Trendon Watford to Enter NBA Draft Process

Photo By: Terrill Weil

4/12/2020
Story Courtesy of: LSUsports.net
By: Kent Lowe




      BATON ROUGE – LSU forward Trendon Watford, a member of the 2020 All-SEC Freshman team, announced on Sunday that he will enter the 2020 NBA Draft process.
      Watford's current plans are to retain his eligibility as he goes through the NBA evaluation process. Watford announced his decision earlier on Sunday on his Twitter feed.
      "We are excited to support Trendon as he goes through this NBA Draft process" said LSU Coach Will Wade. "Trendon had an outstanding freshman campaign for LSU, showing great versatility and improvement as the season went on. His play helped us to a second straight 20-win season at LSU and a second-place finish in the SEC."
      The native of Birmingham, Alabama, who prepped at Mountain Brook High School, was second on the team in scoring at 13.6 points per game and a team best 7.2 rebounds a game. He averaged 13.8 points in the 18 Southeastern Conference games and 8.1 rebounds. He also averaged 1.7 assists per game.
      Watford started 30 games, scoring in double figures 25 times, including 13-of-the-last-14 games the Tigers played. He scored 26 points at Vanderbilt, 22 points in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge game at Texas and 21 points in the win at home against Arkansas.
      Watford posted five double figure rebound games topped by his 15 boards against Alabama with four double doubles, also scoring 17 points in that Jan. 29 win against Alabama.
      He finished No. 20 in the SEC in overall scoring while finishing third in the 18 league games in rebound average (6th overall). He had the sixth best field goal percentage in the league (48.9%, 157-of-321).
      Watford showed his work ethic during the year improving his free throw percentage. The freshman and Coach Wade would consistently drill at the line after each practice and shootaround beginning after the holiday break, turning his average from 56.9 percent in non-conference games to an 18-game conference percentage of 75.7 percent, making 56-of-74 attempts. He finished the season making 67.4 percent of his attempts.
      The freshman helped LSU finish the regular season at 21-10 and 12-6 and a tie for second place in the SEC. LSU's 21 wins marked just the third time in the last 27 seasons that the Tigers won at least 21 games in back-to-back seasons. The 49 wins over the last two seasons was the third most in LSU history.
      Watford was part of a starting lineup at LSU that all averaged in double figures, one of just seven Division I teams that had five players averaging in double figures.
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Courtesy of: LSUsports.net
By: Kent Lowe

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