The Sun News ran an article in this morning's paper that featured NC State point guard Julius Mays. Here are some qoutes from the article:
"I went from playing most games to not playing six games, and that was motivation -- either I can sit back and watch Javi [Gonzalez] and Farnold [Degand] play, or I can get real competitive and prove to Coach [Sidney Lowe] that I'm the one that should be playing," he said.
To that end, Mays has stayed on campus this summer, taking classes and working on his quickness and strength by hitting the weight room and trying to run hills with an improved burst.
Lowe has said he wants his team to play at a faster pace this season and has been impressed by Mays during offseason workouts. "Julius is more of a leader; he's more in tune to the whole dynamic of playing that position," he said.
Mays said he thinks it will be key for the team to begin with a designated starter, rather than continuing with last year's "three-headed monster." "The guys playing alongside the point guard want to know what type of guard they're playing with. I think they're ready to have a guarantee of who they're going to be playing with the majority of the time, or who's going to be subbing in and getting some minutes here and there," he said. "... [The job] is going to be up for grabs, and we're all working hard to grab it."
Although he averaged just 4.7 points last season, Mays believes his biggest strength is putting points on the board: "I think I can score with the best of them." Especially considering the best of last year's crop of point guards are gone. "When I think about that, I'm like, 'I can either take advantage of this, or I can sit back and let someone else do it,' " he said. "And that's definitely something I don't want to do. That's why I've been working on my game constantly, because I want to stand out next year, I want to help turn the program around, I want to help get us back on a winning stage."
Sunday, July 19, 2009
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12 Responses to "Sharing The Wealth: "Mays Handling The Competition""Well Mays is saying the right things, it would be nice if we can count on a starter at PG. It's good to hear he is working on quickness and strength too. You don't hear too much about Javi and Degand's offseason preparation, is it just not covered as much or are those guys not on campus this summer? I remember reading Degand went back to Boston, I didn't know if that was for the whole summer.
Ladies and Gentlemen meet your 2009 starting PG..... JULIUS MAYS
I hope Julius can step up and take that job. That would be the best case scenerio. The other 2 are, or least have been, too erratic.
degand is in raleigh, i saw him last week. everybody is dedicated to improving and working more as a team. they're doing a real good job of keeping each other in check. i've been really impressed with the leardership in both julius and c.j., everybody has picked it up. you can really sense a huge change in everything.
Random thoughts,
You can't just coach chemistry. The more these guys spend together in the gym, the better they'll work together no matter who starts. knowing the other guys' tendencies is key.
I wouldn't count Javi out just yet. He's tough and has seen the best the ACC has to offer competitively. His shots started falling end of last season and I get the sense he'll be a marksman this season.
Offseason, individual workouts are usually offense focused, so I expect to see the results on that end. In some cases, the guys that play the best defense may get the starting nod.
I was hoping to see Javi really step it up with Mays starting a shooting quard. Extra ball handling and May's best attribute is scoring. He can probably do that better off the ball. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
I've always seen Mays as the starter this year. I like a lot of the grittiness of Javi but I just don't see him taking the reigns. He'll rotate in but I see Mays starting and Degand doing mop up duty.
I also think Mays will get the starting nod this year, but I think you will see lineups this season with Javi, Mays, and CJ to prevent some of the turnovers.
I also look for Johnny to play a big role this season and i really hope his knee will hold up.
Here's what i think the starting lineup will be-
Mays
CJ
Johnny
dennis
and Tracy
I think it will be awfully hard to keep Mays off the floor this season. Him and CJ are going to be asked to shoulder a lot of the scoring from the guard spots. The way Coach spoke of Cj and Mays you can tell he's counting on them for on court production and leadership which I think they are more than capable of.
My dream starting lineup looks more like this
Mays
Cj
Wood
Tracy
Painter
Im really excited to the the improvement of mays, javi, cj, dennis, jt, and tracy this season because they will need to for us to have any success. From what i hear about how hard they all our working just by themselves, i think they all will improve a great bit this season. Wolfpackhoops, any idea of the chances that zo brown opts out to go to another school in 2010? Also, ive heard a few rumors that ryan harrow was looking at a few other schools and was opening up his recruiting and was wondering if u guys knew anything about that?
^ Alex -
Harrow and Brown have both said over and over again that they are BOTH coming to NC State as long as Sid is the coach. There are always "rumors" of schools that will continue to recruit comitted players and you shouldn't let that bother you.....it is the nature of the game. It's sad recruiting has come to that but what can you do. By all accounts Harrow has been our best recruiter....I doubt he would be doing that unless he was set on coming to Raleigh. Actions speak louder than message board "rumors".
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