When Ray McCallum was named to Kelvin Sampson's coaching staff last year, word started to circulate that his son would play point guard for Bloomington North.
In May when I first met Ray McCallum Jr., known better as Little Ray, he told me he hoped to play collegiate basketball wherever his father was coaching in three years.
But after talking to the North sophomore last week, McCallum said he now had his college sights set specifically on Indiana University.
"I still want to play for my dad," McCallum said. "But I'm looking more these days at IU."
In Noblesville last week, McCallum played like he was ready to suit up for the Hoosiers next week. Playing alongside the IU recruit team, McCallum scored 19 points and was, at times, the most impressive player on the court.
"Little Ray was great tonight," Jordan Crawford said last Wednesday. "I knew he could play, but he really stepped up (tonight)."
Eric Gordon echoed those statements as well. When asked after the game who impressed him the most, Gordon didn't hesitate when he responded, "Ray McCallum."
There wasn't much about McCallum that evening that wasn't impressive. He was able to take his defender off the dribble on a regular basis thanks to his tight ball handling skills. And when he reached the rim, he displayed a soft touch and an ability to finish. In fact, late in the second half, McCallum even threw down a two-handed dunk on a breakaway.
In addition to his athleticism, the 5-foot-10 McCallum posses the kind of fundamentals you would expect from a coach's son.
By the end of his high school career, McCallum's game just might be tailor-made for the Hoosiers. Starting this summer, McCallum has started working with former IU and Bloomington North star Errek Suhr.
Suhr is student teaching at Jackson Creek Middle School this fall and is working as an assistant varsity basketball coach at North.
"Errek has been working me a lot," McCallum said. "We have a program where he works with all of the guards."
McCallum worked with Suhr throughout the month of July and said he has already picked up a lot from the former Hoosier.
"He's taught me a lot of moves and how to play when you're small," McCallum said. "He's helping me learn how to be quicker than everybody."
North basketball has the month of August off, but McCallum said the team would begin open gym sometime in late September or early October.
After the Noblesville game, McCallum said he was happy to see he could hang with the other recruits and looked forward to playing with them again.
"This was my third time playing with them and I just wanted to show them my game," he said. "I just wanted to show them I could do it."
One last note... McCallum's open interest for Indiana was a slight surprise to me, so I asked him a hypothetical question to gauge his interest. I asked, "if your dad had ended up going back to Ball State to be the head coach, where do you think you'd play basketball: IU or for your dad?"
McCallum smiled and said, "I would have gone to IU, definitely"
