UT's 'Solution' is a-Maze-ing ... but for real

Photo by Amy Smotherman Burgess

UT's Bobby Maze passes the ball during play in the Rocky Top basketball league at Bearden High School on Monday night.

Be-Amazed, B-Maze, aka, the Solution.

Few basketball players have arrived at Tennessee generating the fanfare and curiosity that incoming junior college All-American point guard Bobby Maze has supplied the past month.

It has not been a matter of hype so much as it is Maze just being himself in a basketball community hungry for more success under UT coach Bruce Pearl and brimming with anticipation.

Maze will put his basketball skills on display at 7:30 tonight when his Ray's ESG team takes on an undefeated HT Group team at Bearden High School in the championship game of the Pilot Rocky Top League. The News Sentinel plays Toyota of Knoxville at 6 in the third-place game.

Maze's team features incoming UT freshman Scotty Hopson, UT sophomore center Brian Williams and Coastal Carolina's Logan Johnson, while Tyler Smith, East Tennessee State star Courtney Pigram and incoming UT freshman Daniel West lead HT Group.

Some look at the PRTL contests as glorified pickup and/or a good way for players to stay in shape, but Maze approaches it like he does every game - as though it's his last.

"Too many people take this game of basketball for granted,'' Maze said, "but I wouldn't have been the places I've been and be here if it wasn't for basketball.

"I'm very happy here. It's one of the best things that has happened for me in my life. People have no idea of the road I took to get here.''

Maze has made the trek from his hometown of Washington D.C., to The Patterson School in North Carolina, to the University of Oklahoma, to Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College and now to UT.

There have been life-changing events and drama along the way.

Maze needed help from NBA player and friend DerMarr Johnson to land a spot at Patterson Prep before choosing to attend Oklahoma.

A year later, after suffering a broken foot with the Sooners, Maze and coach Jeff Capel agreed to part ways.

The birth of his daughter, 1 1/2-year-old Aailah Jewelz Maze, gave Bobby another reason to play hard at Hutchinson en route to numerous scholarship offers.

"Coach (Billy) Gillispie had come to see me, and I thought I was going there, with Kentucky having that basketball tradition,'' Maze said. "But right before I was ready to go public, Tennessee called.''

The Vols were in desperate need of a point guard with incumbent Ramar Smith leaving the program. Maze was a perfect fit, having thrived playing in an identical system to UT's at Hutchinson. His coach, Ryan Swanson coached with Pearl (Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and UT assistant Steve Forbes (Barton County CC, Kansas).

Maze visited, committed, and arrived in Knoxville with a nickname in place, being tabbed "The Solution'' on the Sports Page radio show, a reference to his similar appearance to NBA star Allan Iverson, who's known as "The Answer.''

Maze embraced the nickname upon hearing it, including it in two freestyle raps he has performed on local radio and a YouTube video.

"I am the resolution, and the solution, and all you haters are just pollution,'' Maze sings in his rap, trumpeting throughout the song that he "puts on for Tennessee.''

Maze said the freestyle rap is a form of expression he uses to share ideas and experiences he feels strongly about.

Johnson, who plays for the Spurs, is a rapper with the "Big Money Records" label. Maze has spent the past four summers with Johnson in Denver, where Johnson has a music studio in his basement.

"While I'm in Denver I work out with Demarr, Melo (Carmelo Anthony), Earl Boykins and Chauncey Billups,'' Maze said. "I see how it is with them, how they handle all the attention they get, and how hard they work.

"They work extremely hard in the gym, like two or three times every day.''

Maze's experiences have led him to handle himself like a pro on and off the court.

"You have to be mature and act like an adult,'' Maze said. "I'm just real.''

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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