Feb 26, 2015
Spotlight shines on FSU's Rathan-Mayes
After a remarkable 26-point performance in the final four-plus minutes of Florida State's 81-77 loss to Miami on Wednesday night, the spotlight is shining brightly on Scarborough, Ontario's Xavier Rathan-Myers. The 20-year-old spoke to TSN.ca on his first season in the NCAA and the bright future he sees for Canada Basketball.
TSN.ca Staff
,There was 4:38 remaining in the second half at the BankUnited Center in Coral Gables, Florida on Wednesday night when something happened to Xavier Rathan-Mayes.
With his Florida State Seminoles trailing its bitter ACC rival Miami Hurricanes, 62-44, Scarborough, Ontario’s Xavier Rathan-Mayes “locked into a different type of zone that I’ve never been in before.”
“It was like I was in the arena by myself and everything was quiet and I couldn’t hear anything,” Rathan-Mayes told TSN.ca on Thursday. “It was just a crazy feeling to describe. It was an amazing zone.”
What he did was remarkable.
Over those next four-plus minutes, the 20-year-old guard put on one of the great individual performances in NCAA history. Rathan-Mayes dropped 26-consecutive points, going eight for 10 from the field and six for eight from beyond the arc and pulled his team within two points in the game’s final 10 seconds.
For Rathan-Mayes, he was just heeding a call from his teammates.
“I remember coming into a timeout and one of our leaders in Montay [Brandon] said we weren’t going to give up on this game - that we were going to do whatever it takes to get back,” he said. “At the end of the timeout, he looked at me and he told me that he needed me. When one of your brothers tells you that they need you, you’re going to do whatever you can to respond to the call.”
Ultimately, the Noles’ comeback fell short with the team dropping the game, 81-77. Rathan-Mayes finished the game with 35 points, matching a season high. In a January game against the North Carolina Tarheels, Rathan-Mayes' 35 was the most scored by an opponent in Chapel Hill in nine years.
As astonishing as Rathan-Mayes’s effort was, Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton was more concerned about what didn’t happen than what did.
“The biggest thing [Coach Hamilton] said to us was we didn’t do a good job defensively,” he explained. “Florida State basketball is known for how we get our people and how we’re able to fluster people on the defensive end and we didn’t do a good job of that last night. That was his biggest message to us.”
This season has been a learning experience for Rathan-Mayes. A member of the vaunted Huntington Prep senior class in West Virginia that also produced close friend Andrew Wiggins, Rathan-Mayes chose to attend Florida State, the school his father, Tharon Mayes, starred at in the late 1980s. While Wiggins went on to start at Kansas, Rathan-Mayes was ruled academically ineligible last season at FSU and, while he attended classes, he couldn’t play.
Looking back on last year, Rathan-Mayes calls it “the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Last year was the toughest year for me, having basketball taken away from me,” the 6’4, 180-pound guard said, “but I was able to change my body around, get stronger, work on my game and just have perspective and learn from when you’re not playing – just watching a lot of film and studying, all that type of stuff. I think that year, it really helped me.”
Averaging 14.4 points per game to lead the ‘Noles to go along with a team-best 4.5 assists a night, Rathan-Mayes came to FSU as a volume-shooting two guard, known for his good range and an ability to create his own shot off the dribble and open up the post. If there was a detractor to it, it was an overreliance on his jumper, but Rathan-Mayes’s role and style have changed dramatically for the Seminoles late last year.
In December, the team’s top scorer, guard Aaron Thomas, was ruled ineligible for the rest of the season. It was up to Rathan-Mayes to take over the mantle of quarterback of the FSU offence.
“Aaron was one of our leaders, probably the leader of our basketball team,” he said. “When he left, Coach Ham sat down with me and he told me that I needed to basically step up and help this basketball team win games. My teammates, they’ve done a really good job embracing me as the leader of our basketball team and they’ve done a really good job, as well as my coaching staff, as well.”
Playing in a backcourt alongside now Milwaukee Bucks guard Tyler Ennis in his teens with the CIA Bounce, a Toronto club led by Ennis’s father, Tom McIntyre, Rathan-Mayes found his niche as a shoot-first scorer. He now finds himself adjusting to new responsibilities in Thomas’s absence.
“I’ve always played the two when I played with Tyler,” he explained. “Tyler was our point guard and I always played the two guard, where I was able to go out there and just score, but I’ve been put into the position now where I’ve been given the opportunity to run our team. I’ve had some struggles early, but I think I’m really getting the hang of it now. My teammates are doing an amazing job of embracing me and encouraging me every single day, in practice and in games, to keep doing what I’m doing and helping us in getting to where we need to be.”
Outside of his teammates, Rathan-Mayes counts on the support of his close friends Wiggins and Ennis, now plying their trades in the NBA with the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Wiggins a heavy favourite for Rookie of the Year. Rathan-Mayes says he talks to the pair on a regular basis and, in fact, had just gotten off the phone with Wiggins prior to speaking with TSN.ca.
“To see them on the stage that they’re on right now is definitely special,” said Rathan-Mayes of Wiggins and Ennis. “I’m so happy for them because we’ve always talked about [being in the NBA] since we were little kids. And it definitely motivates me because those are my best friends and you want to be there with them. That’s motivated me and it keeps me going.”
Rathan-Mayes relishes the opportunity to link up with the pair again, this time for Canada.
With the likes of Wiggins, Ennis, Sacramento Kings guard Nik Stauskas, Anthony Bennett of the T-Wolves, Boston Celtics big Kelly Olynyk and Cleveland Cavaliers forward Tristan Thompson all making waves in the Association, Canada Basketball could be on the cusp of a golden age and Rathan-Mayes believes the sky is the limit.
He looks at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro as a place for Canada to make its mark internationally. For Rathan-Mayes, a gold medal is an attainable prize.
“I really believe that because we’ve definitely got the talent,” he said. “We’ve got the guys to be able to do it and it’s just about all of us coming together as one team and one family and just understanding that we can do something special for our country. I don’t think there’s anything better than being able to represent your country and doing something special for the place where you were born.”
But that’s not until next summer. Right now, Rathan-Mayes and his Seminoles are focused on their final two games of their regular season and the ACC Tournament that gets underway on March 10 in Greensboro, South Carolina.
Sitting at 7-9 and in 11th place in the ACC, Rathan-Mayes knows taking the last two games of the season, a pair of conference home games with No. 17 Louisville and Pitt, and getting on a roll in the conference tournament is likely the only way the ‘Noles will find themselves with an NCAA Tournament berth.
“We gotta get these next two,” he said. “We definitely feel like these next two games are winnable games. We’re playing well right now, but we’ve just gotta clean up a couple of things, both offensively and defensively, and play together. We know that we need these next two and we’ve got to make a little bit of a run through the ACC tournament.”
Rathan-Mayes’s incredible Wednesday night in Miami was a highlight-reel performance, but he hopes the best for him and his teammates is yet to come.
TSN is your home for the ACC Tournament, beginning with Quarter-Final #1 on March 12 on TSN5 at Noon et/9am pt. The final goes on March 14 at 8:30pm et/5:30pm pt and can also be seen on TSN5.