LSU guard Mays announces intent to enter NBA draft

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — LSU junior guard Skyler Mays says he is planning to leave the Tigers and enter this summer’s NBA draft.

Mays becomes the third starter from the Southeastern Conference regular-season champions to announce plans to leave the team before eligibility is up, joining sophomore point guard Tremont Waters and freshman forward Naz Reid.

Mays started all 35 games for LSU this season, averaging 13.4 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.9 steals in 33.1 minutes per game.

The departures of all three players coincide with the indefinite suspension of LSU coach Will Wade.

The second-year LSU coach has been implicated in a federal probe of sports agent and shoe company middlemen convicted of funneling improper payments to families of college basketball recruits.

LSU is waiting to decide whether to retain or dismiss Wade until administrators can meet with him and determine which, if any, NCAA rules the coach may have broken.