CHARLOTTE, N.C. — With under five minutes remaining in the first half, UMBC point guard K.J. Maura sunk a three-point shot to tie the game against Virginia at 16 each.
Maura celebrated in a way he’s done all season: unsheathing an imaginary arrow, and firing it towards his bench. He didn’t know it at the time, but that imaginary arrow also made its way to the heart of Virginia’s NCAA Tournament run on the path to the Retrievers’ historic 74-54 victory against the Cavaliers.
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Ironically enough, he isn’t a player that gets overlooked. At 5-8, Maura’s size makes him one of the shortest athletes to take the court during this tournament, but he more than made up for it thanks to his speed and off-ball quickness which helped him secure the American East Conference Defensive Player of the Year award.
“He’s a pest,” UMBC coach Ryan Odom said. “That’s what we encourage him to do each and every night. Obviously, he’s giving up a ton of size, and a one of weight. But his heart is as big as there is in this country. and he’s not afraid of anything or anyone and he just attacks.”
His size and reputation on defense also makes his contributions on the other side of the ball even more incredible. All three field goals he made were treated to some of the loudest cheers the arena had to offer Friday night — including that aforementioned 3-pointer. It’s not patronizing sentiment, the fans truly love him.
“K.J. has been the lifeblood of our team over the whole season,” said Cullen Bray, a UMBC student who traveled down to Charlotte for the game. “He’s what people came to see on-campus, and off-campus too. He just brings an energy to the team that we really need as a smaller team and he did it tonight. He helped energize the team to this unbelievable victory.”
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Maura has followed his coach’s lead the past couple seasons. He believes there is a strong correlation between happiness and team success. That happiness leads to confidence which leads to wins, he says.
The bow-and-arrow celebration is one of the ways Maura keeps that positive energy going for his teammates, but it initially began as something between him and his father, Melvin Maura.
During his younger days of playing basketball in Puerto Rico, and then in high school in the United States, K.J. would fire off the arrow at his dad in celebration. As it became harder and harder for his dad to attend his games, he started firing the arrow at the bench mob to keep them hyped.
Even as he continued the new tradition, launching it towards his teammates with his dad in attendance at Friday’s game, he made sure not to forget the connections that celebration had with his family, and therefore his culture.
“I carry Puerto Rico in my heart,” he said. “I think it’s a very special moment for them right now and we’re making history as a team but I’m also making history for my country. I play for them especially for what happened in the hurricane and all that stuff, we’ve been hurting lately. So this moment’s given a little bit of life to my country and I’m very proud and happy for that.”
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Melvin Maura was also carrying a bit of Puerto Rican, and family, pride himself. Not only did the family show up with matching shirts that read “KJ The Play Maker” on the front and “#WhyNotUs” on the back, he also brought a blown-up poster of K.J.’s head and a Puerto Rican flag along with them.
Just when you think the #UMBC story can’t get any better, if you saw KJ Maura’s dad running around in the stands with his son’s fathead—well they came from Puerto Rico to see him play. Outstanding!! #maura #MarchMadness #Virginia pic.twitter.com/wok7jVmH1l
— Tyler Mayoras Ⓥ (@TylerMayoras) March 17, 2018
While that “why not” mentality might not have spread to all UMBC fans before the game — a UMBC student told SN she thought the team could have a chance but didn’t think they’d actually win — it was certainly one that K.J. had as well.
“We didn’t come here thinking we were underdogs,” he said. “We came thinking we could win this game so we liked the matchup we had. [Virginia] played a slow pace, and we played a high pace. That gave us a little bit of an advantage to knock some shots in.”
In fact, Maura even predicted an eight-point victory for his squad Thursday during an interview Thursday. The bold prediction was followed up with a question about how his team felt going into the David vs. Goliath matchup, and he simply replied, “David beat Goliath.” And they did.