“Loyalty is the first law of God. Let’s run it back one more time Raider Nation! #keepgoin1″
Reached by phone, the first-team All-Horizon League pick said: “It was a pretty easy decision. I never really thought about leaving. Obviously, I’m confident enough that whatever I want to do professionally, I can get that done playing here.”
After losing all-league players Grant Basile and Tanner Holden to major-college schools after last season, there probably was some dread around the program that Calvin would do likewise. He certainly has high-major skills.
But the suspense ended the way his coaches and teammates had hoped.
“We’re happy he put that out there and let people know this is where he’s going to be. He’s very loyal and comfortable here,” Nagy said.
“When everything else fell apart last year (with the defections), he was with us. We’re obviously glad to have him back. We feel like he’s in a good spot and trying to have an even better year.”
Calvin said his parents and former AAU coaches were contacted by bigger programs, hoping to entice him to leave.
“Obviously, I could have gone anywhere else I wanted, but I was never one to hop around to new teams (as an AAU player),” he said.
“I talked to my coaches, and they have a little plan to take care of me here (through Name, Image and Likeness money). That’s all I really had to hear.”
The first-team all-league pick averaged 20.3 points per game, second in the league and 22nd nationally.
His 250 field goals and 508 attempts are both ranked inside the top 15 in the country. And his 49.2% shooting clip and 3.7 assists per game are eighth in the league.
“He’s going to get a lot of attention, and that’s going to make everyone else on the floor better,” Nagy said.
Calvin had four 30-point games this season, including 44 against Youngstown State, one off the school record.
The 6-foot guard is one of only eight players in the Nagy era to reach 30, and no one else has done it more than three times.
The Raiders were at the 13-scholarship limit until frontcourt sub Blake Sisley announced he was giving up basketball after only one season in the program, though he plans to stay in school.
Nagy indicated he intends to find a replacement for Sisley, who made four starts and appeared in 27 games but averaged just 2.7 points.
“With the guys we have coming back, we feel like it gives us a pretty good team. But we’re always going to try to get better,” Nagy said.
“We owe that to our players. I think sometimes people feel like, ah, you don’t want to recruit over them and hurt them. But there’s always a responsibility to be the best we can, as long as we don’t hurt the locker room.”
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