Iowa's Eric May shrugs off rumors, concentrates on helping team

IOWA CITY - Iowa sophomore Eric May laughed off some of the Internet rumors that he may quit the basketball team to play tight end for the football team.

"I haven't played football in two, two-and-a-half years," he said.

May, a 6-foot-5 guard, admits he's been frustrated with his struggling performance, which cost him a starting position for the last four games. He's scored only one basket in six of his last seven games. But if Iowa can pull out wins like Saturday's 67-65 victory against No. 6 Purdue, he said he'll gladly start the game on the bench.

"If it gets wins, I'm happy with it," May said. "I'm going to work as hard as I can on the court, and I'm going to cheer as hard as I can. I'm going to be the best teammate I can be on the bench. I'm going to do what I have to to help my team win whatever that entails. That doesn't mean in the offseason I'm not going to work on changing the things I've done to excel. Everything you've got to earn. You've got to earn court time and you've got to earn all that. I understand that.

"I just want to be able to play games like these where you know you''re competing, you know that you should be beating these teams. It's a mindset we all have to get. I think we had it tonight. Nobody backed down."

May has started 48 of his 61 career games. He averaged 9 points a game as a freshman and has had 13 double-digit scoring games this year. He said he needs to contribute in multiple ways in the game, especially when he's not scoring, because "you can't just be a ghost on the court." He finished with three points, five rebounds and three assists.