Kansas guard Zeke Mayo (5) gets in to the bucket past Texas Tech guard Chance McMillian (0) during the first half on Saturday, March 1, 2025 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

Kansas senior guard Zeke Mayo posted on X on Saturday a series of four images depicting threatening and racist messages he had apparently received from various accounts on Instagram in the wake of the Jayhawks’ loss to Texas Tech that afternoon.

Two of the messages referred to him with the N-word and two wished for him to die.

“I 100% deserve all the criticism in the world,” Mayo wrote in his accompanying post. “My performance was beyond pitiful today, and has been for a while now. I work my ass off everyday to be great, but I can’t be perfect all the time. I’m sorry to our fans and my teammates, I will continue to get better.”

Mayo received an outpouring of support from current and former KU players as well as members of the broader KU community. Athletic director Travis Goff wrote, “These aren’t Jayhawks.”

“They’re not ours,” he continued. “Driven by gambling and hate. They’ve never competed a day in their life. To Zeke and all our guys – the Jayhawk family loves you and will always ride with you through thick and thin.”

The post followed a 78-73 loss in which Mayo posted five points and three rebounds and five turnovers, coming up short on a potential game-tying shot in the final minute. The Lawrence native had deactivated his Instagram account earlier in the year after another heartbreaking home loss for the Jayhawks against Houston on Jan. 25; as of Saturday night it was again deactivated.

Later on Saturday night, KU coach Bill Self issued a lengthy statement of his own through the KU men’s basketball social media accounts in which he stressed that “everyone on the team, coaches included, myself, more than anyone, had opportunities to impact the game.”

“I can do a lot of things better,” Self wrote. “We all could do a lot of things better. But I’ll roll with these guys every day and be proud of it. Any criticism about the team should be directed at me. I’m the head coach.”

Self continued by stating that he was looking forward to the Jayhawks’ matchups against Houston (on Monday) and Arizona (on Saturday).

“This is the most important time of the season, and this is the time where we need to be better,” he wrote, “but we also need to be focused on basketball and not things being said outside of basketball that have absolutely zero merit.”