Inside The Huskies

Where Former Husky Basketball Players Are Playing Elsewhere

Nate Calmese will team with Mekhi Mason, both ex-UW guards, at Wake Forest this coming season.

Dan Raley

Washington State guard Nate Calmese (8) looks to make a move on Gonzaga forward Graham Ike.
Washington State guard Nate Calmese (8) looks to make a move on Gonzaga forward Graham Ike. / James Snook-Imagn Images

Nate Calmese will be remembered as one of the great mistakes of the Mike Hopkins coaching era of University of Washington basketball -- with everyone convinced the 6-foot-2 guard could play except the now long departed Husky leader.

Calmese was the Southland Conference Freshman of the Year in 2023, averaging a team-best 17.7 points per game for Lamar.

This past season, he led all full-time Washington State players in scoring at 15.2 as a 33-game starter.

On Friday, it was revealed Calmese will join Wake Forest and the ACC, and play alongside former UW guard Mekhi Mason and no doubt find the hoop on a regular basis.

Once again someone explain why this proven point-maker warmed the bench in Montlake and appeared in just 16 outings in 2024?

Calmese drew a lot of transfer portal attention, reportedly narrowing his pursuers to Baylor, Florida State, St. John's and Villanova before choosing Wake Forest.

The roll call of one-time UW players who are on college basketball rosters elsewhere: Calemese and Mason, Wake Forest; Koren Johnson, Mississippi; guard Jase Butler, Colorado State; forward Wilhelm Breidenbach, Grand Canyon; forward Dominique Diomande, BYU; Tyler Linhardt, Idaho; and forward Samuel Aryibi, Utah Tech.

The 6-foot-2 Johnson spent two seasons at the UW -- named the Pac-12 Sixth Man of the Year and averaging 11.1 points in 2024 while largely coming off the bench -- and he teamed with Calmese. He started just 5 of 31 games and it probably should have been more, another reason Hopkins doesn't coach in Montlake any longer.

Johnson will try to resurrect his basketball career after suffering a season-ending shoulder injury and playing in only two games for Louisville, which finished 24-12 and advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament.

Still looking for a place to land are former Huskies forwards Tyler Harris and Christian King and center KC Ibekwe, all in the transfer portal.

Harris, a 27-game starter and 11.8 scorer for Danny Sprinkle, should receive plenty of attention.

To get the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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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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