O.J. Mayo is Heading to the NBA Draft

The USC Trojan's freshman phenom O.J. Mayo is set to declare for the NBA Draft. Mayo is also planning to hire an agent, which will make him ineligible to return to USC for his sophomore season if he changes his mind.  Mayo led the Trojans with 20.7 PPG, and added 4.5 RPG and 3.3 APG.  His 3.5 turnovers per game is one of his biggest questions heading into the draft but it is still projected that he will be a top ten pick going as high as the third overall selection. Mayo's leadership is another one of his major question marks.  He failed to lead USC to any major team success, as they were bounced out of the first round of the tournament by Michael Beasley and Kansas State. USC's head coach Tim Floyd called Mayo's decision "no surprise".

I definitely think that this is a bad decision for O.J. Mayo.  Although he is extremely talented, he didn't show me enough this season to be ready for the NBA.  I understand that Mayo may need the money for his family, but it's not like he can't play for the Trojans for a year or two longer on a full ride scholarship.  Mayo, who was very inconsistent at the beginning of the season, started to find his comfort zone during the second half of the conference schedule.  One of the major positives I saw from Mayo this year is that he cleaned up his act from high school.  This year Mayo was trouble free both on and off the court.  I feel that with all the hype Mayo was bringing into this season, we should have seen a lot more out of him and his team.  It's sad to say that Mayo's two top scoring games of the season will be remembered as losses.  His lack of leadership and dominance at the college level are the two biggest reasons why he should stick around for another year and polish his skills.  It's either his going to be an NBA star making millions of dollars, or Mayo will be another one of players who left school too early and never reached their potential. Hopefully, we won't be adding Mayo to that second list.