Chansky’s Notebook: The Amazin’ Maye

Luuuke Maye’s story continues to amaze everyone who cares.

That five-star recruit Jalek Felton won’t return to the Tar Heels, for some reason, and this draws more of a reaction than another milestone reached by Carolina’s junior phenom. Nevertheless, Luke Maye deserves the spotlight as the team’s second-leading scorer (by less than a point behind Joel Berry), top rebounder and best percentage shooter from the floor and the three-point lane.

Felton might be getting more press and social media attention than Maybe, but you can bet Mark and Aimee Maye up in Huntersville — when they’re not burning up I-85 and 40 on trips to Chapel Hill — are proud of their son. Pride in Luke shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, and all those early doubts about Maye’s future with the Tar Heels should be long-erased by now. Roy Williams knew he was getting: a top-of-the-line student and an exceptional athlete.

Maye has received the annual Skip Prosser Award as the top scholar-athlete for men’s basketball in the ACC. To be nominated, an athlete must be an upperclassman maintaining a grade-point average of 3.0 or better. Sixty percent of the award is based on academic achievement and 40 percent on athletic accomplishments.

Maye has them both, with a stellar season already in the books and a 3.45 grade-point average in the undergraduate program at Kenan Flagler Business School. He has made the Academic All-ACC team in each of his three seasons and is the only ACC player to earn Academic All-District honors in 2018. Of course, he is in the running for every basketball honor, too, from ACC Player of the Year to the John Wooden Award as the best hooper in America.

The news also brings up another point that the knuckleheads at N.C. State and other ABCers won’t accept. Maye is the third Tar Heel to win the award after Tyler Zeller in 2011 and 2012 and Marcus Paige in 2015 and 2016. So, do the math: in the eleven years since the award — named for the late Wake Forest basketball coach — has been given, Tar Heels have won it five times. No other school in the ACC, not even Duke or Virginia, has won it more than once.

So let’s see all those tweets about the fake classes at UNC, because you know they are coming. Maye is likely to make it six years for a Tar Heel next season as a senior. He’s staying put and graduating with honors, and we’re proud of him.

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