MADISON — University of Wisconsin men's basketball guard Connor Essegian received some emails and letters during his senior year of high school, but he didn't think much of it at the time.
The Armenian national team wanted him to get involved with an event they were planning the following year in Los Angeles. Essegian didn't know much about his Armenian heritage for most of his life, and without looking into it, he wasn't sure it was a big deal.
Then this summer, after his breakout freshman season with the Badgers, Essegian did some research. He learned about the magnitude of the Armenian team playing two international games in the United States, and about the Armenian community that was eager to be a part of it. He set up a Zoom call with the team's coach, Rex Kalamian, who's currently an assistant coach with the Detroit Pistons. Suddenly, this seemed serious.
"I really ended up deciding that I was going to do it about a week before I ended up going to L.A.," Essegian said. "I mean, it was pretty quick the whole process."
So, the week he returned to Madison, Essegian traveled again to meet the rest of the team for the Armenian Basketball Classic, with Armenia's national team playing two international friendlies against France at California State University Northridge on June 16 and 17. It was the first time the Armenian National Basketball Team had ever played games in the U.S.
And Armenian basketball fans "showed out," Essegian said, recalling hundreds of people being turned away at the door from the sold-out gym.
In the second game of the series, Essegian scored 14 points on 5-of-14 shooting (4-of-10 from 3-point range), getting run on the floor against older competition than what he'll encounter in the Big Ten this year as a sophomore.
Essegian was an All-Freshman Team honoree in the Big Ten last year, averaging 11.7 points in 35 games (19 starts) for the Badgers.
The Indiana native said it was a positive learning experience, both from a basketball standpoint and as an opportunity to learn more about his own Armenian heritage. He said many of the players on the team — who were mostly around 24 or 25 — were in a similar boat as the 19-year-old Essegian: still learning about their own history.
"But it's been really interesting," Essegian said. "It is pretty cool to see what it's about."
Kalamian, who's spent close to 30 years in the NBA as an assistant, "was putting me in front of guys every morning to be able to get myself out there at that level, too," Essegian said.
France represents maybe the best competition Essegian feels he's ever faced, an "extremely legit" group that was ranked among the top-5 teams in the world at the time.
The main thing Essegian took away from the weekend was the "love" he received from the team and fans alike, but once he was inserted into the starting five, he went all out on the court.
"It was really awesome to be able to kind of be one of those top guys on a national team," Essegian said.
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