Caleb Fields entered our Red Wolves lives in 2019 as skinny freshman from Lewisburg Tennessee; a Mike Balado recruit who made an instant impact by contributing 11 points per game (second most on the team) and a solid 3.5 assists per contest. To see the roster he played with is testimony to his enduring longevity – remember guys like Melo Eggleston, Christian Willis, Jake Scoggins and Malik Brevard (and Malcolm Farrington and Avery Felts! Yes, they’ve been here forever, too.)

In those early days, I recall Caleb Fields as a sort of Robin to Marquis Eaton’s Batman – a perimeter player who popped jumpers. As the years progressed, the cast of characters evolved, with Eaton, Desi Sills, Norchad Omier, Omar El-Sheikh, Lazar Grbovic and Antwon Jackson all coming and going.

Fields was the constant in an ever changing universe, but it wasn’t as though he didn’t evolve, too. He got bigger; especially in the shoulders and chest. He went from a flittering outside guy to a bruiser in the paint, charging headlong into beefy defenders without much regard to his own personal safety. He was a walking contusion; a sentient sprain. He was selfless as well, never begrudging the celebrity of Desi Sills and Norchad Omier, never minding that Marquis Eaton was and always will be the hometown hero. He simply grew out his hair, put extra time in the weight room, and played his game.

When Omier and Sills bailed for high profile programs, the Red Wolves became Fields’ team, a responsibility he took seriously. He averaged 11 points and nearly five assists a game, working with a makeshift roster cobbled together by a desperate Mike Balado, who was clearly blindsided by Omier and Sills’ defections. Fields didn’t complain. Fields did his best to make what he had on the court gel. He delivered some of the team’s finest moments on his own, much of it with a broken wrist. But the result was a 4-14 record in the Sun Belt and the dismissal of Balado.

Perhaps Fields felt dismissed, too. With Balado gone, the program he joined in 2019 was no longer very familiar. The reward for all of his ailments was a dissatisfied fan base. He put his name into the transfer portal following the 2022-23 season. Why not? It worked for Sills and Omier, who both found themselves on Final Four teams. He had paid his dues to Jonesboro.

Coach Bryan Hodgson arrived to Arkansas State with pulsating energy and a drive to prove himself a leader of men. He noted that the team’s field general (along with major contributors Izaiyah Nelson and Terrence Ford Jr.) had opted to portal out, and that wasn’t going to cut it. If Hodgson was going to build a team that played his way, he needed a confederate on the inside to meld the talent that remained in Jonesboro with the talent Hodgson had imported.

Fields removed himself from the Portal and inserted himself into Hodgson’s fast-paced style of play. With Terrence Ford Jr. injured for nearly the entirety of the season, Fields was relied on for more minutes, more leadership, more aches and pains. His disregard for his physical health remained as he pounded the boards – taking a pounding himself. Against UA Little Rock, Fields took a foul so hard it took him out of the game. He’d return two games later to lead A-State over UAB.

Caleb Fields is just one of eight players in program history to score more than 1,500 points in his career. He’s A-State’s all-time leader in games started and free throws attempted. He is also in possession of second in career free throws made and games played. Honestly, those stats reveal little about Caleb Fields, a player Bryan Hodgson called “the best point guard he’s ever coached.”

FEATURE PHOTO FROM Carla Wehmeyer – Arkansas State