Detroit’s Ray McCallum talks about winning Roundball Daily.com Horizon League Player of the Year

By: Kels Dayton

It’s all coming together for Detroit point guard Ray McCallum Jr.

The 6-2 sophomore won the Roundball Daily.com Horizon League Player of the Year award Wednesday after a season in which he averaged 15.6 points, 4.5 boards and 3.9 assists per game and led the Titans to the Horizon League championship and their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1999.

McCallum came up big when it mattered most in 2012.

Although his Titans (22-14, 11-7) finished three games back of top-seeded Valparaiso in the regular season, they thoroughly dominated the Crusaders on Valpo’s own court in the Horizon League title game.

McCallum led the way with 21 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals in that game,which may have been the deciding factor in his edging out Valparaiso forward Ryan Broekhoff to win the award. (McCallum received 44% of the vote, Broekhoff 42%). The Titans erased a 27-24 halftime deficit by massacring the Crusaders, 46-23 in the second half of their 70-50 win.

This is exactly what UDM fans had envisioned for McCallum when he signed with the school as a McDonald’s All-American two springs ago.

The point guard from Detroit Country Day received offers from some of the top programs in the country, visiting Oklahoma, Arizona, UCLA and Florida before deciding to stay home and play for his father Ray McCallum Sr. at local Detroit-Mercy.

We caught up with the star guard and asked him about winning the award, playing for his father, and what it means to succeed at home.

ROUNDBALL DAILY: First off Ray, congratulations on winning our Horizon League Player of the Year Award. What are your thoughts on winning this honor, especially as a sophomore?

RAY McCALLUM: Thank you. I’m just happy to win this award and happy that we were able to win the Horizon League championship and make the NCAA Tournament. At the start of the year this was our goal. Actually…it’s been out goal for two years. Unfortunately, my freshman year we came up short…but as a team we got together and we knew that this was what we wanted to do.

We had four seniors on this team and my job, being the point guard… I just wanted to do anything that I could to help my seniors and this team to be able to say that they went out with a ring and a championship.

RD: So how do you view individual awards, do you really think of them as just a team thing?

McCALLUM: Well of course I couldn’t have done it without my teammates. As I said at the beginning of the year, there’s no way that I would get this award without my teammates. If it wasn’t for all of their help then it wouldn’t be possible. It’s really them…they helped me out at times during the season when I might not be playing so well. They kept me upbeat. They kept me going in practice each and every day. I owe it all to my teammates and coaching staff as well.

RD: What’s it like to play for your father?

McCALLUM: It’s a lot of fun. He gets the best out of me each and every day…in practice and in games. I’ve gotten a lot better in just two years playing under him and you know, he knows my game really well. So we have a really strong connection on the court. Anytime I’m not doing well, we’ll watch more film or we’ll be in the gym getting more shots up. It’s definitely tough…he pushes me, but he gets the best out of me and that’s what I wanted.

RD: Does he treat you any differently than everyone else on the team?

McCALLUM: I think he treats me tougher than anyone on the team. Of course… being his son, he’s gonna be hard on his son…but I’m also the point guard. I feel like the point guard is like the quarterback. You’ve gotta be on every night. You’ve got to get your teammates involved…you gotta play defense…you gotta score, and you gotta do all the little things to help your team win.

And be vocal. One thing’s for sure, he’s always on me about being vocal and being a leader. And of course he has to be tough on me in practice. He stresses to me how important it is being a point guard because he was a point guard himself. So he knows what it takes.

But it doesn’t bother me that he’s tough on me; I like it.

RD: Coming out of high school as a McDonald’s All-American, did you ever consider going anywhere else?

McCALLUM: Oh yeah. I was looking at four other schools and Detroit made my fifth. I actually took official visits to Oklahoma, UCLA, Arizona and Florida. I was really strongly considering all of those schools. I didn’t make my decision until like the last signing day in April, actually. It was definitely a tough process, but at the end of the day it came down to who I trust the most and who had my best interests [at heart]…and it came down to my father. I just couldn’t turn that down….to get the opportunity to stay home and learn from him and play in front of my family.

RD: What was it like with your father as you were going through that process? Was he kind of pushing you to play for him or did he really just stay out of it?

McCALLUM: Oh, he stayed out of it. He treated me just like a regular father-son…and he never pushed me either way. He maybe had like two talks with me about it. One was earlier in the year and then later in the year. He told me what he thought I could do here….and then basically let me make my own decision. He actually came on a couple of the visits I had to other schools, but he really left it up to me and gave me my space. But at the end of the day, I knew Detroit was where I wanted to go.

RD: What are your goals for the rest of your collegiate career? I know you’re only a sophomore…

McCALLUM: Well, my goals are to try and win the Horizon League championship again and get back to the NCAA Tournament and actually win some games. And to just keep doing what I’ve been doing and just get better each and every year.

RD: How tough was it to play Kansas in the first round of the tournament. Did you think they had that kind of a run in them, to make it to the national championship game?

McCALLUM: Yeah, Kansas was definitely a tough team…they have really good players at all positions. I think we battled with them early and then in the second half they just kind of took over. But their defense was….I thought they played really good defense. They were in front of you all game…put a lot of pressure on you, got in the lanes…with Robinson and Taylor and Withey and all those guys…it was definitely tough. Defense can win you games and I knew that once they beat us, if you looked at the bracket, they could make a run. I definitely didn’t have them in the national championship game…but they had a great team and they made an incredible run.

RD: Wait, you didn’t fill out a bracket did you?

McCALLUM: No, I didn’t fill one out…. I didn’t want to jinx us.

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Roundball Daily surveyed over 3,300 Division 1 basketball coaches and sports information directors in naming the National Player of the Year, Danny Abbott Unsung Hero Award, and the players of the year in each of the 31 conferences. Voting was conducted by email via www.surveymonkey.com.