KU and UNC played an instant classic. Then the hometown kid took over. Here’s how

The last time North Carolina walked into Allen Fieldhouse, Larry Brown led the Tar Heels onto the floor as their point guard. Brown, mind you, is 84 now, a basketball Hall of Fame career as a coach sandwiched between that trip and his alma mater’s next one.

A rich history exists between the two programs that for decades did all they could to prevent that history from comprising actual games on a basketball court. When they finally opt for a regular season meeting Friday, Roy Williams, the former head coach at each school, deemed it too emotional to watch in person.

But while a November game in Lawrence began as a night reserved for history, it concluded as a night reserved for a newcomer to it all.

Well, a newcomer of sorts.

Zeko Mayo, a Lawrence native, came off the bench — there’s a key phrase — and led the top-ranked Jayhawks with 21 points in a 92-89 win over No. 9 UNC at Allen Fieldhouse.

Kansas and North Carolina played a heck of a basketball game — during which you had to remind yourself it’s November because it sure didn’t feel like it. They alternated lights-out halves that found them locked in a tie with a minute and a half to play.

Then Mayo took over.

And he only took one shot.

His contested jumper tied the game with 1:45. Probably should’ve gotten a whistle for a free throw.

After KU got a defensive stop, Mayo stepped on the baseline to deliver an inbound pass. As he did, senior K.J. Adams tapped one hand on each temple, universal sign language with an obvious meaning: Be smart.

Self had been publicly worried that this year’s newcomers — and there are a lot of them, including Mayo — are still pausing to think about what to do rather than playing on instincts and reactions. They’ll eventually get there, he noted.

Mayo is there.

And with the game on the line, at that.

The game-tying shot came first. But on the next offensive possession, 90 seconds left on the clock, Self turned to one of his longtime staples and dialed up a touch in the post for 7-footer Hunter Dickinson.

In its ideal form, the play allows Dickinson to seal a defender in the middle of the floor and receive the entry. He shouldn’t even need to make a move after the catch to find the bucket — the pass does the heavy lifting.

Thing is, though, UNC figured it was coming, because KU runs that sort of action a lot. So the Tar Heels put 6-10 Jalen Washington on Dickinson as guard Seth Trimble pressured the entry pass from Mayo. If there was a lane for the pass, it literally could not have been visible to him.

He threw it anyway — so perfectly, in fact, that Self returned to him one possession later to offer another entry pass to Dickinson. He got a bucket on the first, a free throw on the second.

Ballgame, KU.

“They did a really good job of crowding him,” Self said of the defense. “Somehow he got the ball over to (Dickinson).”’

He played on instincts and reactions.

Forget the pause for thinking.

They were grown-up last-minute moments for a guy playing in his second game for the school he grew up watching.

Mayo graduated from Lawrence High School. His first game at Allen Fieldhouse came Monday. He scored 19 in a blowout against Howard.

His encore was even better — from the jump. KU scored 53 points before halftime, and Mayo squeezed eight of them into a three-minute stretch in the first half. Even the heat check fell.

The legs failed his shooting form late, a sign of exhaustion, and that’s a product of UNC running KU up and down the floor. The Jayhawks won’t play another team quite like that.

But KU didn’t have a player anything like Mayo a year ago. Self knew it. He spent the spring operating as a general manager, in search of two things: shooting and bench scoring.

He found both in one player from down the block.

At one point Friday, former KU sharp-shooting guard Devonte’ Graham, sitting in the crowd, gathered the attention of current point guard Dajuan Harris.

“Tell Zeke to keep shooting,” Graham said, as Harris recalled.

That message came from behind the bench.

Mayo came directly from it.

Who knows what role Mayo will play in January, February or March — we’re all of two games into this season, after all, and he doesn’t look like a player destined to spend much time sitting.

But that he filled this role in a top-10 matchup is noteworthy for a team that had no one capable of filling it a year ago.

KU generated just 11.8 points per game from its bench last season. That ranked 349th of 362 Division I men’s college basketball teams. Mayo had 21 himself Friday.

At one point in the first half, Self left Adams as the lone starter on the floor. Mayo took charge then, same as he did late — with the starters back.

“We don’t have a chance to win without him,” Self said.

That they have him now is a bit of kismet.

Mayo attended high school just one mile from Allen Fieldhouse, but he needed to travel to South Dakota to find the Jayhawks. He spent three seasons at South Dakota State, scoring 18-plus per game in the final two before entering the transfer portal in March.

His season was done. A frustrating season for KU was already done too.

“This,” he said after the game Friday, “is what I came here for.”

You could re-phrase that, because the inverse is perhaps even more accurate: This is why they brought him here.