Inside The Huskies

Calmese Sighting Registered in Huskies' Lopsided Loss to Arizona

The big point-producer from Lamar chipped in a season-high 15 points.
Dan Raley|
Calmese Sighting Registered in Huskies' Lopsided Loss to Arizona
Calmese Sighting Registered in Huskies' Lopsided Loss to Arizona

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Washington Huskies

As another disjointed University of Washington basketball season winds down, the Huskies limp home after blowing a 25-point lead at Arizona State and losing by 16 to Arizona.

In Tucson, Mike Hopkins' team (15-13 overall, 7-10 Pac-12) was as inconsistent as ever, left to rely on reserve guards Koren Johnson and Nate Calmese to lead the team in scoring with 17 and 15 points, respectively (the latter total tied by starter Keion Brooks).

For Calemese, a 6-foot-2 guard and transfer from Lamar in Beaumont, Texas, and the 2023 Southland Conference Freshman of the Year, it's been a forgettable season.

He came to the Huskies as a 17.6-point scorer and 48-percent shooter who's been reduced to 4.1 point-maker with 41 percent success.

After starting 31 games for Lamar and scoring 20 points or more in 15 games, Calmese has appeared in just 16 of 28 UW outings and finished in double figures only three times, including Saturday's outing.

Calmese's UW coaches might suggest he doesn't play enough defense to merit more game time.

On the other hand, outsiders would say Hopkins is far too rigid in his lineups and rotations, often limiting his game-day substitutions to just eight players and guys not always producing.

It seems as if more basketball players have come to Montlake in recent years to simply sit and watch, among them Marcus Tsohonis and RaeQuan Battle, who have played and flourished elsewhere. 

At Arizona, Calmese came off the bench with 7:32 left in the opening half and the Huskies trailing 38-21. Demonstrating a smooth stroke, he dropped in a pair of 3-pointers.

He ended up playing 22 minutes, his second-highest total of the season; taking 11 shots, tied for his most; and converting six field goals, a season high.

Originally from Gilbert, Arizona — which is 100 miles north of Tucson — and lightly recruited coming out of Mesquite High School, Calmese flourished at Lamar and then went looking for better competition. 

It's not clear what Hopkins promised him, yet it was probably a little more than the opportunity he's been given.

Calemese will be one of the few returning UW scholarship players next season, should he choose to stick it out, and he'll likely have to answer to a new coach.  

It will be up to this shooter to determine whether he should  stay in Montlake or seek out a third college destination that wants his jump shot.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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