March Madness: There’s more to Luke Maye than meets the eye

Luke Maye just hit one of the biggest shots of March Madness. So who is this dark horse of North Carolina basketball?

Luke Maye is what college basketball is all about and everything culminated with his game-winning shot against Kentucky.

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If you haven’t seen it yet, we’ve got you covered.

If you aren’t a North Carolina basketball fan, you may have zero idea who Luke Maye is. You aren’t aware of the fact that he is a fan favorite that is greeted with a cheer of “LUUUUUUUUUUUKE,” throughout games. After this string of tournament games, and being awarded the Most Outstanding Player of the South Region, everyone has heard of Maye now.

So who exactly is Luke Maye? He is North Carolina’s former walk-on turned folk hero. During the regular season, Maye scored in double digits just three times and averaged 5.5 points and 4.1 rebounds per game.

In the NCAA Tournament so far, Maye has scored in double figures in three of four games, and is averaging 12.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, and is shooting 55.8 percent from the floor, and 63.4 percent from three-point range.

It all started in the Sweet Sixteen when Maye started this miraculous NCAA Tournament run by breaking his career high of 13 points (13 POINTS!), against Butler. This same game was when Maye recorded his first career double-double, scoring 16 points, and grabbing 12 rebounds.

Maye followed this up with an outstanding performance against Kentucky, where he poured in 17 points. He also came up with a huge assist to Justin Jackson on an outlet pass, and dove for a loose ball to force a jump ball, all within the last few minutes of the game. Maye was truly one of the best players on the floor for North Carolina and made one big play after another all night long.

Maye is a huge reason why North Carolina is moving on to the Final Four. On Sunday night Maye, a former walk-on, took the floor against a team full of five-star recruits and McDonald’s All-Americans and outplayed all of them.

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In the one-and-done culture that has taken over college basketball, Maye is a breath of fresh air. He is a walk-on that just hit a game-winner against a storied program like Kentucky. A shot that is unofficially amongst the top-3 greatest shots in North Carolina basketball NCAA tournament history. If you didn’t know who Luke Maye was before the NCAA Tournament, now you do, and he is what March Madness is all about.