First, Dwayne Bacon. Now, Xavier Rathan-Mayes.
The Florida State guard announced via Twitter on Thursday that he would forego his redshirt senior season and pursue a career playing professional basketball. Rathan-Mayes will enter the NBA Draft after his most efficient season as a collegiate this past year, averaging 10.6 points to go along with 4.8 assists.
As a redshirt junior this past season, Rathan-Mayes also shot career-highs of 45 percent from the field and better than 32 percent from beyond the 3-point arc. His 1.9 turnovers per game average was pleasantly a career-low. Throughout the course of the season, Rathan-Mayes evolved into FSU’s best on-the-ball defender.
After being academically ineligible during his first year on campus, Rathan-Mayes averaged in double-figures scoring in each of his final three. During the 2014-15 season, he became the first FSU freshman to lead the team in scoring in a half century when he averaged 14.9 points per game. Rathan-Mayes led FSU in assists in each of the last three years.
Rathan-Mayes’ career at FSU was a bit of a roller coaster, but it also had its highs. Earlier this past season, he eclipsed the 1,000-point mark, as did his father Tharon Mayes. The two became the first father-son duo in ACC history to accomplish that feat.
Two years ago, he twice set an FSU freshman scoring record with 35 points. That included a performance at Miami where he scored a remarkable 30 points in less than a 5-minute stretch.
Most experts see Rathan-Mayes as a fringe NBA player, but the talented Canada native certainly has a future in professional basketball.
FSU will now have to replace its starting backcourt for the 2017-18 season. Leading scorer Dwayne Bacon announced his decision to go pro on Wednesday. The NBA Draft is June 22.
Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson
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