Kansas BasketballNBA Draft

Ben McLemore declares for the NBA Draft

Ben McLemore, a second team All-American and red-shirt freshman, officially announced his intentions to declare for the NBA Draft on Tuesday afternoon.

“I want to thank my teammates a lot for supporting me and always pushing me each and every day at practice,” McLemore said. “I love those guys. It was great playing with those guys. I want to thank my family and the coaching staff, too, but most of all I want to thank the KU fans. Without the KU fans, Kansas wouldn’t be like this. The KU fans are great and I’d like to thank them a lot for cheering me on and cheering this whole program on. I love that about Kansas. That’s the reason I came here.”

McLemore is projected as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 draft by NBADraft.net and the No. 2 pick in the DraftExpress.com mock draft. McLemore finished the 2013 with season averaging 15.9 points per game, with 5.2 rebounds per game and two assists per game.

“Ben has a chance to live out his dream,” Self said. “To be quite candid, if he was eligible last year, I thought the most we could have gotten out of him there was two years.”

“Ben’s the most talented kid I’ve ever worked with,” Self continued. “He might be the nicest kid I’ve ever worked with.”

The leading scorer for Kansas, McLemore broke the Kansas freshman scoring record (previously held by Danny Manning with 14.6 points per game in 1985). He also holds the KU freshman records for free throw shooting (87 percent) and points scored (589). During the 2012-13 season, McLemore was a three-time Big 12 Rookie of the Week and one-time Big 12 player of the week this season and had 10 games of 20 points or more, including three 30-point efforts. His 36-point effort against West Virginia (March 2nd) broke the Kansas freshman single-game scoring record.

McLemore is the third Kansas player under Bill Self to have declared for the draft after their freshman season (Xavier Henry and Josh Selby).

McLemore was a five-star recruit out of St. Louis and was ranked No. 17 nationally by Rivals.com and the No. 4 shooting guard.

McLemore’s 2013 accolades

  • Associated Press All-America Second Team
  • John R. Wooden Award All-American
  • NABC All-America Second Team
  • Lute Olson All-America Team
  • USBWA All-America Second Team
  • USBWA Freshman All-America
  • Third Team All-America by Sporting News
  • All-Big 12 First Team (Big 12, AP)
  • Big 12 All-Rookie Team
  • Wooden Award Final Ballot
  • Phillips 66 Big 12 Rookie of the Week (3/4)
  • USBWA Oscar Robertson Player of the Year Finalist (1 of 14)
  • USBWA Wayman Tisdale Freshman of the Year Finalist (1 of 8)
  • Naismith Award Top 30 Candidate
  • Phillips 66 Big 12 Rookie of the Week (1/21)
  • Sporting News Mid-Season All-American
  • Phillips 66 Big 12 Player of the Week (1/14)
  • Phillips 66 Big 12 Rookie of the Week (12/24)
  • CBE Hall of Fame Classic All-Tournament Team

With Ben McLemore’s departure, Bill Self will have to replace his entire starting five for the 2013-2014 season. Kansas is projected to start Naadir Tharpe, Wayne Selden, Andrew White III, Jamari Traylor and Perry Ellis. Overall, Kansas is losing six players off the roster (Kevin Young, Elijah Johnson, Jeff Withey and Travis Releford are all seniors, Ben McLemore to the draft and Anrio Adams is transferring). Bill Self will need another one of his miraculous coaching jobs if he wants to win ten straight Big 12 titles and a shot at making the Final Four for the second time in three seasons.

Click here for a complete transcript of his press conference.

KCTV5

21 thoughts on “Ben McLemore declares for the NBA Draft

  • WilliamNewell

    total respect for Ben, he is so humble, almost shy in his demeanor. Go make millions, help your family, be the best person you can be, and represent all those who love you from KU fans, your family, teammates, and coaches!

  • Hi, i read your blog from time to time and i own a similar one and i was just wondering if you get a lot of
    spam remarks? If so how do you prevent it, any plugin or anything you can advise?

    I get so much lately it’s driving me crazy so any assistance is very much appreciated.

    Here is my web blog; BIG SMITH|ビッグスミス

  • Hi there! This blog post could not be written any better!
    Looking through this article reminds me of my previous roommate!
    He constantly kept preaching about this. I am going
    to send this post to him. Pretty sure he will have a very good read.
    Thanks for sharing!

    my web site 非常にe functin efzf53

  • I’m curious to find out what blog system you’re working with?
    I’m having some small security issues with my latest site and
    I would like to find something more secure. Do you have
    any solutions?

    Look into my web page … lotatsu lotatsu ii

  • Pingback: トップス 史上最も激ニット セーター

  • Pingback: air max 1 bleu

  • Pingback: hermesエルメスサイト 財布

  • Pingback: tシャツ 半袖

  • Pingback: ウインタースポーツスノーボード phantom ファント

  • Pingback: 軟式グローブ 史上最も激内野手用

  • My programmer is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP.
    I have always disliked the ixea because of the costs. But he’s tryiong none the
    less. I’ve been uusing Movable-type on several websites for about a year and am anxious about switching to another platform.
    I have heard very good things about blogengine.net.

    Is there a way I can import all my wordpress posts
    into it? Any help would be really appreciated!
    web page

    It gives you the concept your winnings are larger than in the typical
    online casino. After installing it you cann play video games
    and win handsome money. Playing online has
    a whole lot of proit in terms of make income.

  • We are a bunch of volunteers and opening a new scheme in our community.
    Ⲩⲟur web site offered uѕ with valuable info tо woгk on. Yoᥙ һave performed ɑn impressive process
    and ouur wһole group will be thankful to you.

  • I am actually thankful to the holder of this web
    page who has shared this wonderful paragraph at at this time.

  • Very rapidly this web page will be famous amid all blog people, due to it’s pleasant posts

  • Do you mind if I quote a few of your articles as
    long as I provide credit and sources back to your website?
    My website is in the very same area of interest as yours
    and my users would truly benefit from some of the information you provide here.
    Please let me know if this okay with you. Thanks!

  • Ahaa, its good dialogue about this paragraph at this place at this webpage, I have read all
    that, so at this time me also commenting here.

  • Can you tell us more about this? I’d want to find out more details.

Comments are closed.