As a high school athlete and now a freshman on the men’s basketball team, Julius Mays has plenty of brothers. He has his teammates with whom he practices, travels and competes. But growing up in Marion, Ind., it was a completely different story.
Mays grew up with his four sisters and mother — no brothers, no father. Mays said his upbringing has shaped who he is today.
“Growing up with four older sisters was not bad, but I can tell you I learned a lot about women,” Mays said. “It bettered me. I learned how to respect women a lot. My mom was my mom and my dad, so I think I just learned a lot growing up in a setting of all women.”
According to Shirley Butler, Mays’ mother, she and Mays’ father were divorced before his third birthday. When he was a child, he was not interested in sports. But he grew up watching his older sisters, now aged 29, 24, 23 and 21, playing basketball and volleyball.
“I really wasn’t into basketball when I was younger,” Mays said. “I would watch my sisters play, but it really wasn’t my favorite thing to do. I was a mama’s boy. I would rather be laying in bed or watching movies and cartoons with my mama.”
As Mays grew older, he began to follow his sisters’ examples by playing basketball. Shirley Butler’s brother, Jimmy, would work with him on his ball-handling skills and take him to AAU tournaments. Mays’ sister Tanika, 21, said he seemed to thrive in a house with five females.
“I think it was hard, because all boys want a dad,” Tanika Mays, who is a forward on Toledo’s women’s basketball team, said. “But over time, it got easier because he got used to having five women in the house with him.”
According to Shirley Butler, Mays did not hit a growth spurt until high school. She said he and Tanika would battle playing one-on-one basketball, but it was not until ninth grade when Julius could win.
“[Julius and Tanika] went round and round,” Butler said. “All my girls were tall, and Julius didn’t start growing until after he was in high school. I would say, ‘please don’t tell me I’ve got four girls, and my son was going to be really short while my girls would be treetop high.'”
Mays enters tonight’s game against Miami averaging 4.5 points and more than 15 minutes per game. With sophomore point guard Javi Gonzalez hampered by injury since the Dec. 20 matchup against Lipscomb, Mays has seen significant playing time and even started three games. He broke out for a career-high 13 points against Florida State Jan.13. Mays said the opportunity to play early was a big draw to come to State.
“Coming into it, I felt like I would play a lot,” Mays said.
“State had been lacking in depth at the point guard position for some years now, and that’s what I was looking at. I figured I would want to go somewhere where I could play right away.”
Coach Sidney Lowe said Mays is getting the valuable experience of playing against the nation’s best point guards in the ACC.
“Julius Mays is just a solid player. He’s young and he’s learning,” Lowe said. “[Mays and Farnold Degand] are going against top point guards just about every night, so it’s very tough out there.”
Mays said he has grown as the season has progressed. He was admittedly ‘really nervous’ for the Wolfpack’s first exhibition game in Reynolds Coliseum, but he is now comfortable with the college game.
“You mature as you go through a season,” Mays said. “You keep learning more and more, especially when you’ve got a coaching staff that’s full of point guards.”
