‘Maynor Moments’ were the norm for four years

Eric Maynor went down in VCU lore when he knocked Duke out of the 2007 NCAA tournament with a last-second shot. They came to be known as "Maynor Moments" among fans and coaches in the Colonial Athletic Association, the ones who spent four years watching Eric Maynor take over one game after another for Virginia Commonwealth.

Just consider the scouting report on the Jazz's newest draft pick from George Mason coach Jim Larranaga, who had a spot in the NCAA tournament swiped by Maynor in the last two minutes of the 2007 CAA tournament championship game.

"A player like Eric has the ability at both ends of the floor to do things that I don't think a lot of players even think about," Larranaga said. "When I talk about Eric, I often say he's like a magician . . . and he made us disappear."

It may be a stretch to expect a continued run of "Maynor Moments" from a rookie who will have to fight for minutes backing up Deron Williams, but Maynor sounded eager to make a mark as he was introduced Friday at the Jazz's practice facility.

"I'm not going to settle for anything to let you know," Maynor said. "You've got a guy coming in here that's used to winning. I think I've got a great will to win, and I'm going to bring that to the Utah Jazz. Basically, I'm just ready to get going."

The No. 20 pick in the first round of Thursday's draft, Maynor was the high school senior who couldn't shoot straight, yet became an overnight sensation after he sank Duke with one jumper in the 2007 NCAA tournament.

He was the country kid from Raeford, N.C., outside Fayetteville, who grew up in a trailer off a dirt road, yet has become a trail blazer for all mid-major college players as the first-ever VCU product drafted in the first round.

"He's a guy that's about all the right things," former VCU coach Anthony Grant said, crediting Maynor as his hardest worker and strongest leader.

"I'm really tickled that he's got this opportunity, and I think at the end of the day, everybody in Utah is going to be pleased with the caliber of the player and person they're getting."

Then again, maybe it was destiny that Maynor ended up with the Jazz. After all, as coach of the Chicago Bulls in 1980, Jerry Sloan once cut a fourth-round draft pick out of East Carolina named George Maynor.

His son, Eric, was born seven years later and will realize the family's NBA dream. As Eric headed to Utah to interview with the Jazz on the eve of the draft, his father reminded him of the connection with Sloan: "He just told me to tell him 'Hello.'"

After nearly 30 years, Sloan couldn't remember George Maynor's name, though he laughed about the coincidence. Eric, meanwhile, insisted there's no hard feelings on his father's part: "He's a Utah Jazz fan now."

The Maynors held a draft party Thursday in which 40 people were invited but 200 showed up. Eric was nearly speechless as he faced the television cameras at home, then called it a dream come true after arriving in Utah.

How Maynor ended up at VCU is another father-son story. He was recruited out of high school by former Rams coach Jeff Capel, a Fayetteville native, whose father was friends with George Maynor. The one knock on Eric, though, was that he couldn't shoot.

"Everything else was at a high level," Capel said. "He had great size, a great feel for the position, he could get anywhere he wanted on the floor."

Yet Maynor's shot made coaches cringe. As Westover High coach Phil Hart Jr. remembers, Maynor launched the ball to the left of center even though he was right-handed. Maynor struggled just trying to reenact the motion Friday.

Then came the original "Maynor Moment." One day in Hart's gym class, a ball bounced off the rim from a neighboring basket straight to Maynor. He caught it on his right side, fired a jumper in one motion and watched it sail in.

"I said, 'Eric, that's it,'" Hart said. "You could see the light go on, and he really worked at it, and I think he hit 40 threes his senior year."

After his freshman season at VCU, Maynor considered following Capel to Oklahoma, before he met the newly hired Grant and decided to stay in Richmond. Capel gave the decision his blessing: "Eric knew it was going to be his team, it was going to be his time."

Sure enough, as a sophomore, Maynor delivered VCU into the NCAA tournament. With George Mason holding a five-point lead and two minutes remaining, Maynor came up with back-to-back steals and scored nine straight points in a breathless sequence.

That set the stage for Maynor's jumper with 1.8 seconds left against Duke, which knocked the Blue Devils out of March Madness in the first round for the first time since 1996.