An a-Maye-zing year: Cole Maye wins baseball national title (Florida) after brother Luke (UNC) wins in basketball

It’s been a pretty amazing couple of months for the Maye family of Mecklenburg County.

Years ago, Mark Maye was known as one of the nation’s top high school football prospects and is still seen as one of the best high school athletes to ever come out of Charlotte. His wife, Aimee, was an all-star basketball player at West Charlotte.

But in the past few months, the Mayes have watched as their sons have dwarfed their stellar accomplishments: Brothers Luke and Cole Maye each won national championships. Luke won with UNC basketball in April. Cole won with Florida baseball Tuesday night.

Last March, Luke Maye hit a jump shot against Kentucky that sent North Carolina’s Tar Heels to 20th Final Four appearance. It was probably the biggest shot made by any Tar Heel since Michael Jordan’s jumper decided the 1982 national championship game against Georgetown. The shot even earned praise from former Duke star Christian Laettner.

After Maye’s shot, the Tar Heels went onto win the national championship over Gonzaga.

And Tuesday night, Luke’s brother, Cole, also celebrated a national championship, as Florida won its first NCAA title in baseball. Florida became just the fourth school to win NCAA “natty” championships in baseball, softball and football -- following Ohio State, Michigan and UCLA.

The Gators beat SEC rival LSU 6-1 to finish the season 52-19 and to sweep the best-of-3 finals series. Florida lost in the 2005 and 2011 national championship series.

Cole Maye, a 6-foot-7, 220-pound freshman, threw just 3.2 innings for the Gators all season, but he graduated early from Hough High in January -- the same school that his brother attended -- to enroll at Florida early. In fact, the Mayes are among six national champions to emerge from Hough High.

This story was originally published June 28, 2017 at 9:18 AM with the headline "An a-Maye-zing year: Cole Maye wins baseball national title (Florida) after brother Luke (UNC) wins in basketball."