Joey Calcaterra and Sam Scholl, Who Were Together at San Diego, Will Meet in N.C.A.A. Final

Finally, in early June, as rosters were all but full, Vanderbilt called. And then so did Connecticut. Hurley had one scholarship available and was hunting for someone who could shoot and wouldn’t play with fear. But he told Calcaterra he wasn’t sure if he was good enough to get on the court.

Calcaterra hopped on a plane right away.

“I knew I had what it takes to play at this level, and I wanted to see what this was all about,” he said. “I only spent one night there, but I saw everything I needed to. I sat in on one workout and I saw the intensity — no rest, no break time. I knew I would maximize my potential.”

He committed the next day.

At one of Calcaterra’s first summer practices, Hurley christened him with the nickname Joey California, which might conjure an image of a laid-back, sand-between-the-toes, surfer — everything Calcaterra is not. “The first time, I was probably, like, what did he just call me?” Calcaterra said. “But he kept saying it and saying it.”

Soon, social media did its work, and now there is a Joey California line of hoodies and T-shirts. (Friends and neighbors in Novato, Calif., north of San Francisco, have taken to calling his parents, Richie and Wendy, California, according to The New Haven Register.)

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/03/sports/ncaabasketball/uconn-san-diego-state-national-championship-preview-calcaterra.html