Inside The Huskies

With Career Blunted at UW, Calmese Will Join Cougars

The high-scoring guard basically sat on the bench for the Huskies.

Dan Raley

Huskies guard Nate Calmese (8) drives against Stanford at Maples Pavilion.
Huskies guard Nate Calmese (8) drives against Stanford at Maples Pavilion. / Robert Edwards-USA TODAY Sports

Nate Calemese couldn't wait to get out of Montlake after seeing his basketball career take two steps back at the University of Washington, going from Southland Conference Freshman of the Year to deep on Mike Hopkins' bench.

On Friday, the wiry 6-foot-2, 165-pound guard with the floppy hair who hails from Gilbert, Arizona, turned his attention 275 miles east, revealing he will play next season for Washington State.

Calmese was one of the more curious developments for Hopkins' final UW team before the coach was fired.

At Lamar, he was a free-wheeling 17.7-point scorer, with 15 games of 20 points or more, topped by a 32-point outburst.

For the Huskies, Calmese appeared in only 16 games for a 17-15 team that could have used more offense, averaging just 4.1 points and 10.9 minutes played per game. He reached double-digits just three times, with a. high game of 15 at Arizona.

"My main goal is just to play," Calmese said before the UW headed to the Pac-12 tournament. "As you can see, it didn't really work out here. So at the end of the day, I really want to play and produce my talents on the court."

He will join a WSU team getting left behind to rebuild the Pac-12 into a new conference and answering to new coach David Riley, who takes over after three seasons as the Eastern Washington basketball leader.

Calmese is certainly capable of carrying a big offensive load for the Cougars. During the 2022-23 season for Lamar, he took 421 shots and made 202. He played 975 minutes, an average of 31.5 per game.

By the time he gets to Pullman, he should be well rested and ready to resume launching long jumpers. Yet it's unclear, with schedules not released, whether he will get a chance to play against the Huskies.

For 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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