He’s seventh in the nation in scoring at 22.4 points per game, and he’s on pace to finish with the program’s second-best average behind only legend Bill Edwards’ 25.2 mark.
He’s also reaching personal highs in shooting percentages: 49.7 on field goals, 44.2 on 3′s and 93.9 on foul shots.
But while he’s living up to his billing as the preseason Horizon League player of the year, coach Scott Nagy doesn’t seem as impressed as others with what Calvin is doing.
His reaction?
Whoopee-do.
Not that he doesn’t appreciate the 6-foot guard as a player and person. He does. It’s just that his 36 years in coaching have conditioned him to see where even his stars can improve — and then he pushes them relentlessly to get there.
When the subject of Calvin having a great year came up, Nagy said: “If you’re just looking at points scored, yeah. But I’ve gone back and looked, and he’s had six games where he’s scored 30 points, and we’ve lost five of them. There’s just other things to the game besides scoring.”
Calvin had a season-high 34 points against Western Kentucky last week, one more than he had in the opener at Colorado State.
But Nagy is right: When he gets on a roll offensively, it’s doesn’t tend to end well for the Raiders.
Last season, he had 37 against Davidson, 31 against Northern Kentucky, a career-high 44 against Youngstown State and 34 in the regular-season finale with Detroit Mercy.
The only team in that bunch they beat was Detroit.
“I’d like to see him get other people a little more involved,” Nagy said. “I’d like to see his assist numbers go up and maybe his point numbers go down.
“If you just want to look at his efficiency, it’s great. But we’re not winning.”
The Raiders are 4-6 going into a home game Tuesday with Miami. They finish the non-league season at 1 p.m. Friday against Division III Muskingum.
They’re assured of only their third losing non-league record in eight years under Nagy (they had a league win over IUPUI on Nov. 29).
They went 3-6 in 2021-22 but rallied to win the league tourney and qualify for the NCAA.
They went 6-7 in 2018-19 but won a share of the HL regular-season crown and advanced to the NIT.
“Like I said to the team, we have to figure out what produces winning. I don’t want to have the leading scorer and MVP of the league and not win the league. I’m not interested in that, and I don’t think they are, either,” Nagy said.
Calvin has scored 1,734 career points in 131 games — that’s two games away from the all-time program record shared by A.J. Pacher (2010-14) and Parker Ernsthausen (2015-19).
He’s sixth on the career scoring list and likely will climb to third in the next few weeks. Keion Brooks (1995-99) is at 1,766 points, Vaughn Duggins (2006-11) 1,777 and Loudon Love (2017-21) at 1,792.
But the Chicago product has had relatively low assist numbers, considering how much the ball is in his hands.
He’s averaging 3.3 this season and has a career-best of only 3.7.
Though he’s had as many as 10 in a game, his season high this year is four.
“For him, I’d like to see him get more people involved offensively, even if we have to slow down a little bit,” Nagy said, mentioning how Calvin could draw double-teams and help the slumping Alex Huibregtse get more open looks.
“You look at assisted baskets, and we’re in the 300′s (nationally). It’s not really what I’m looking for. I’d like to see us share the ball a little more.”
TUESDAY’S GAME
Maimi at Wright State, 7 p.m., ESPN+, 101.5, 1410, 980, 1450
About the Author