Why KU Jayhawks guard Zeke Mayo is shooting & scoring better at home than in road games
Lawrence native Zeke Mayo, a senior guard on the Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball team, has had greater success scoring points in Big 12 Conference games played in his hometown than in opposing gyms during the 2024-25 league season.
That’s a little unexpected.
“I try not to pay much attention to any statistics home versus away, but I mean, obviously I’ve read into it,” Mayo said at a news conference Thursday held in advance of Saturday’s Kansas-Kansas State game.
Tipoff for the season’s second iteration of the Sunflower Showdown tips off at 1 p.m. Saturday inside Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan.
Mayo, a 6-foot-4 former South Dakota State standout, has averaged 21.8 points a game in six home conference games for KU — compared to 10.6 points per game in five road contests. He’s made 23 of 46 three-point attempts (50%) in league home contests and 7 of 29 (24.1%) on the road.
“It’s not really about my performance individually, it’s about the team performance,” he said. “And honestly I feel like we’ve done a pretty decent job on the road this year.
“I think we’re 500 or barely under (actually 3-2 in league road games). So for me personally, I think I’m just going to continue to play my game. Shots just haven’t fallen on the road, so I’m going to (still) look for my shot, but take the easy ones, take what the defense gives me.”
In conference play, Mayo averages 16.7 points a game on 43.5% shooting (30-of-75 from 3-point range for 40%) for the Jayhawks, who enter the K-State game with a 16-6 record, 7-4 in the Big 12. KSU is 11-11, 5-6 in conference games.
“I think for us it’s just about taking the crowd out of it early, coming out with energy, capitalizing on the things that we need to capitalize on,” Mayo said of playing on the road. “I mean, if we allow the crowd to get into it early, it can definitely have an effect on us, but we have a talented group of guys who try to limit distractions, just go out there and play our game.”
Mayo scored 24 points on 7-of-13 shooting (4-of-7 from 3, 6-of-8 from line) in KU’s 84-74 win over the Wildcats on Jan. 18 at Allen Fieldhouse.
He acknowledged getting a chance to play the Wildcats is much different from viewing the game on TV as he’s done many times growing up in Lawrence.
“Watching it on TV, it’s kind of like, you can sense it a little bit, but playing in it, it’s like coaches and players have this different kind of energy in the week leading up to it,” Mayo said. “It means more than any other game on the schedule. So for me, I did watch it a lot growing up. Just to be able to play in it, I mean it definitely means more as a player than just someone who watches it on TV.”
Mayo was asked Thursday about the challenge of slowing KSU senior Coleman Hawkins, who scored 15 points with 10 assists and seven rebounds in the first meeting in Lawrence.
“He’s a player that’s very versatile, can pass, can score, can shoot, can defend. So he’s a handful to defend,” Mayo said. “Our game plan last time was to make him do the things that he did but he capitalized. I think we’re just going to try and stick to the same kind of stuff, but I think it’ll come down to energy like it did on Monday (in 69-52 win over Iowa State) and just continuing to stack games on the defensive end.”
Mayo noted that “it’s definitely going to be a big time atmosphere. Obviously they came here and gave us a fight. They’re a very talented team and they’re more than capable of winning games in the Big 12. Obviously they’re on a big time stretch for them (four straight wins), so we’re just going to go down there and hopefully handle business.”
This story was originally published February 6, 2025 at 5:16 PM.
