When University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) took on powerhouse Virginia in the 2018 NCAA tournament, it was a foregone conclusion they’d lose. It’s easy to understand why: no 16-seed like UMBC had ever beaten a number one like Virginia. But for the first time in the tournament’s long, storied history, the bottom seed upset the top in dramatic fashion, making this particular March Madness the maddest of them all.That was in no small part due to the efforts of Jairus Lyles, who led his UMBC Retrievers with an eye-opening 28 points while shooting an unheard of nine of 11 from the field. “I don’t think I missed in the second half,” he says of his surgical performance. UMBC beat Virginia by a whopping 20.After, UMBC Lyles entered the NBA G League. “It’s a good experience,” he says. “You learn a lot. If you do good in the G League you can maybe get a shot in the NBA.”“When he was going to the G League I knew this was going to be a great stepping stone for him,” says Lyles’ mother Carol Motley, who raised him, along with his two siblings, by herself in Silver Spring, Maryland.
On this episode of The Cusp, Created with the NBA G League, we spend time with Lyles and talk to him about that fateful victory over Virginia, his aspirations, and why family is the most important thing in his life. “I’ve been on the cusp my whole career, being the underdog and being doubted,” he says. “Having that underdog mentality allows athletes to excel because it drives them.”Created with The NBA G League.
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