Kansas Guard Zeke Mayo The Latest to Be Harassed Following Poor Performance, Possible Lost Bets?

Kansas guard Zeke Mayo showed screenshots of racist, hateful messages he received following his performance in a loss to No. 10 Texas Tech.

Mayo shared the screenshots Saturday. His account on X appeared to be deactivated Sunday morning.

“I 100% deserve all the criticism in the world,” he wrote. “My performance was beyond pitiful today, and has been for a while now. ... I can’t be perfect all the time. I’m sorry to our fans and my teammates, I will continue to get better.”

Mayo airballed a potential tying 3-pointer in the final seconds and scored five points on 1-of-7 shooting in a rare Kansas loss at Allen Fieldhouse.

It was not immediately clear if the messages came from losing sports gamblers who had placed bets on Mayo's performance.

The speculation is certainly there.

JGulo10 posed the question.

"Thoughts on the Zeke Mayo post yesterday?  Do you think the losers who send such heinous messages to athletes are just psychotic fans? Or has sports betting made this all worse?"

But not everyone applied his poor performance to betting.  Some just think he is not that good a player to begin with.

Russell Really Wins tweeted

"F***ing awful! KU -1.5

"Nothing to say here. Zeke Mayo is one of the worst guards I’ve seen play for KU in 20 years + of watching the Hawks.

"On to the next one, need to move on."

Coach Bill Self and athletic director Travis Goff condemned the posts and wrote their own messages in support of Mayo.

“These aren’t Jayhawks. They’re not ours,” Goff wrote. “Driven by gambling and hate. They’ve never competed a day in their life. To Zeke and all our guys — the Jayhawk family loves you and will always ride with you through thick and thin.”
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Self wrote, “any criticism about the team should be directed at me. I’m the head coach.”

Mayo, a first-year Jayhawk after three years at South Dakota State, is second on the team this season in points per game at 14.0.