West Virginia junior forward Kevin Jones has announced that he will make himself eligible for the NBA Draft, though he has not signed with an agent. Jones is coming off a junior season which saw him average thirteen points and seven and a half rebounds per game. Jones, if he ends up staying in the draft, will be the third Mountaineer in recent years to leave early, following in the footsteps of Joe Alexander and Devin Ebanks.
↵While those two were drafted into positive professional situations, I expect Kevin Jones' foray into leaving early to be more like Kevin Pittsnogle's. Pittsnogle declared early for the draft following WVU's run to the Elite Eight in 2005, but returned to school for his senior season. West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins released the following statement:
↵"Kevin will go through the process in a systematic and professional manner by exploring the situation and leaving open his option to come back. If he decides there is an opportunity out there for him, he will have 100 percent support of the Mountaineer basketball program as was the case with Joe Alexander and Devin Ebanks."↵
Jones has until May 8th to remove his name from consideration.