Drake basketball offers Sardaar Calhoun one last shot in college basketball

Ten months and 13 days.

That’s how long it had been since Sardaar Calhoun played his last real college basketball game. It was Texas Tech versus Alabama State on December 28, 2021. Calhoun played seven total minutes, was two-for-two on 3-point shots and pulled down three rebounds.

He would not play in the Red Raiders matchup against Iowa State to start the new year. In fact, he would not even finish the season with Texas Tech.

Calhoun entered the transfer portal on January 10, according to a release from Texas Tech Athletics.

On January 25, Drake announced that the 6-foot-6, 210-pound guard/forward had signed on for the 2022-23 season.

And so, just over 10 months – 317 days to be specific – from his last college basketball game, Calhoun not only made his way onto the floor for the Bulldogs against IUPUI, but he heard his name announced as one of five Drake starters.

He played 28 minutes, second to only redshirt freshman Conor Enright. Calhoun scored 18 points – going 4-of-6 from behind the arc – and recorded two steals. It was Calhoun who scored the first points in Drake’s season opener, with a smooth 3-pointer, of course.

Calhoun was all smiles postgame, and rightfully so.

But less than a week earlier, he was overcome with emotion at the end of Drake’s exhibition game against Minnesota Duluth – his first competitive game of basketball since transferring.

Because Calhoun might fit right in with the Bulldogs system but getting to this point was no easy journey.

A rollercoaster career in college basketball

A Tappahannock, Virginia native, Calhoun played three seasons of basketball at Essex High School in his hometown before transferring to Blue Ridge School, reclassifying and playing two more years.

He continued his basketball career via the junior college route. In two seasons at Missouri State-West Plains, Calhoun claimed the school record for points in a single game (48) and career scoring average (18.6 points per game). He finished second in program history in total points (1,075), career 3-pointers made (183) and career 3-point percentage (.443).

That success with the Grizzlies put Calhoun in a pretty good spot.

In 247Sports JUCO rankings, he was a three-star recruit, the No. 1 player in Missouri and the No. 3 player in the nation. He secured offers from Seton Hall, East Carolina, Illinois, LSU, Minnesota, NC State, Texas Tech and West Virginia before committing to Florida State.

Believe it or not, this is where the rollercoaster really begins.

Calhoun played one season at Florida State and averaged 5.3 points in 14.2 minutes played per game during FSU’s Sweet 16 run in 2020-21. At the end of that season, he declared for the NBA Draft.

He says he heard back from different professional teams, but ultimately didn’t like the sound of “going out there trying to do something that’s not my game.”

So, instead of returning to Florida State, Calhoun signed to play at Texas Tech on May 19, 2021 – just over a month after declaring for the draft.

Fresh off a successful first season at the Division I level, he couldn’t quite seem to find his footing with the Red Raiders. Calhoun never played more than 14 minutes in eight games with Texas Tech, and his time on the court seemed to drop as the season went on. He never cracked the starting lineup and never scored in the double digits. His career-high points in a game with the Red Raiders was 8.

It was time for a change once again.

Instead of sticking it out through the end of the year, Calhoun opted to enter the transfer portal in mid-January, knowing that he would have to sit for the remainder of the season. It was a risk he was willing to take.

And it paid off.

Calhoun committed to Drake on the spot during his visit to Des Moines.

“I didn’t need to evaluate anymore,” Calhoun said. “I just felt like this was home. Coach (DeVries) was so honest with me and my family, and that’s the biggest thing about college basketball from the coaches, just honesty. Me and my parents trust coach DeVries and he hasn’t let us down.”

Third time’s the charm

Calhoun talks about Darian DeVries not letting him and his family down.

But for the Bulldogs head coach, it seems like the other way around. Just looking at his minutes in the season opener, or the way DeVries has compared his role to that of ShanQuan “Tank” Hemphill and Tremell Murphy – two players who helped turn Drake basketball into what it is now.

“He just loves the game, he plays with so much joy,” DeVries said of his senior transfer. “He’s certainly someone (who) can provide a sense of some firepower at both ends of the floor.”

Just because Calhoun seemed to fit right in during his first game in a Drake uniform, it doesn’t mean it came without struggle.

Three teams in three years means Calhoun had to learn three systems under three coaches. No college basketball teams operate the same, so maybe it was for the best that he had a 10-month hiatus to adjust. At least that’s what DeVries thinks.

“He had to learn something completely new and…it’s starting to register for him, and all makes sense to him,” DeVries said. “The last 30 days, it’s really started to click for him, and he went through summer and part of the fall where that wasn’t the case for him every day.

“He’s continued to learn; he wants to get better. He improves every day. But we’ve seen it coming for a while now, and it’s starting to show up on the game floor.”

Expectations are high for Calhoun after what he’s done in the exhibition game – 35 points, five rebounds, four assists – and season opener. Based on just two performances against non-conference opponents, he could be the piece Drake was missing the past few seasons.

But it’s also time for Calhoun to enjoy his last season of college basketball, and any of the emotions, highs and lows, that come with it.

“I did get a little emotional, but you kind of get like that when you love the game,” Calhoun said. “When you’re sitting out so long, you’re just working out the whole time and you don’t know if you’re gonna see the results. I’ve seen them and just gotta keep piggybacking off it.”

Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Sardaar Calhoun relishes opportunity with Drake basketball