Luke Maye averaged 5.5 points per game this season for North Carolina. He is the eighth-leading scorer on the Tar Heels. Maye is a sophomore, and before this month’s NCAA tournament, he’d never scored more than 13 points in a college basketball game. Now Maye is one of the talks of the tournament and will sit in UNC folklore forever.
Luke Maye went from preferred walk-on to North Carolina March Madness folk hero
A team loaded with pro talent got the shot of the season from a former walk-on who was setting his career high in points for the second game in a row. You’ve got to love March.
The biggest thing is this shot:
Kentucky guard Malik Monk hit a brilliant three-pointer to tie Sunday’s Elite Eight game between the Wildcats and Tar Heels with a shade more than seven seconds to play. The Heels inbounded quickly. Kentucky hadn’t collected itself on defense, and Maye slipped free while Theo Pinson drove toward the basket. Maye’s spot-up jumper won the South regional for the Heels and the game, 75-73.
This shot was surprising. His whole tournament’s been surprising.
North Carolina’s roster is loaded with four- and five-star recruits. That’s not Maye, a former preferred walk-on from in-state Huntersville. That Roy Williams would even have Maye on the court in such a situation is surprising on the surface. He plays about 14 minutes per game for the season, which is a ton for a former walk-on. But still, Maye is a former walk-on, and this is North Carolina.
Maye’s developed a lot this year, though. His minutes almost tripled from an average about five per game as a freshman — again, lots for a walk-on — and his points per game went from about one to about five. He went from shooting just better than 40 percent to shooting just better than 50 percent. He’s gotten loads better.
Still, what he’s done this March is wild. Maye had 16 points just the other night in a Sweet 16 win against Butler. That was a career high. He followed it with 17 on 6-of-9 in his very next game. It was his sixth double-figure scoring game in 66 career games at North Carolina, and the last two points were the ones that a killed a John Calipari team loaded with star power. (Not that UNC isn’t.)
Maye is now a North Carolina hero forever.
A lot goes into a game and a season, but Maye’s shot is now responsible for Roy Williams’ ninth Final Four in 29 years as a head coach and North Carolina’s second in two years.
His shot felt like a bit of karmic justice, in that it followed a game-tying three-pointer by sticking a dagger into the other team’s heart. Villanova did the same thing to North Carolina in last year’s national title game, while Maye sat on the bench and watched.
This year, Maye was on the floor, and because he was, UNC’s off to the Final Four for a shot at redemption.
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