Published Mar 11, 2019
LSU's Skylar Mays named first-team Academic All-American
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Ron Higgins  •  Death Valley Insider
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LSU junior guard Skylar Mays is officially a first-team selection on the 2019 Google Cloud Academic All-America Division I Men’s Basketball Team, it was announced Monday.

Mays, a second-team selection last year, has a 4.01 GPA average in pre-med/kinesiology. His GPA is the highest on this year’s academic All-America team.

He's also is averaging 13.6 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.9 steals a game. He's second in the league in steals and is one of the league’s top free throw shooters at 85.5 percent (118-of-138).

Mays is the only significant holdover on this season’s 26-5 SEC regular season championship team who was on the Tigers' squad that lost 21 games two seasons ago when the Tigers were 2-16 in league play.

“We deserve to be up here wearing these (championship) shirts and wearing these hats,” Mays said after LSU’s 80-59 regular season finale victory over Vanderbilt on Saturday. “We have come a long way. We have been through a lot of adversity. We still have more to go, but we are happy where we are right now.”

Although Mays’ backcourt mate Tremont Waters will be likely named first-team when the SEC Coaches All-SEC team is announced Tuesday, the steady leadership of Mays hasn’t gone unappreciated.

“The shoulders of Skylar Mays are enormous,” former LSU coach Dale Brown said. “I don’t think he gets enough compliments. He’s Mount Rushmore, he’s the steady force, he keeps them all together like an old Clydesdale. He’ll play in the NBA if he wants.”

The Tigers, now No. 9 in the nation, are the No. 1 seed in this week’s SEC Tournament in Nashville. LSU has a double-bye into Friday’s quarterfinals when it plays at 12 noon against a to-be-determined opponent.