Duece Mayberry knew he was going to be a Jayhawk before visit
Duece Mayberry made it clear Kansas was his top school and throughout the recruiting said the coaches were recruiting him the hardest.
With his brother Kyle, already on the team he has been to Lawrence several times and knows the program. This weekend he took another unofficial visit, but this one was different.
“I talked things over with my dad and brother before the visit and decided I was going to commit,” Mayberry said. “After that I text coach Chevis (Jackson) and told him what I planned to do and he said he couldn’t wait.”
Mayberry arrived on Saturday and spent time with his brother. During the visit he went in to meet with Les Miles in his office.
“I told him I wanted to be a Jayhawk,” Mayberry said. “We shook each other's hand, and he congratulated me. All the coaches really showed me they wanted me, so that made me happy. I'm just glad that because that was the right school I wanted to go to.”
Over time Mayberry and Jackson have become close. Jackson coaches the cornerbacks so he handled the recruiting. Jackson made sure Mayberry knew how important he was in the recruiting picture.
“I feel like I'm getting really close to coach Jackson and I trust him,” Mayberry said. “He showed me that I was top guy on his board. That was important and I put a lot of trust in him.”
When Mayberry was discussing his decision with Kyle it was clear what his brother felt about giving the Jayhawks his verbal commitment. The two haven’t played on the same team together. But with Kyle using a redshirt season he has two more left.
“He just said it is a great decision,” Duece said. “He said he wanted me to go there. Me and my brother never have to played on the same team with each other. We're four years apart. So, this is the first time we will get that chance.”
Mayberry took to Twitter to announce his college choice and used the hashtag #RIPAuntTraci. Traci is his mother’s (Leslie) sister who passed away last year.
“She was like another mother to me,” Mayberry said. “She passed away last year and it just brought me and my brother down a lot. Everything I do, I do it for her. I do it for her and my little cousin. She's just a really big part of me. She'll always be a part of me, so anything special I hashtag her. I love her to death.”
This visit to Kansas had a different feel for Mayberry because this time he was going to leave with a new outcome. He said he made the trip to Lawrence several times over the last four years and always considered KU his brother’s home. Not anymore.
“It just felt different,” he said. “I was looking at the campus, like ‘this is my home.’ This is where I'm going to be for the next chapter of my life. I was just looking at it different. I used to look at it as my brother's home. It's our home now.”