5/24/2018 basketball Edit

Luke Maye Returning For Senior Season

The senior forward has withdrawn his name from the NBA draft and will be back playing for the Tar Heels. (Bruce Young, THI)

Andrew Jones • TarHeelIllustrated

Publisher

Andrew Jones has covered sports for 26 years, including all major college & professional sports for daily newspapers & national sites. He's done radio and TV & is entering his seventh year at THI.

Luke Maye announced Thursday morning that he is returning to North Carolina for his senior season.

The 6-8 forward from Huntersville, NC, did so on his personal Instagram account:

"I have had a great experience learning from the NBA process and growing as a basketball player during the past couple weeks. I would like to thank my family, friends, coaches and teammates for all of their support. Through this process, I have decided that I am going to comeback to school to improve as a player and finish my college career. I am looking forward to the opportunities and challenges that I will face and there is no better group to do it with than my teammates and the Carolina family! Time to finish the right way with two of the best players and leaders that I know! Let’s finish our legacy the right way! #RoadtoMinneapolis"

Maye had entered his name into the NBA draft last month to test the waters, and while he was not invited to the NBA combine he did have a few workouts with teams. Players have until May 30 to withdraw their names, Maye did so a week early.

Maye finished last season as the seventh Tar Heel to ever average a double-double over a season with 16.9 points and 10.1 rebounds per contest. He also shot 48.6 overall from the field, including, 43.1 percent (50-116) from 3-point range.

UNC was 10-3 in games he scored 20 or more points. Three times he went for 30 or more: wins over Boston College and at N.C. State and a home loss to N.C. State. Carolina was 16-8 when Maye didn’t score at least 20 points in a game.

Maye will be back along with Kenny Williams and Cam Johnson for their final seasons, plus five other Tar Heels were saw regular action in games this past season on a team that went 26-11, advanced to the finals of the ACC Tournament, second round of the NCAA Tournament an defeated Duke twice.

That group welcomes in the No. 2 overall player in the class of 2018 in Nassir Little, top 25 standout guard Coby White, and 6-8 multidimensional instate product, Rechon Black.