Could Drake Maye be a D-I basketball player? Sure, but he still plans to play QB at Alabama
For a guy who has committed to play quarterback at Alabama, Myers Park High junior Drake Maye sure did a pretty good imitation of a Division I basketball prospect Friday and Saturday.
Playing at the Hoodie’s House High School Hoops Classic, Maye had 14 points, seven rebounds, three assists and one steal against a very athletic team from Lancaster High in South Carolina on Friday. He followed that with 17 points and seven rebounds against Kentucky’s Core 4 School on Saturday.
Myers Park lost both games, but Maye was certainly one of the best players on the floor, just a few weeks removed from the football field.
“I love playing basketball,” Maye said. “We’ve got a good team and we’ll make a run. Today was just a rough one. It’s one of those things, learning to handle adversity in games.”
Maye grew up watching his brother, Luke, play high-level basketball, first at Hough High School and then at North Carolina, where Luke helped the Tar Heels win a national championship.
“Basketball was my favorite sport until football got started in high school,” Drake Maye said. “Big schools gave me the opportunity to play (football) there. I feel like basketball could’ve gotten there, but it would’ve taken longer. The opportunities are too good in football. I started falling in love with playing quarterback, and I want to take it as far as I can.”
Maye arrived on the national recruiting scene as a sophomore when he threw for 3,201 yards and 36 touchdowns. He led Myers Park to a school-record 13 wins and the school’s first N.C. 4A Western Regional championship appearance since 2005.
After the season, offers poured in from almost all the national college football powers. Maye committed to Alabama in July.
As a junior, Maye did nothing to tarnish his reputation as an elite national recruit, completing 210 of 290 passes for 3,512 yards and 50 touchdowns against two interceptions. He broke his own school passing records.
But as good as he is in football — and former Harding High state championship coach Sam Greiner think he’s the best Mecklenburg County has ever produced — Maye still loves playing basketball.
His basketball coach always wonders how good he might be if he trained for basketball the way he does for football.
“Drake’s a special kid,” Myers Park’s Scott Taylor said. “He’s a really (special) basketball player. He sees the game and plays it like a quarterback does.
“He knows where people are and understands spacing behind it. But beyond that he’s physical and he doesn’t mind playing through contact, and he’s probably one of the better rebounders around. He’s competitive and he wants the ball, and you put all those things together it makes for a really tough guy to guard.”
Taylor said in the spring that coaches from Boston College, Clemson, Nebraska, Notre Dame and Virginia called to ask if Maye would consider basketball. Even more have reached out since.
“They knew the story,” Taylor said, “and we sent out some film last week for our team and we sent his out, too, and we got some calls with questions. But it’s Alabama football, so most of them kind of understand. There’s not a whole lot more than that. So they kind of feel, in some ways, ‘What’s the point?’ But I’d be interested to see what happened if someone invested in him and threw him an offer and believed in him as a basketball player ... but the kid is going to be successful in whatever he does.”
That future success Taylor speaks of appears to be football, and Maye’s future destination certainly seems to be Tuscaloosa.
Still, Maye said he still hears regularly from several schools.
“Ah, Carolina’s there always,” Maye said. “Tennessee, Georgia, Ohio State a little bit. Clemson, too. They say, ‘Take a look at it.’ And (they say) ‘I know that’s a great place to play football down there in Alabama.’ They tell me to keep playing, and it’ll take care of itself.”
Asked if he’s being swayed by any of the attention, Maye smiled and shook his head no.
“I’m still Alabama,” he said. “Gotta see what happens, whether (injured junior QB) Tua (Tagovailoa) comes back or not (for his senior year). May not affect me a whole lot but gotta take it into consideration. Listen, I know there’s a lot of great schools to play quarterback at, but right now I’m Alabama. Coach Saban said they will only take one (QB) and said I’m the guy.
“I look at Coach Saban and he’s one of the greats, and sitting there with him and creating a relationship is pretty awesome.”
This story was originally published December 27, 2019 at 8:36 PM with the headline "Could Drake Maye be a D-I basketball player? Sure, but he still plans to play QB at Alabama."
