He scored a career-high 28 points on November 21, 2005, against Arkansas. He was named first-team All-America by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and was named to the 2006 Washington, D.C. He led the Huskies in scoring (15.2 points) while averaging 6.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 30.8 minutes in 33 games as a sophomore. Also, he was a unanimous selection to the First-team All- Big East. After the season concluded, Gay was one of four division one college players nominated for the Naismith College Player of the Year Award (along with JJ Redick, Adam Morrison and Allan Ray). īefore his sophomore season began, Gay was nominated as Big East Preseason Player of the Year, along with Syracuse guard Gerry McNamara.
He averaged 10.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game over the tournament. In the summer of 2005, Gay played for United States' Men's Under-21 World Championship Team. He was a unanimous Big East All-Rookie Team selection, was named National Freshman of the Year by The Sporting News, and earned Big East Rookie of the Week honors five times. 462 shooting in 28.8 minutes in 31 games. College career Īs a freshman at Connecticut in 2004–05, Gay was a co-winner (with Jeff Green of Georgetown) of the Big East Conference Rookie of the Year award after averaging 11.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists on. According to individuals close to Maryland head coach Gary Williams, the recruitment demonstrated that rule-bending is often necessary to secure highly touted players, which Williams said he was unwilling to do, even at the expense of recruiting. Although it violated no standing rule at the time, media observers and Connecticut staff considered it directly connected to the recruitment. The NCAA adopted a new scheduling rule after UConn paid $25,000 to schedule a game against the Beltway Ballers, an ad hoc AAU team that consisted of Gay's former teammates. Because of the heavy involvement of an AAU coach and a high school coach, there was the appearance of impropriety, although no NCAA recruiting violations were discovered. Gay had expressed a desire to attend Maryland and said that he grew up rooting for the team, but he ultimately chose UConn. Gay's college recruitment and decision to attend the University of Connecticut over the University of Maryland were controversial. Considered a five-star recruit by, Gay was listed as the No. He was the Washington Post All-Met Basketball Player of the Year, a McDonald's All-American, and a Parade first-team All-American in his senior year after averaging 21.2 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.7 blocks per game. He began playing basketball for Spalding as a junior in 2002–03, earning first-team All- Baltimore Catholic League honors as a junior and senior, and was also honored as the Baltimore Sun's co-player of the year as a senior.
This prompted the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association to review its transfer rules. He began his junior year with Eastern Tech, but in September 2002, he transferred to Archbishop Spalding in Severn. Although Eastern Tech was a Blue Ribbon academic institution, Gay's parents were concerned about his college preparation. In his sophomore season at Eastern Tech, the Mavericks earned their first and only trip to College Park for the state semi-finals. Gay played his first two years of high school basketball at Baltimore County's Eastern Technical High School, a magnet school in Essex. At the age of 14, Gay began playing for the nationally known Cecil-Kirk AAU program under coach Anthony Lewis.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Rae Gay and Rudy Gay Sr., former lead singer of the R&B group Ace Spectrum and band director for The Stylistics, Gay began playing competitive recreational basketball at the age of 12 in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland.