Year graduated
2002
Major accomplishments
Mr. Basketball; Named MVP for Final Four
Sean May was born in Chicago, but spent the majority of his first few years in Italy with his parents while his father played professional basketball. May took up the tradition, and currently plays professional basketball with the NBAs Bobcats in Charlotte, North Carolina, not far from Chapel Hill where he made University of North Carolina fans happy on his 21st birthday by leading the Tar Heels to the 2005 NCAA championship.
In between those extremes, Sean, a Sandusky, Ohio, native who led Indiana University to the 1976 NCAA title with a perfect 32-0 record, became an adopted Hoosier after his father retired from the pro game and returned to Bloomington, Indiana, to live permanently when May was just five.
“My mom lived in Italy with my dad, but she didn’t like the hospital there, so she came back to Chicago to have me,” said May, whose father spent five seasons with the Chicago Bulls of the NBA, and one season each with Milwaukee and Detroit before going to Italy.
“We came back to Bloomington every year after the season ended in Italy, then we’d go back to Italy for the new season. I grew up watching Indiana basketball ever since I was young, and I have to consider myself a Hoosier.”
The basketball bug bites many Indiana kids at a very early age. It wasn’t that way with May. He didn’t even watch the tape of his father’s NCAA championship game until after his freshman year in college.
“I knew my father was a helluva player, but he didn’t really work with me much until I was going into my sophomore season at Bloomington North High School,” said May. “He didn’t want to put too much pressure on me.
“Everything came natural to me in Bloomington. My feel for the game came from watching tape and talking to my father. I don’t want to say that I didn’t work on certain things, but nothing out of the ordinary. I just did a lot more than probably a lot of kids do.”
As a sophomore at Bloomington North in 2000, the Cougars went all the way to the state championship game undefeated at 25-0. Before a sellout crowd of 18,263 in Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, they met the 27-1 Marion Giants. North was rated No. 1, Marion No. 2 in Indiana. However, in a USA Today poll, North was ranked No. 20 while Marion was at No. 6.
Marion, with Zach Randolph scoring 28 points and grabbing nine rebounds, defeated North, 62-56, to claim its seventh title. May was North’s high scorer with 17 points, but none came after intermission.
When asked what happened, May offered no excuses. “They just did a good job of adjusting to our game plan,” he said. “I was young and probably wasn’t as aggressive as I should be. I just didn’t play well.
“But it was great game. We probably could have won that game had we played just a little bit better. It was a great experience to play against Zach. There were three future NBA players on that court. I don’t think you can get that a lot of times in any other state.”
Of that disappointing title game, May says, “Through college that was one of my main motivations for winning a college championship, because I didn’t win one in high school. I came so close. I think we were all caught up in the nerve [in 2000], and for us to go 25-0 and lose that last game, that’s probably one of the most difficult things I’ve ever been through.”
When May was a senior at North, he was named Mr. Basketball and helped Indiana win a pair of games versus Kentucky in their All-Star rivalry in 2002. May had 49 points in the two games, and scored 30 in an 87-82 victory at Owensboro, Kentucky.
“Being Mr. Basketball means a lot,” he said, “because you think about the guys who won that award, going all the way back to Damon Bailey, Luke Recker, Jason Gardner, Chris Thomas, and Jared when it could have been a question of him or Zach. There have been a lot of guys who I know, and have played against, and seen who have won that award. So for me to come up in Indiana and see those guys and see Indiana basketball, it’s a great accomplishment.”
Early in May’s career at North, he went to Assembly Hall on the Indiana University campus, where his father led the Hoosiers and coach Bob Knight to a 63-1 record in the 1974-75 and 1975-76 seasons, to play in pickup games.
“There’s a lot of good competition there,” he said. “I had a great relationship with Coach Knight. When you’re in high school you can’t really talk to college coaches that much. But had he been at Indiana when I graduated I was going to be there. I almost committed [to Indiana] right after my freshman year [at North], just because I knew I didn’t want to go through the recruiting process. It was going to be Indiana, but that’s when he got in all that trouble [and was fired on September 10, 2000].”
May was later quoted as saying he didn’t want to try to be another Scott May in Bloomington. “My whole thing with that was my dad’s legacy at Indiana is pretty big for what he did and what they accomplished. I wouldn’t have minded that pressure, but not playing for the same coach [Knight] I felt that pressure would be unwarranted. It wouldn’t be the same. If Coach Knight would have been there I’d have loved to have attempted to live up to that [legacy], but I felt once Coach Knight left it was an opportunity for me to go and do my own thing and make my own legacy somewhere else.”
Every major school in the country went after May. He narrowed his choices to North Carolina and Louisville. “I visited both of them. I just fell in love with North Carolina, the history, everything they have there, the players coming back every year.”
Life as a Tar Heel was not an instant success, however. “I had a rocky start,” said May. “I broke my foot as a freshman. But I had a pretty good sophomore year, averaging 15 [points] and 10 [rebounds]. In my last year as a junior I flourished, got in better shape and averaged 17 and 11.1 just played a lot better.”
May credits coach Roy Williams, who replaced former Tar Heel player Matt Doherty after May’s freshman year, with helping him realize his huge potential as a 6-foot-9 power forward.
“Coach Williams helped me understand the game, understand what it meant to act like a professional, the way you carry yourself, the way you act in public, the perception you give people of yourself,” May said. “And teaching me the game, understanding how to play, understanding the concepts of a team, understanding that you sacrifice yourself for the team.”
All of that understanding came to fruition the night of April 4, 2005, in St. Louis when May scored 26 points, and grabbed 10 rebounds in a dominating performance that earned him most valuable player honors in a 75-70 championship victory over Illinois.
“I don’t think you’ll ever top winning a national title on your 21st birthday,” said May. “That night was fun all in its own. Just like any other kid’s 21st birthday you go out with your friends and have a good time. Well, for me I was going out with my friends and my teammates after having a good time and winning a national championship. That’s an unbelievable feeling and a great accomplishment.”
Moments before tip-off that night, May watched a replay of that ‘76 IU triumph on the Jumbotron. There was a clip of his dad jumping into the arms of teammate Quinn Buckner. He knew something special was about to happen.
“It was an unbelievable feeling,” he said, “because I had watched the tape the night before. It was like a sign, that I knew everything was going to be all right, that we were gong to play well. After seeing that and the same feeling I had the night before, how the game was going to go, everything went through my head one last time. It was everything I dreamed about and more. You can’t describe those feelings that you have. Only so many people in this world ever know what it’s like to win a national championship.”
After IU won the 1976 national championship, Scott May appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, wearing No. 42. After UNC won the 2005 national championship, May was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He, too, was wearing No. 42.
Does May feel in any way one-up on his father? “He’s up on me, because he’s had a great NBA career, and he’s done a little bit more than I have. He taught me everything that I know, so I can’t be up on him. We’ve both been on Sports Illustrated covers, and not too many fathers and sons have done that.”
Once the 2004-2005 college season ended, May made it clear he wanted to play professionally in Charlotte. “I had a great college career in North Carolina,” he said. “The fans in North Carolina have been good to me. It’s home for me now. I’m a Tar Heel through and through.”
The transplanted Hoosier hopes to wear 42 the rest of his professional career. He’s worn that number in honor of his father and Jackie Robinson, whose number was 42 when he became the first American African to play Major League Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Hard luck hit on December 23,2005. In the 23rd game of his NBA rookie season with the Charlotte Bobcats, May suffered an injury to his right knee that ended his season. He averaged 8.2 points.
“It’s just like my first year at North Carolina when I broke my foot,” he says. “It makes it a learning experience. You can see games from a different perspective.”