YSU’s Mays named player of week

Photo by: Geoffrey Hauschild

Photo

YSU DeAndre Mays (1) scores two against Cleveland State's Aaron Pogue (44) during the first half of a game at YSU's Beeghley Center on Saturday evening.

By Jon Moffett

Penguins coach Jerry Slocum views the honor as a team award, too.

INDIANAPOLIS — For the first time in his career, Youngstown State men’s basketball player DeAndre Mays was named the Horizon League’s player of the week.

The Dallas, Texas, native led the Penguins to a 2-0 record last week, averaging 22.5 points per game while shooting 50 percent from the field, 66.7 percent from 3-point range and 84.6 percent from the free-throw line.

“We’re very proud of him and how hard he’s worked to get better,” said Penguins head coach Jerry Slocum. “I think it’s an honor that is deserved because he worked hard last week and we’re very proud of him.”

Mays said he was honored, but downplayed being singled out.

““I’m honored and I think it’s a good award to receive, but it’s not that big of a deal to me,” Mays said. “I’m not trying to sound arrogant or anything, but I’m more motivated about playing well throughout the year.”

Mays scored a career-high 30 points in the Penguins’ 71-67 win over Loyola on Jan. 9. He connected on 11-of-21 field-goal attempts, 4-of-6 3-point tries and 11-of-13 attempts from the charity stripe.

In YSU’s 76-67 win over UIC on Jan. 7, Mays scored 15 points with two 3-pointers.

Mays also averaged three rebounds, two assists and one block per game last week.

Slocum said a change in the game plan has in part helped propel Mays’ success.

“We moved him off the ball a little bit and let him play the two-guard position and he just ran with it,” Slocum said. “He likes receiving a lot of ball screens, which our guards do, and is just really good off the bounce. His work ethic has been tremendous.”

Mays said the change has helped with how he plays the game.

“When I was playing point guard, I had to run the team and try to score,” he said. “But from the two-guard [spot], I’m just focused on being aggressive off the tip. Playing the two gives me more opportunities to be aggressive.”

Mays leads the Penguins in scoring with 13.2 points per game and assists with 2.6 per game.

“He’s a basketball player that can shoot the jump shot and take you off the dribble,” Slocum said. “He’s a tough matchup.”

Slocum said while the team is proud of Mays, the award is as much about the team as it is any individual.

“He doesn’t receive the award without the team winning,” he said. “He’ll get a positive on that, but it reflects on our whole team. We don’t look at that stuff as [just] an individual award, we look at it as a team award, too.”

When asked if a position change brought about a change in his view of leadership, Mays said it’s been there all along.

“I feel like I have to be a leader at all times,” he said. “Just being one of the five seniors, it’s just something I inherited. People are always trying to look at us when something goes bad. I’m just trying to be one of those senior leaders and have people look up to me.”

The Penguins visit Valparaiso on Thursday at 8:05 p.m.

jmoffett@vindy.com