Travis Cortez Mays (born June 19, 1968) is an American women's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

coach and former professional player who was the women's head coach for

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...

(SMU) from 2016 until 2021. Mays was selected by the

Sacramento Kings The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference Pacific Division. The Kings are the oldest ...

in the first round (14th overall pick) of the 1990 NBA draft. Born in

Ocala, Florida Ocala ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County within the northern region of Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 63,591, making it the 54th most populated city in Florida. Home to ...

, he played basketball for

Vanguard High School Vanguard High School is one of seven public high schools in Marion County, Florida. The school serves the northeast area of Ocala, Florida. Vanguard offers the International Baccalaureate program, which accepts students from across Marion County ...

before enrolling at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

to compete for the Longhorns. After his time in the NBA, Mays played professional basketball in several leagues in Europe.

Amateur career

Mays went to

where he was a scholastic All-America standout, and he then proceeded to play basketball for the

. Mays and teammates

Lance Blanks A lance is a spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior or cavalry soldier (lancer). In Ancient warfare, ancient and medieval warfare, it evolved into the leading weapon in cavalry charges, and was unsuited for throwing or for repeated thru ...

and

Joey Wright Joey Glenn Wright (born September 4, 1968) is an American professional basketball coach and former player. He has been the head coach of three teams in the Australian National Basketball League: the Brisbane Bullets, which won an NBL championsh ...

were known as the "BMW – The Ultimate Scoring Machine" during the 1989–90 basketball season. That Longhorn team advanced to the

Elite Eight In the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship or the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship, the "Elite Eight" comprises the final eight teams, representing the regional finals, or national quarterfinals. In Division I and Divis ...

in the

1990 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament The 1990 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 64 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of NCAA Division I men's college basketball. It began on March 15, 1990, and ended with the championsh ...

. Mays ranks second in UT men's basketball all-time scoring (2,279 points) and also is second in

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...

all-time scoring. He was the first player to earn back-to-back SWC Player of the Year honors. Mays' career scoring average was 18.4 points per game. He scored in double-figures in 100 of 124 career games and was the only UT men's player in history to score more than 700 points in a season at the end of his Longhorn career, having scored 743 points as a junior and 772 as a senior. His single-season scoring record has subsequently been broken by

Kevin Durant Kevin Wayne Durant ( ; born September 29, 1988), also known by his initials KD, is an American professional basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played one season of college basketball for t ...

. In the 1989–90 season that ended in the Elite Eight, Mays had a scoring average of 24.1 points per game as a senior. In 2002, he was inducted into the UT Men's Athletics Hall of Honor.

Professional career

Mays was selected by the

with the 14th pick of the 1990 NBA draft. During his rookie campaign for the Kings, he was named to the

NBA All-Rookie Second Team The NBA All-Rookie Team is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) honor given since the 1962–63 NBA season to the top rookies during the regular season. Voting is conducted by the NBA head coaches who are not allowed to vote for playe ...

, averaging 14.3 points per game in 64 games. He spent the next two seasons with the

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast Division (NBA), Sou ...

, where two games into his second season, he ruptured both tendons in his right ankle and was out for the remainder of the season. He returned for his final

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

season the next year. Mays had an NBA career scoring average of 11.1 points per game. Mays' professional career extended to European and international basketball, as he played in Greece, Israel, Turkey, and Italy. In 1994 Mays signed with

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

club

Panionios BC Panionios B.C. (Greek: Πανιώνιος KAE), known in European competitions as Panionios Athens is the Greek professional basketball club that is based in Nea Smyrni, Athens, and that plays its home games in Palaio Faliro, Athens, Greece. The ...

, where he would spend the entire season. In the Greek League, Mays averaged 23.8 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. Highlights of his European career include his selection to the European All-Star Game, leading Panionios to the European Championship final eight with 27.5 points per game, and a First Team All-Star selection (1999–2001) on Italy's

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

squad. He retired as a player in 2002.

Coaching career

Mays spent the 2002–04 seasons coaching and scouting as an assistant coach for the WNBA's

San Antonio Silver Stars The San Antonio Stars were a professional basketball team based in San Antonio, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded in Salt Lake City, Utah, as the Utah Starzz before the ...

franchise. He also coached AAU boys' basketball for the Tennessee/Alabama "Pump" team in the summer of 2003. From 2004 to 2007, he returned to his alma mater and served as an assistant coach under

Jody Conradt Addie Jo "Jody" Conradt (born May 13, 1941) is a retired women's basketball coach. She was the head coach for the women's team at University of Texas at Austin (UT). Her coaching career spanned 38 years, with the last 31 years at UT from 1976 to ...

for the

Texas Longhorns women's basketball The Texas Longhorns women's basketball team represents The University of Texas at Austin in NCAA Division I College basketball, intercollegiate women's basketball competition. The Longhorns compete in the Big 12 Conference. The team has long be ...

team. Mays' primary duties were working with UT's guard play and recruiting. He was instrumental in signing, among others, Erika Arriaran, Crystal Boyd, Earnesia Williams, and Brittainey Raven. After Conradt retired, Mays worked in the same capacity with the

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

women's team from 2007 to 2011. He then spent one year as an assistant coach for the University of Georgia women's basketball team. From 2012 to 2016, he returned again to UT as the associate head coach under new head coach

Karen Aston Karen Sue Aston (born July 26, 1964 in Benton, Arkansas) is an American basketball player and coach. She is currently the head coach of the UTSA Roadrunners women's basketball team. She has served as the head women's basketball coach at Texas, Ch ...

. In 2016, he became the head coach at SMU. He was let go on March 8, 2021 after 5 seasons at SMU.

Head coaching record

Career achievements

As a player

* Southwest Conference Player of the Year (1989, 1990) * Three-year All-Southwest Conference (1987–1990) * UT Men's Athletics Hall of Honor (2002) * European All-Star (1994, 1995) * First Team All-Star (Italy) 1999–2001

Personal

Mays earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

from UT in 1990. He received

Italian citizenship Italian nationality law is the law of Italy governing the acquisition, transmission and loss of Italian citizenship. Like many continental European countries it is largely based on '' jus sanguinis''. It also incorporates many elements that are ...

through his wife Mirella, herself of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

ancestry.

Notes

References

External links

NBA.com Historical Profile

@ Basketball-Reference.com
Basketpedya.com Profile

Google cache of "Mays shows women the way" @ dailytexanonline.com
(an article on Mays' coaching career) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mays, Travis 1968 births Living people African-American basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Greece American expatriate basketball people in Israel American expatriate basketball people in Italy American expatriate basketball people in Turkey American men's basketball players American women's basketball coaches Atlanta Hawks players Basketball coaches from Florida Basketball players from Florida Georgia Lady Bulldogs basketball coaches Greek Basket League players Ironi Ramat Gan players Israeli Basketball Premier League players LSU Lady Tigers basketball coaches Mens Sana Basket players Olimpia Basket Pistoia players Panionios B.C. players Rochester Renegade players Sacramento Kings draft picks Sacramento Kings players Shooting guards SMU Mustangs women's basketball coaches Sportspeople from Ocala, Florida Texas Longhorns men's basketball players Texas Longhorns women's basketball coaches Tuborg Pilsener basketball players Universiade gold medalists for the United States Universiade medalists in basketball 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople