Ray McCallum - Men's Basketball Coach - Tulane University Athletics

Ray McCallum

Title:
Associate Head Coach
Email:
hmccallum@tulane.edu
Phone:
314-7208

Ray McCallum possesses 19 years of head coaching experience and more than 40 years in the profession. He was named associate head coach for Tulane men’s basketball in April 2019. In the spring of 2022, McCallum was inducted into the 2022 Men’s Induction Class for the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.

McCallum has helped Tulane reach multiple milestones, while aiding in the recruiting of the next Wave. During the 2021-22 season, McCallum helped the Wave win 14 games which tied for their most wins since the 2017-18 campaign. Win nine home games and ten conference games, their most since joining the American.

McCallum arrives in New Orleans after three seasons in the same role at Georgia State on head coach Ron Hunter’s staff. During his time in Atlanta, the Panthers won 68 games, including three-straight 20-win campaigns, while making consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances after being crown Sun Belt Conference champions in 2018 and 2019.

Over the course of his two decades leading programs, McCallum has amassed nearly 300 victories and made six postseason runs. His head-coaching resume includes eight seasons at Detroit (2008-16), four years at Houston (2000-04) and seven at his alma mater, Ball State (1993-00). He was also an assistant coach at Indiana (2006-08), Oklahoma (2004-06), Michigan (1993) and Wisconsin (1984-93).

McCallum joined GSU following eight seasons as the head coach at Detroit. During his tenure, he pioneered the resurrection of the Titans from the bottom of the Horizon League when he took over to perennial title contenders, a Horizon League championship and a 2012 NCAA Tournament appearance. In McCallum’s first five years, the Titans increased their conference win total in every season and improved its place in the regular season standings.

Under his leadership, 16 Titans went on to play professionally. His son and former Horizon League Player of the Year, Ray McCallum Jr., played three seasons in the NBA with the Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs and Memphis Grizzlies.

Before arriving at Detroit, he was a key assistant on the coaching staffs at Oklahoma (2004-06) and Indiana (2006-08) and was a part of four straight trips to the NCAA Tournament with those teams. Among his many protégés at Indiana was a pair of 2008 Associated Press All-Americans, D.J. White and Eric Gordon, who both went on to be NBA first-round draft picks.

McCallum served as head coach at Houston for four years from 2000-04. In 2002, he led the Cougars to an 18-15 mark and a berth in the NIT marking Houston’s first postseason tournament appearance in nine years. Houston finished 9-7 in Conference USA’s National Division that season and advanced to the C-USA semifinals for the first time.

McCallum’s first head-coaching opportunity came at Ball State, where he led the Cardinals a 126-76 record, two NCAA Tournament appearances (1995 and 2000) and an NIT berth (1998). He also became the first coach in program history to post seven consecutive winning seasons. During his tenure, McCallum recruited and coached Bonzi Wells, who went on to be the 11th overall pick in the 1998 NBA Draft.

McCallum’s coaching career began at Ball State in 1983-84 as a volunteer assistant. He served as an assistant at Wisconsin for the next nine seasons, helping a program that hadn’t been to postseason play since 1947 to NIT berths in 1989, 1991 and 1993. He had a brief stint as an assistant at Michigan, before quickly returning to Ball State to make his head coaching debut during the 1993-94 season.

An outstanding player in his own right, McCallum was a member of two state championship teams at Central High School in Muncie, Ind. As a senior in 1979, he was a starting guard and was named the Most Valuable Player of the state championship game after leading Central to its second straight state title.

He stayed in Muncie to play collegiately at Ball State, where he was named the MAC’s Freshman of the Year after leading the Cardinals in scoring with 16.5 points per game. As a sophomore, McCallum again led the Cardinals in scoring, this time with 18.4 points per game, and helped them finish the season with a 20-10 record and a share of the MAC championship. Ball State also earned an NCAA Tournament invitation for the first time in school history that year. The following season, McCallum led the Cardinals in scoring once again with a 17.6 average, and Ball State won its first outright MAC Championship.

As a senior, McCallum was named MAC Player of the Year and conference tournament MVP. He also earned first-team All-MAC honors for the third straight year, ending his career as the MAC’s all-time leading scorer with 2,109 points. Additionally, he won the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award as the nation’s best senior under six-feet tall. He became the first BSU athlete to have his jersey retired in any sport. McCallum graduated from Ball State in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Technology.

One week after graduation, the Indiana Pacers selected him in the 1983 NBA Draft. One of the final players cut in training camp, McCallum played briefly in the CBA before returning to Ball State to begin his coaching career.

McCallum and his wife, Wendy, are the parents of one daughter, Brittany Rae and son Ray Jr., who was selected 36th overall in the 2013 NBA Draft by the Sacramento Kings and currently plays overseas.