NCAA Basketball: 10 best players from state of Louisiana of last decade

5. Skylar Mays – LSU

Sometimes the best pieces are right there in your backyard and you just have to find them. Mays was a relatively unheralded 3-star recruit, a 6’4 guard from Baton Rouge who decided ultimately to stay home and play at LSU. He’d spent all four collegiate seasons playing for the Tigers, most of it as their starting point guard.

Mays’ contributions only increased as his career went on, with a breakout 22-point performance as a freshman. During his junior year, he helped lead LSU to the Sweet Sixteen, scoring 19 and 16 points in wins over Yale and Maryland respectively. Senior year was his most effective offensive season, averaging 16.7 points and 5.0 rebounds per game, becoming the Tigers’ leading scorer during a 21-win season that was shortened by the pandemic.

Mays grew from that unheralded prospect into a star point guard, named to the All-SEC teams twice, including First Team honors as a senior. He left college in an impressive place on several LSU leaderboards, while also sitting among the top free throw shooters in SEC history. A late second-round pick in the NBA Draft, Mays has spent parts of the last two seasons playing for the Atlanta Hawks.