so that was my birthday gift to him.”
Detroit got matched up in the first round with eventual national runner-up Kansas, so their time in the Tournament was special. McCallum came back for his junior season hoping to make another run to the NCAAs but unfortunately for him, the team fell short. They reached the NIT and lost there to Arizona State in the first round. After the loss, McCallum had a decision to make: come back for his senior year and one last run with his dad, or chase his NBA dream. Like with his decision to attend Detroit in the first place, his decision to declare for the draft came down to the wire.
“It was definitely a tough decision,” he says. “Playing for my dad was something special and when I decided I wasn’t going to come back you realize, ‘That was it, I’m never going to have the opportunity to play for my dad again.’ I cherish the three years I was there and I don’t regret my decision to go there at all. I waited awhile to make the decision but once my dad was able to tell me as a man, eye-to-eye, that he thought it was time for me to go, I had all the confidence in the world to go for it.”
That last sentence shows just how much trust there is in the relationship between the two Rays. Again, Ray Sr. could have acted in his own best interests by encouraging his son to come back (and many coaches do just that each year), but he told him that he thought it was time for him to leave and gave him the confidence to make that jump. It wasn’t easy, nothing about the recruiting process or the draft process was easy for Ray Jr., but he feels the last three years were the best thing for him.
He believes that no coach in the NBA could be harder on him than his own father. While he says his dad wasn’t the screaming type, he demanded excellence from his son in all facets of his life, pushing him to become the best player and person he could be. Ray feels more prepared than most for this next step because his dad has been preparing him for this moment for three years in a way that only a father could.
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