Getting to know Florida State’s Xavier Rathan-Mayes

Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

Florida State freshman guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes made basketball history when he erupted for 30 points in the final 4:38 seconds of a furious comeback effort against Miami on Wednesday night. While Rathan-Mayes wasn’t exactly unknown before the outburst, his offensive explosion against the Hurricanes propelled him into the national spotlight.

For those who you curious to know a little more about college basketball’s newest darling, here’s a quick-and-dirty run down of Rathan-Mayes.

The Outburst

This wasn’t Rathan-Mayes’s first crazy scoring spurt of the season, either; he dropped 35 points on 14-of-26 shooting against then 15th-ranked North Carolina on January 24th.

Season stats: 34.5 MPG, 14.4 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 4.5 APG, 1.1 SPG, 3.5 TO, 27.4 3P%

Rathan-Mayes is a stat-stuffer, but he’s also erratic. He’s fifth in the ACC in assists but first in turnovers. He’s got a beautiful shooting stroke, but his shot selection is less than ideal. On the season, 43.4 percent of his field goal attempts have come from beyond the arc.

He’s Canadian and proud of it. Rathan-Mayes is part of the well-known CIA Bounce AAU squad that embodies Canada’s arrival as a force on the international basketball scene. Tyler Ennis and Andrew Wiggins are two of his closest friends and it’s clear that Rathan-Mayes is motivated to join them at the next level.

Basketball in his blood. His father, Tharon Mayes, is one of the most prolific scorers in Florida State history.

Ball is life. Rathan-Mayes is an absolute workhorse. Rathan-Mayes was deemed academically ineligible last season due to untransferable credits from an unaccredited high school. Instead of moping, Rathan-Mayes used the year to rework his body and his game. Coach Leonard Hamilton had this to say to the Orlando Sentinel about Rathan-Mayes’s work ethic:

"“If you come here five days a week, I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw ‘X’ here 5:30, 6 in the morning, every day of the week,” Hamilton said. “He pushes himself. He’s one of those guys that goes to bed early, gets up early and he loves being in the gym working on his game.”"

The good and the bad. Rathan-Mayes, or ‘X’ as he’s known by family and friends, is still a work in progress. He’s making the transition from shooting guard to point guard with mixed results. He leads the team in assists, but also leads the conference in turnovers.

On Rathan-Mayes’s transition from shooting guard to point guard, FSU forward Jarquez Smith notes: “Put in the point guard position, it was a new thing for him but the way he’s played this year is unbelievable. He’s running the team better than anybody I’ve seen so far, as far as on and off the court… He’s a leader on and off the court. He finds ways to get us motivated in games.”

Thus, even though Rathan-Mayes isn’t protecting the ball as well as he should, it’s clear that he’s doing a lot of the other things required of a floor leader that don’t show up on the stat sheet.

In addition to turnovers, shot selection is also a problem early in Rathan-Mayes’s career. Here’s a look at the streaky Rathan-Mayes’s shooting numbers from the past five games:

No shortage of confidence. Rathan-Mayes has a little bit of trouble reining in the swag. He believes in himself almost to a fault. While it’s better to have too much confidence than too little, sometimes his unwavering faith in his abilities leads to one-on-four pull-up threes in transition or difficult Kobe-esque turnaround jumpers.

Having said that, Rathan-Mayes’s confidence is by no means arrogance. He understands that his game still has a long way to go and he’s focused on becoming great, almost to the point of obsession.

Rathan-Mayes in a nutshell. Right now it’s hard to peg Rathan-Mayes as a prospect. He’s talented but erratic. He’s got a beautiful shooting stroke and NBA range but he’s only shooting 27.4 percent from long range this season. While his jump shot will likely be his bread-and-butter skill at the next level, he’s also capable of creating his own shot and scoring in transition.

The key for Rathan-Mayes moving forward is playing efficient basketball on a consistent basis. He isn’t an all-world athlete but his intangibles and work ethic are off the charts. The hope is that he isn’t in too much of a hurry to join his buddies in the League because he still needs time to mature as a player. With time, however, it would not be at all surprising to see the 6-foot-4 basketball junkee carve a niche for himself in the league.