Sometimes the grass isn’t greener on the other side—it’s blue. Julius Mays announced on Sunday that he’ll leave Wright State for the bluegrass of Kentucky. Mays transferred to WSU in 2010 after spending two seasons buried in North Carolina State’s rotation. After sitting out the 2010-11 campaign, Mays starred for the Raiders this past year. He worked his way into the starting lineup in a Nov. 13 game against Kenyon and didn’t leave. His 14.1 points per game led the team and earned Mays a spot on the Horizon League Second team and the conference award for Newcomer of the Year. “A program isn’t built on one player,” said Head Coach Billy Donlon. “The landscape [of college basketball] has changed. We have to adjust. I think a lot of the core guys that played last year will be back. We’ll play differently. Anytime a player leaves or graduates, there’s positives and negatives and we’ll focus on the positives.” Mays told the Dayton Daily News he first thought about leaving after the season. When he announced his decision to leave WSU on May 2, Donlon and the rest of the program were shocked but not shaken. “He’s not irreplaceable,” said Donlon. “Nobody’s irreplaceable. He was a good player on a team that [didn’t have a good season]. I think a lot of attention is from the fact that he’s going to Kentucky more than anything else. I wish Julius well; he’s graduated from Wright State. Wright State has done right by him, and our program will continue to move forward.” An NCAA rule allows graduates with eligibility to transfer without having to sit out a year. Mays will earn his degree next month and decided to use the option. There wasn’t an elaborate press conference to announce where he would take his talents. Mays informed UK of his decision after considering schools like Purdue and Michigan State. At UK, Mays joins the defending national champions under Coach John Calipari. The Wildcats lose their top six scorers from last year—Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Doron Lamb, Marquis Teague, Darius Miller and Terrence Jones—to the NBA draft, leaving a spot for Mays. A combo guard, Mays will battle incoming freshman Archie Goodwin for a starting job. But the Wildcat’s recruiting class—ranked first in the country by Rivals.com—could push Mays to the bench. Mays becomes the third Raider to transfer this spring after Vance Hall and Alex Pritchett left for Bellarmine. But Donlon remains optimistic about his incoming recruiting class, which includes Jacoby Roddy and J.T. Yoho. “They’re similar in size, [but] they have different skill sets,” said Donlon. “Jacoby’s a very good athlete that can defend multiple positions, a guy that can attack the basket and rebound. J.T. has a very good skill level; he can make shots. They’ll both have an ability to compete for us right away and I think that’s something that will excite both of them.”
