With Ray Sr. headed to Detroit, Ray McCallum Jr.’s days at Bloomington North appear to be numbered and the buzz is that his destination will be Detroit Country Day to finish out his high school career.
McCallum Jr. is currently playing AAU with Indiana Elite along with 2009 commitment Bobby Capobianco as well as Stephan Van Treese, D.J. Byrd (Purdue), Mason Plumlee (Duke) and Colt Ryan.
If Detroit Country Day sounds familiar, it’s because the school also produced Shane Battier and Chris Webber.
Ray McCallum, who spend the past two seasons as an assistant at Indiana, is taking over the reigns at Detroit. He’ll fill the void left by Perry Watson, who recently retired:
DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Titans hired Ray McCallum to be their basketball coach.
McCallum was introduced Friday at a news conference after beating out candidates such as Michigan assistant Mike Jackson, who had experience as a Detroit player and coach.
The 47-year-old McCallum was Ball State’s head coach from 1993-2000 — going 126-76 with two NCAA tournament bids — then led Houston for four seasons and helped the Cougars play in the postseason in 2002 for the first time in nine years.
This is a big blow to IU’s chances of landing 2010 point guard Ray McCallum Jr. who is one of the top 30 players nationally in his class. Ray Jr. played for Bloomington North the last two seasons and was behind the IU bench at almost every game this past season. As far as Ray Sr. goes, he’s a class act and should do well at Detroit.
ITH reader Robert was in attendance for Bloomington South’s 73-64 win over Bloomington North on Friday night and sent along the following on Bloomington North sophomore Ray McCallum Jr:
Although I’m more familiar with northern Indiana high school basketball, as I played for and live in Plymouth while I’m not in school at IU, I am not too familiar with the playing style and strengths and weaknesses of southern teams such as Bloomington North and Bloomington South. However, I am aware of the program J.R. Holmes has built over the years at Bloomington South and the struggles Bloomington North has had recently.
The Panthers of Bloomington South had control of the ball at tip-off and controlled much of the game throughout tonight’s match-up. Though Ray McCallum Jr., senior Javan Walker and freshman Darwin Davis helped give Bloomington North optimism at times, the depth of Bloomington South showed, as I believe four players ended the night with at least 10 points a piece. It didn’t help much that Bloomington North had a bit of trouble when they had the ball in their hands, as they had problems with turnovers in the first half.
The group of recruits attending Hoosier Hysteria this weekend in Bloomington is arguably the most talented to ever attend the event. It’s probably not a stretch to say that IU has the most talent of any school in the nation taking in the kickoff to the 2007-2008 hoops season.
Devin Ebanks, Derek Elston and Matt Roth, three players already committed to the Hoosiers, are slated to take in the festivities. Ebanks will be on his official visit while Elston and Roth will be on unofficial visits. Roth took his official visit alongside Tyler Zeller a couple of weeks ago. Zeller will be at Notre Dame this weekend and will finish his visits with a trip to Purdue next weekend.
Kevin Jones, from Mount Vernon (NY), will be on hand for his unofficial visit with his brother, Gerard. Jones is one of the final 2008 targets still on the board and is also considering Ohio State, West Virginia, UMass and Pittsburgh.
The 2009 class will also be well represented at Hoosier Hysteria. As I talked about a few weeks ago, Nolan Dennis, Lance Stephenson (pictured) and Dexter Strickland will all attend.
Lawrence North’s Stephan Van Treese, who recently visited Louisville and is being recruited by several other high major programs, will make the drive down from Indianapolis.
If you include Elston, five of the top 100 players in the 2009 class will be at Assembly Hall.
Other notable guests include Ray McCallum Jr., Jordan Prosser and Jacob Jenkins. Prosser, a 2009 forward from Goodfield (IL), has an IU offer and played with Indiana Elite and will attend per Midstatehoops. Jenkins, also a member of the 2009 class, is from Manual high school in Louisville and does not have an offer from IU. He was in the Rivals top 100 for 2009 but dropped out of the rankings after the summer.
Also, I’ve received a few e-mails asking about TV coverage of Hoosier Hysteria. The Big Ten Network is planning to have live reports from around the Big Ten beginning at 9:30 PM on Friday. Indiana will be one of the schools featured along with Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan State and Wisconsin.
I’ve gotten a few e-mails from readers asking for more information on Ray McCallum Jr., whom I’ve discussed quite a bit since the site launched. Since he’ll only be a sophomore this coming season at Bloomington North, it’s hard to project what type of player he’ll be three years from now when he’s a freshman in college. Some gets get better, others don’t. Those who are the best players when they are freshmen and sophomores don’t always end up the best players when they graduate.
That said, my personal opinion is that he’ll have the attention of just about every major program in the country over the next few seasons. He’s going to be a flat out stud. For those of you who haven’t gotten to see him, I’ve posted the best available video of Little Ray that’s available for free on the web, courtesy of YouTube. Enjoy and Happy Friday everyone.
There’s been a lot of good Hoosier links around the Web the past few days. Here’s a brief look at them:
- Matt Dollinger of the Indiana Daily Student has a great piece on Bloomington North sophomore-to-be Ray McCallum Jr. I first saw Ray Jr. at the Kentucky Hoopfest last month and came away very impressed.
After seeing him again at the New Albany Barnstorming Tour game a couple weeks ago, I was even more convinced that he’s got a chance to be an All-Conference player wherever he ends up. Of course IU fans are most interested in hearing that he’ll be a Hoosier and the younger McCallum seems to be warming to the idea:
“I still want to play for my dad,” McCallum said. “But I’m looking more these days at IU.”
- Jody Demling of the Louisville Courier-Journal caught up with Matt Roth and it’s looking favorable that IU could get good news from Roth very soon. Roth is down to St. Louis and Indiana and here are his most recent thoughts on the Hoosiers:
“I feel for as late as it was in the summer for them to start calling me, I’ve built the best possible relationship on a short notice,” Roth told The Courier-Journal in a phone interview on Monday. “It’s still growing, but it’s going in a positive direction.”
- Last, but not least, Dashan Harris appears to be favoring Texas A & M. The Monteverde (FL) Academy point guard recently visited the Aggies and a commitment could be imminent (subscription required).
“Things are going good. I just took an unofficial visit to Texas A&M yesterday,” Harris said. “It went pretty well. It went real well. I was real impressed with the school.”
“They are high on my list,” Harris said. “It (a commitment) could be a possibility.”
Earlier this summer, the IU coaching staff appeared to be hot on the trail of both Harris and Lewis Jackson. However, interest in Jackson fizzled and Harris is less of a priority simply because IU has plenty of options at the point guard position over the next few seasons.
