KU’s Zeke Mayo says he received death wishes, racist message after loss to Texas Tech
After a rough outing against Texas Tech on Saturday, Kansas guard Zeke Mayo received a barrage of social media hate.
Mayo tweeted four different screenshots appearing to come from his Instagram direct messages, all expressing hateful words at the transfer guard, following the Jayhawks’ 78-73 defeat to Texas Tech.
The messages varied from a mix of threats to racist comments. Two of the messages wished for him to die.
“I 100% deserve all the criticism in the world. My performance was beyond pitiful today and has been for a while now,” Mayo wrote in the post sharing the direct messages. “I work my ass off everyday to be great, but I can’t be perfect all the time. I’m sorry to our fans and my teammates, I will continue to get better.”
Teammate Dajuan Harris responded to Mayo’s message on X with words of support: “It ain’t nothing to explain brotha I got yo back.”
KU athletic director Travis Goff also voiced his support on X.
“These aren’t Jayhawks. They’re not ours,” Goff responded on X. “Driven by gambling and hate. They’ve never competed a day in their life. To Zeke and all our guys - the Jayhawk family loves you and will always ride with you through thick and thin.”
The final word on the matter late Saturday night came from KU coach Bill Self, in a statement posted on the KU basketball X account just before 11 p.m.
Self’s statement read: “The game today was a very good college basketball game. We played a very good team and we got beat. We had some individuals have exceptional individual games and we had some maybe not play up to the standard they’ve set for themselves.
“But everyone on our team, coaches included, myself more than anyone, had opportunities to impact the game. A play here or there that could have been the difference in the game over the course of 40 minutes. Texas Tech made more plays than we did.
“We competed. We tried. We came up short and I’m proud of their efforts and I’m also proud of their preparation to be ready for the game. We haven’t had the overall year that we had hoped for ourselves, nor the year that many other people have expected, but it hasn’t been from a lack of caring.
“I can do a lot of things better. We all could do a lot of things better. But I’ll roll with these guys every day and be proud of it. Any criticism about the team should be directed at me. I’m the head coach.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how we bounce back against a terrific Houston team on Monday. Then, after that game, I’ll look forward to see how we respond to a terrific Arizona team on Saturday. This is the most important time of the season, and this is the time where we need to be better, but we also need to be focused on basketball and not things being said outside of basketball that have absolutely zero merit.”
Saturday was not the first time Mayo has received social media backlash. After KU’s loss to Houston on Jan. 25, he temporarily deactivated his Instagram account.
On Saturday, Mayo scored five points on 1-for-7 shooting. He had five turnovers and missed some quality looks he often has made.
Notably, he missed a go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:07 left. With eight seconds left, he had the chance to redeem himself as Kansas (19-10, 10-8 Big 12) trailed 76-73. Instead, Mayo air-balled a 3-pointer and No. 10 Texas Tech held on for the win.
“He hasn’t played as well here of late, but he’s been really good all season long and hopefully (will) get it out of his system,” Self said of Mayo’s performance. “I’m not worried as much about shooting. That’s always been my thing. Shooters need to make shots, but I’m not worried as much about that. And it’s magnified when you don’t have a lot of (attempts).
“But I just think he can play better. And when you worry about playing better, you seem to shoot it better.”
It’s been a rough go for Mayo lately.
The South Dakota State transfer entered the day averaging 14.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists, shooting 40.1% from 3 on the season. But he has scored just 30 points (7.5 per game) in his last four contests.
Earlier in the year, Mayo erupted for 23, 25, 26 and 27 points as part of a five-game stretch.
“He tried to get downhill early in the game,” Self continued on Saturday, “and really probably we’ve been on him about that as far as coming off tight and trying to get downhill to force help or go score. He tried to do that early and really came away with nothing.”
From that point on, Self said, Mayo was “a little hesitant.”
“That probably got him in a mindset where he is a little hesitant, but he had some open looks,” Self said. “He had a big one there on the right wing that was wide open and just didn’t go in a crucial part, but those things happen.”
The Star’s Gary Bedore contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 1, 2025 at 6:28 PM.
