Luc declares for draft

A day after UCLA’s starting center and one of its starting guards declared for the NBA Draft, its starting power forward announced that he’d be joining them.

Junior Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, who averaged 8.8 points and six rebounds a game this past season, held a teleconference on Friday to state his intention of entering his name in June’s NBA Draft.

Like freshman Kevin Love and sophomore Russell Westbrook, who announced their decisions at separate press conferences on Thursday, Mbah a Moute said he will not yet hire an agent, meaning he will retain his eligibility and could still decide to stay in school.

“After speaking with my family and with coach (Ben) Howland, I feel that it is in my best interest to see what the NBA has to offer,” Mbah a Moute said. “I’m not hiring an agent, so the opportunity still exists for me to return to UCLA.”

While Mbah a Moute put up modest offensive numbers, he played a major role as a defender for the Bruins. When he missed games at various points in the season with injuries, the Bruins sorely missed his energy and rebounding. He had one of his best games of the season in the West Regional final, finishing with 13 points and 13 rebounds in UCLA’s 76-57 win over Xavier.

“Luc is a great rebounder and is an outstanding defender,” Howland said. “He’s the most versatile defensive player I’ve ever coached. He has been an integral part of the success that our program has achieved over the last three seasons. I fully support him exploring his opportunities to play in the NBA.”

The area of Mbah a Moute’s game most likely to lower his draft stock is his outside shooting. The UCLA coaching staff worked with him last summer to develop a more compact jump shot, but this season the results were mixed.

His mid-range jumper was streaky, and he made only five of the 25 3-pointers he took all season. Mbah a Moute did shoot 47.8 percent from the field, but that number is somewhat inflated by the high number of put-backs and layups he scored around the basket. This is easily the area of the court where Mbah a Moute is at his best, but NBA teams may be concerned with his ability to score from outside.

Still, if Mbah a Moute does leave for the NBA, he will take some history with him. This season he became the first UCLA player to start in a third straight Final Four since Bill Walton, Greg Lee and Keith Wilkes did so in 1974.

“I have had a wonderful experience at UCLA,” Mbah a Moute said. “I have had a chance to play in three Final Fours, and that is very special to me, and I’ll never forget it.”

Predraft workouts with NBA teams begin on June 6, and players who have not hired agents have until June 16 to remove their names from the draft, which takes place on June 26.

Junior guard Darren Collison has still made no official announcement regarding whether or not he will also enter the draft. The deadline for college players to declare early entry is April 27.

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