{"id":43166,"date":"2019-05-29T09:17:41","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T13:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=43166"},"modified":"2019-05-29T09:17:45","modified_gmt":"2019-05-29T13:17:45","slug":"emmitt-williams-to-return-to-lsu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2019\/05\/emmitt-williams-to-return-to-lsu\/","title":{"rendered":"Emmitt Williams to return to LSU"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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LSU’s brush with the 2019 NBA Draft process went as well as expected as forward Emmitt Williams<\/a><\/strong> is returning to the Tigers for the 2019-20 season, sources told Geaux247. As a freshman, Williams racked up seven points and 5.4 rebounds per game in 34 contests with eight starts on the year, which saw the team win its first Southeastern Conference championship since 2009. Jon Rothstein was first to report the news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former Oak Ridge standout was a part of LSU’s Top 5 recruiting class in the 2018 cycle that helped the team advance in the 2019 NCAA Tournament to the Sweet 16 before the Tigers eventually fell to Michigan State under the direction of interim head coach Tony Benford<\/a><\/strong>, who has since departed for TCU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Point guard Tremont Waters<\/a><\/strong> and forward Naz Reid<\/a><\/strong> kept their names in the NBA Draft while sophomores Marlon Taylor<\/a><\/strong> and Javonte Smart<\/a><\/strong> along with senior Skylar Mays<\/a><\/strong> opted to return to the program as well. In all, six Tigers declared for the NBA Draft with four opting to return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this spring, the Lehigh Acres, Fla. native declared that he was testing the professional waters and he wrote an emotional post on Instagram when he did. Williams announced his decision on the day his head coach Will Wade<\/a><\/strong> agreed to meet with the school, which was the first step towards clearing up his suspension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“First, I’d like to give all praise and thanks to God for all the blessings and opportunities He has brought into my life,” Williams wrote in the post. “I would like to thank my family, coaches, teammates and LSU fans for cheering me on and supporting me. I am thankful for the opportunity I had at LSU to play collegiate basketball. Being at LSU has allowed me to grow and develop on and off the court. I am forever grateful for this experience and the memories I have created with my brothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“After meeting with my family and coaching staff, I have decided to enter the NBA draft to pursue my dream as a professional basketball player. I will continue to work hard and make my family, my teammates and my coaches proud. Thank you LSU! #BootUp.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 6-7 forward ranked as the No. 26 prospect overall and No. 6 power forward nationally on the industry-generated 247Sports Composite in the 2018 class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the attention turns to finishing out the 2019 recruiting class strong for Wade and the Tigers. Last week, LSU landed a signature from five-star power forward Trendon Watford, who pledged to LSU over Alabama, Indiana, Memphis and others. The No. 1 player in Alabama joined early signees James Bishop and Charles Manning in the 2019 recruiting class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LSU currently has three scholarships to give to get to the 13 allowed scholarships by the NCAA in college basketball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LSU’s brush with the 2019 NBA Draft process went as well as expected as forward Emmitt Williams is returning to the Tigers for the 2019-20 season, sources told Geaux247. As a freshman, Williams… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":43167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43166"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}