Arizona Basketball: Jordin Mayes returns from Uganda to play in Drew League

Jordin Mayes returned to the Drew League last weekend after returning to the United States after playing in Africa.

A professional basketball career can take many twists and turns, ups and downs, but if you have former Arizona Basketball guard Jordin Mayes positive attitude, things are always looking up.

Mayes most recently played for the City Oilers Basketball Club, the reigning Ugandan back-to-back four-time league champions, and back-to-back Zone 5 Club Champions according to their Twitter account.

Mayes team won the championship cup, and the Wildcat won MVP, Top Scorer and Best Shooting Guard awards in the FIBA African National Championship competition.

Mayes also played in the FIBA Qualifiers and averaged 17.3 points per game. Wherever Mayes plays, he makes a statement. We found him playing last season in the Drew League in Compton California. The announcer, George Preciado, gives the play-by-play for each game including his opinions calling out players when they play well and when they mess up. If you haven’t taken in a Drew League game, it is a must for every basketball fan.

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Last season while covering the Drew, I heard Preciado keeps repeating the name Mayes as in, “Mayes with a three, Mayes step back jumper is good, Mayes with the block.” I thought, is it too good to be true? Am I watching one of my favorite Wildcats Jordin Mayes? So I went to look at the printed out stats. Note, the stats are now digital and kept real-time on DrewStats.com via Eplay.com if you want to join in each weekend. And I saw Mayes, but the first name was not Jordin.

The Mayes I was watching couldn’t miss a shot. It just had to be Jordin! I took out my phone and looked up a picture on the Arizona Wildcats site, and sure enough, I found my Cat! We had a nice catch up last season, but what was sweeter was catching up with him this season after his return from Uganda. Mayes had just played a game against the City Blazers with Julian Jacobs at the helm, a former USC Trojan basketball player who played with the South Bay Lakers a year ago and continued in the G-League. Mayes played against Jacobs during the 2013 Pac-12 season.

Here is our interview with some highlights from In The Front Row:

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Wherever our Wildcats play and whenever we get the chance ZZ will bring you live, in-game video (Follow our Twitter account on the weekends through August), interviews and more. Once a Wildcat always a Wildcat! Thank you, Jordin for your time! We are cheering for you!