University of Oregon Ducks play the California Bears

Jason Calliste dribbles down a hallway underneath Matthew Knigth Arena before No. 17 Oregon's loss to California on Thursday.

(Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian)

EUGENE – Given the choice, Jason Calliste prefers to go about his business quietly and out of sight.

The morning of Oregon men’s basketball’s first loss of the season at Colorado, the senior guard and one of UO’s graduate assistants trekked across snowy Boulder by rental car to the Coors Events Center to continue his 8-year-old tradition that’s as understated as his monotone, almost shy, interviews. It was so common during Calliste's four years at Detroit to see him at the gym hours before teammates arrived, head coach Ray McCallum never worried if Calliste wasn’t on the team bus.

So he walked to a corner of the court and began. Ten three-pointers. He moved in five feet. Ten mid-range jump shots from five different spots. He drove around the graduate assistant’s token defense. He shot free throws with the same superstition – passing the ball around waist three times – as he would later that night, when he missed three crucial free throws in the loss.

“I’ve got to get used to the floor, the rims, the atmosphere,” Calliste said. “I want to be first at everything.”

On a team with senior guard Johnathan Loyd and sophomores Dominic Artis and Damyean Dotson returning, Calliste broke himself in just as deliberately and quietly. As the “new guy” who transferred in September with one year of eligibility remaining, he waited to raise his voice until his play earned him that right.

Now, after two straight losses have left UO 13-2 and 1-2 in Pac-12 play, Calliste's play and UO's struggles have each provided a green light to be louder and speak the truth with equal ease that he shoots the three. The Ducks will see if it has taken effect Sunday against Stanford at Matthew Knight Arena at 2 p.m.

“Guys have been here for a while so they’re not always going to take kindly to a new voice telling them what to do and what not to do,” Calliste said. “Coach has given me the freedom to speak up and I don’t want to abuse that power. When I see something wrong I’ll speak up. … They’re kind of warming up to me now, they know what I’m about.”

The Ducks have found out what Calliste is about, and it’s nothing different than his former Detroit teammates recall. First, he’s a dead-eye shooter whose 70.2 percent true shooting – which takes into account three-pointers and free-throws – is eighth-highest in the nation. A reserve, Calliste averages 10.9 points in 26 minutes per game.

Juwan Howard Jr. and Olumide Solanke, former teammates, also describe an introverted personality whose speeches were infrequent but powerful. He'd rather shoot in an empty gymnasium than fire up a team, but never shirked from the responsibility when he knew he held the respect of the locker room.

McCallum, his head coach, described “a fighter” who recovered from several, unnamed surgeries “to put this program in this position that is today.” As a sophomore, Calliste and Detroit won the Horizon League title and its NCAA Tournament berth before losing to Kansas.

“He knows how to handle people and knows when to be harsh, knows how strong you can take it,” said Solanke, who lived with Calliste for two years and remembers summer video game parties that Calliste would organize in lieu of official practices. “If you're one of the people who can't take constructive criticism, he finds a different way.

“He has passion to be a coach. I saw that when we had a summer camp with kids. Jason actually asked to coach the kids that were just learning, and it was so amazing what he could do with them. That's when I knew he wanted to do that.”

No. 17 Oregon's defensive regression has inspired brutal honesty not only from Calliste in recent days, however. After Thursday's 12th-straight loss to California, Altman called it "a total team breakdown defensively," hinting at changes in his rotation to boost energy. Oregon has worsened in every major defensive category from last season at this time, and allows nearly 17 more points per game.

Oregon’s offense drew raves during its 13-0 start, and still averages the third-most points per game at 88.9, yet there were prescient warnings by Altman and Calliste early on about the defense. After Oregon’s victory against Utah Valley State on Nov. 19, Calliste entered post-game interviews with a scowl.

“We’re not going to outscore every team we play,” he said then.

The naturally reticent Calliste says he is careful to ask coaches about tips and tricks of the game, wary of coming off as badgering. But when he talks to coaches about his own game, it is usually as a second opinion to his own, thorough dissection.

He doesn’t spare himself a bad review, just as he won’t with the rest of the team if its struggles continue.

“I’m the most critical of myself,” he said. “And every game day I’ve got something to say.”