Luke Maye: Student-Athlete

Less than 18 hours after making one of the biggest shots in NCAA Tournament history, Luke Maye was seen sitting front row at his 8am class:

There is not a human being on planet earth who would have given Maye any grief for skipping this class. Even the most delusional and ardent academic scandal truthers would have been completely fine with him sleeping in. He earned it, even before he calmly sank the biggest shot in school history since Michael Jordan’s shot in 1982.

Not only did he show up, he sat first row. As an expert in sleeping through classes in college, this was not the move I would have gone with. You have to hide in the background, out of the professor’s sight-line. If there was even a possibility of it raining at some point that night, I was going to skip the 8am class. It just wouldn’t be in the cards for me that day.

But there is a reason I am writing this article and Luke Maye is currently enjoying Day One of being a program legend. He is going to work his butt off to excel as a student-athlete. The term is thrown around loosely and is the subject of much derision in light of the big business model that is the NCAA. But Luke Maye embodies it, succeeding not only as an athlete but a student as well.