Does KU basketball have new fan favorite? Students chant for Zeke Mayo during opener
Kansas students standing in the bleacher section behind the south goal of Allen Fieldhouse broke into chants of “Zeke Mayo, Zeke Mayo,” three times during the Jayhawks’ 87-57 runaway victory over Howard on Monday night in the regular-season men’s basketball opener for both teams.
Mayo, a 6-foot-4, 185-pound senior transfer out of South Dakota State and graduate of Lawrence High, to the delight of the fans swished five 3s — two off a personal high of seven set against Denver two years ago — and finished with a game-high 19 points in 23 minutes.
“Yeah, of course I heard that. They were pretty loud,” Mayo said with a smile, speaking with reporters after the game. “Like I said a long time ago it’s a blessing being out there with my teammates playing in front of 15,000 or 16,000 fans every night.”
Mayo made five 3s and missed three 3-point attempts on a night the Jayhawks went 11-of-22 shooting from beyond the arc. Howard was 8-of-22.
Mayo’s pure shooting stroke has been on display at practice for many, many weeks now.
“He gets scorching hot like when you turn on the stove and you accidentally put it on high and touch it by accident. That’s how hot he is sometimes,” senior center Hunter Dickinson said after scoring 16 points with six rebounds in 21 minutes. Dickinson had missed KU’s two exhibition games because of a strained foot.
“We have a drill (called) ‘nine spots.’ He’ll get like 60 3s in three minutes. That’s pretty impressive for anybody to shoot like that,” Dickinson added.
Guard Diggy Coit went 2-for-3 from 3 good for eight points (with four assists). Rylan Griffen was 1-for-4 from 3 and scored five points. Dickinson, AJ Storr and Wilder Evers each hit a 3.
“He has beautiful shooting form and he’s a good shooter,” KU coach Bill Self said of Mayo. “I think he’s reluctant to shoot sometimes. I thought tonight and the other game he was more aggressive shooting the ball.”
Mayo was 4-of-6 from 3 a week ago against Washburn and scored 16 points in KU’s exhibition victory over the Ichabods.
“I like it. He’s a weapon out there,” Self said of Mayo. “He can knock it down. Rylan can knock it down; he didn’t do that tonight. Diggy can knock it down. It’s nice to have somebody (to hit 3s) where you don’t always have to score in the paint and you can throw it out and have guys make the defense chase them — and have a guy regardless whether it’s first pass, second pass or third pass be capable of making the shot.”
On a lighter note, Self was asked if he heard the students chanting Mayo’s name on more than one occasion.
“I didn’t hear that. Gosh, I wish I would have listened for it now that you mentioned it,” Self said with a smile. “Hopefully we’ll have more of them (students) show up on Friday. Hopefully I can hear better then.”
The Jayhawks, who also received a big game from Flory Bidunga (13 points, eight rebounds, 17 minutes) will play host to North Carolina at 6 p.m. Friday at Allen Fieldhouse.
On that night, newcomer guard Shak Moore may or may not make his season debut. Moore, who didn’t play in KU’s two exhibition games in recovering from early September surgery to repair a hairline fracture in his ankle, experienced soreness at practice this week, thus was held out of the Howard game.
“I don’t anticipate it being a big deal. Yesterday he said it hurt. We got it looked at today. Where it hurts is soft tissue, swelling,” Self said. “He can’t explode like he normally can. Thursday hopefully he can be back out there. It doesn’t look promising for him to play substantial minutes in the next week. I do hope he could at least be available to us.”
Self also said sophomore guard Jamari McDowell will redshirt.
