Luke Maye

Classroom

Luke Maye earned second-team Academic All-America honors in 2018. He won the Skip Prosser Award as the ACC’s top scholar-athlete in men’s basketball, and he became the fourth player to earn first-team All-ACC honors and win the Prosser Award in the same season. Maye is a three-time CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree and is one of six Tar Heels to earn Academic All-ACC honors at least three times (2016, 2017 and 2018). Maye is an NABC Honors Court recipient and was accepted to UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School as a sophomore.

Character

Maye originally committed to UNC as a walk-on. He earned a scholarship as a freshman and is now a team captain as a senior. He came off the bench his first two seasons and became the first player in Tar Heel history to earn NCAA Regional MVP honors as a reserve in 2017. Head Coach Roy Williams frequently said last year (as Maye earned third-team All-America and first-team All-ACC honors) that Maye’s hard work and effort are the reasons for his improvement. Williams says Maye’s improvement is as great as any player he has ever coached. He went from a walk-on to Sports Illustrated’s No. 1 candidate as the National Player of the Year.

Community

Maye participates enthusiastically in the team’s community activities, including holiday shopping for underprivileged kids, reading to elementary school students, visiting with Make-a-Wish style experiences at games and the team’s autographed balls for charity program, which raises thousands of dollars each year.

Competition

Maye is a 2019 Preseason ACC Player of the Year, National Player of the Year candidate and first-team All-America candidate by multiple media organizations. He earned third-team All-America (AP, Sporting News, USA Today) and first-team All-ACC honors as a junior. A three-time ACC Player of the Week in 2018, he averaged 16.9 points and 10.1 rebounds—just the sixth Tar Heel to average a double-double in the last 40 years. Maye was a Wooden Award and Karl Malone Award finalist and was one of two players in the ACC in the top 10 in scoring, rebounding and FG percentage. Last season, he scored in double figures 30 times with three 30-point games and 13 games with at least 20 points.

Maye was the MVP of the 2017 NCAA South Regional, hitting the game-winning shot with 0.3 seconds to play to beat Kentucky in the Elite Eight. He became the third player in the last 32 years to send their teams to the Final Four with a buzzer-beating shot. He scored a then-career-high 17 points against Kentucky in that regional final.