WKU rising junior Lamonte Bearden will withdraw from the NBA Draft and return to WKU to play his redshirt senior season, per a tweet he sent out on Wednesday. 

{{tncms-inline account=”Lamonte Bearden” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">WITHDRAWAL FROM NBA DRAFT! “WKU” FANS 1 WILL BE BACK 🖤</p>— Lamonte Bearden (@WhyyMonte) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhyyMonte/status/1001836173852119040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 30, 2018</a></blockquote>” id=”https://twitter.com/WhyyMonte/status/1001836173852119040″ type=”twitter”}}

Bearden will be the second-highest returning scorer, as he averaged 11.8 points per game last year, which fell just behind rising sophomore Taveion Hollingsworth who averaged 13.3 PPG. Bearden also averaged 2.3 rebounds, and 3.4 assists, which is best among WKU’s returning players. 

Bearden entered his name into the draft on April 24. On May 19, he told ESPN that he intended to hire an agent and remain in the draft. Bearden announced that he’d changed his mind on Wednesday, which was the deadline day to withdraw from the draft. He was not projected to be drafted in any major mock drafts or big boards. 

Bearden played at Buffalo for two years before transferring to WKU. As a member of the Bulls, Bearden helped lead the team to back-to-back Mid-American Conference Championships, which in turn led to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances. 

Bearden’s return means that WKU will return two of its three starting guards from last season, with graduate transfer Darius Thompson being the only departure from the backcourt.