Rathan-Mayes not on NBA early entry list

Per NBA rules all players who wish to be considered for early entry into the draft must submit their names to the NBA by letter to be received no later than Sunday, April 24. The players on the list are not obligated to remain in the draft. Under rules implemented by the NCAA this year players have until Wednesday, May 25 to withdraw from the draft and still maintain their college eligibility. Under NBA rules players have until Monday, June 13 to withdraw from the draft.

Xavier Rathan-Mayes announced on April 5th that he has decided to test the NBA draft waters. On Monday the NBA released the list of all the early entry requests it received by the above date and Rathan-Mayes' name was not included on the list. Freshman guard Malik Beasley's name was included on the list.

This news may fuel speculation that XRM has decided to return to college for his junior year. However, while this may be evidence that Rathan-Mayes is more likely to return to school it is not assured that he will do so because he still has the option of going overseas to play professionally. XRM would have been a long shot to get drafted this year but there are several names on the early entry list who would seem to be longer shots than XRM.

While we won't know for certain what Rathan-Mayes ultimately intends to do until he makes a formal announcement this news would seem to indicate that FSU's starting point guard may not be done with Tallahassee just yet.