‘Proven shooter’: Kansas coach Bill Self comments on signing transfer guard Zeke Mayo
Former Lawrence High basketball standout Zeke Mayo, who averaged 18.8 points a game this past season and 18.2 ppg during the 2022-23 campaign at South Dakota State, has signed a financial aid agreement to play basketball at KU, coach Bill Self announced Thursday.
Mayo, a 6-foot-4, 185-pound senior-to-be combo guard and reigning Summit League Player of the Year, committed to play at KU on April 2.
“Zeke has had a terrific career at SDSU and led them to the NCAA Tournament two of his three seasons there,” Self said of Mayo, who scored 1,576 career points and hit 231 3s in his three seasons at SDSU. “Most importantly, Zeke is a proven shooter. He made 92 3s last year and will be able to help us in that area. Being a local kid, it will mean so much to him and his family to put the Kansas jersey on and run out of the tunnel.”
Mayo chose the Jayhawks over Creighton, Oklahoma and Texas. He in late March announced plans to enter his name in both the 2024 NBA Draft as well as the NCAA transfer portal.
Mayo told The Star on Thursday he’d removed his name from the NBA Draft pool and will indeed play for the Jayhawks in 2024-25.
Mayo hit 46.6% of his shots this past season and 42.6% from the field in 2022-23. He went 92-of-235 from 3 for 39.1%. He dished 123 assists to 40 turnovers while averaging 5.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game in his just-completed junior campaign.
Mayo scored 19 points on 5-of-11 shooting (4-of-6 from 3 and 5-of-5 from line) and dished four assists in an 82-65 first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Iowa State in Omaha, Nebraska. Earlier, in the finals of the Summit League tournament, he had 16 points and six rebounds in an 86-68 title game victory over Denver.
“There was speculation that the Lawrence, Kansas native would enter the transfer portal last season, but he stayed another year and led the Jackrabbits to the Summit League title and their seventh NCAA Tournament appearance,” wrote Jonathan Fernandez of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.
Mayo, who graduated from Lawrence High in May of 2021, was co-recipient of the 2021 DiRenna Award, which recognizes the top boys basketball player in the Kansas City area. He shared the award with Mark Mitchell of Bishop Miege.
KU with the addition of portal transfers AJ Storr (Wisconsin), Riley Kugel (Florida) and Mayo, as well as incoming freshmen Labaron Philon, Flory Bidunga and Rakease Passmore, currently has 13 scholarship players on the 2024-25 roster.
The players who are listed as returnees at this time are: KJ Adams, Zach Clemence, Hunter Dickinson, Dajuan Harris, Johnny Furphy, Jamari McDowell and Elmarko Jackson.
Furphy has declared for the 2024 NBA Draft with the option of returning to school.
