Waters strives to keep getting better

Will Wade took over the reins of the LSU men’s basketball program in March of 2017, but he still had the keys to the car to hand out.

One of Wade’s first goals was to find a player who could jump right in and lead the team on the floor. And he found that player right here in New Haven.

Tremont Waters, the 2017 Gatorade and Register State Player of the Year, grabbed the keys to the Tigers’ car, hit the accelerator and never stopped, emerging as one of the most electrifying freshmen in the nation.

Waters, a 5-foot-11 point guard, led the Tigers in scoring at 15.9 points per game and set a school record for assists in a season by a freshman with 198, topping the mark set two years earlier by Ben Simmons.

Waters also led the Southeastern Conference — that league with Kentucky, Florida and a bunch of other powerhouse programs — in steals and was second in assists.

“It was a great feeling,” said Waters, “because I was able to see how I match up against other great competition, and prove to everyone that size doesn’t matter, it’s all about the size of your heart and your work ethic.”

And the statistics don’t tell the whole story of Waters’ terrific freshman campaign. He was one of the more exciting players in the country, never more so than during the Maui Invitational in November, when he dropped 39 points on Marquette and turned in the top two of SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays of the night.

“That shocked me, for sure,” he recalled. “It was a great feeling, knowing all the work you’ve put in, you can finally show the world.”

Waters couldn’t have been a better addition to the LSU program, according to Wade.

“He was phenomenal for us all season,” Wade said. “Our expectations were very high for him. He did a tremendous job of playing at a high level for a sustained period of time, which is very difficult to do — especially for a freshman. He was even better than we initially thought he would be.”

Waters has entered his name in the 2018 NBA Draft. However, he hasn’t hired an agent, so he has until May 30 to pull his name out and return to LSU next season, if he wishes. For now, he’s getting feedback — positive and negative — from NBA personnel. He had a workout in Oklahoma City on May 5 and has another scheduled in Boston on May 21.

Waters