It was learned the day before Florida State’s December 13th ACC opener against Notre Dame that the Seminoles would be without leading scorer Aaron Thomas, who was ruled ineligible by the school, for the remainder of the season. Thomas has since signed with Verus Management, ending his Florida State basketball career.

When Thomas went down, it appeared as though the offensive burden would fall on freshman guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes. Rathan-Mayes had led Florida State in scoring in four of the Seminoles’ previous five games.

Though against largely suspect competition, the Seminoles are playing their best basketball of the season. Florida State has won four of its last five games and a season-high three straight. Rathan-Mayes has been a big reason why, but not for his ability to put the ball in the basket.

Rather than try and carry the scoring load for Florida State in recent games, Rathan-Mayes has elected to try and make his teammates better. During Florida State’s recent winning streak, Rathan-Mayes has averaged 8.3 assists including a career-high 9 in consecutive games against North Florida and South Florida.

Over that span, Kiel Turpin, Montay Brandon, Devon Bookert, Phil Cofer and Jarquez Smith have all either tied or set a new career scoring high.

Meanwhile, Rathan-Mayes has upped his assist average to more than five per game. Should Rathan-Mayes be able to maintain that average, it would be the highest for a Florida State player since Delvon Arrington averaged 6.3 assists-per-game during the 2001-02 season.

During Florida State’s recent hot stretch, Rathan-Mayes has still managed to get near his scoring average of 11.5 points-per-game and is doing so in far fewer field goal attempts. While Rathan-Mayes still needs to improve his field goal percentage which hovers just above 38 and his four turnovers-per-game average, Rathan-Mayes has dispelled the notion that he’s merely a shoot-first point guard.

While Florida State fans are hopeful that Rathan-Mayes’ best basketball is in the future, he is already making his teammates better. That’s often the quality that separates great players from really good players.