Irish senior forward Carleton Scott announced his declaration for the NBA Draft Wednesday night after the 2011 men's basketball awards' banquet. Scott has one year of eligibility remaining, and did not sign a contract with an agent, so he can remove himself from the draft after pre-draft workouts and return for his final season of eligibility. If Scott is to return to the Irish, he must declare such before May 8.
"I declared last week but I'm not going to sign an agent," Scott told IrishIllustrated.com. "We'll just see how the process works out and then go from there."
The last Irish player to declare early for the draft was Luke Harangody, who declared after his junior season only to rescind his declaration and return for his final season. Scott said that he plans to talk to Harangody to discuss the former Irish star's thought process.
"I called [Harangody]," Scott said to Irish Illustrated. "I haven't talked to him. I've tried to talk to him just to pick his brain and see how he went through the whole process."
Scott also talked to Irish coach Mike Brey before making the decision.
"I talked to coach and got his blessing on it," Scott said. "He thought it was a pretty good idea just seeing how that option goes."
Brey downplayed Scott's decision.
"I think it's an official way to get feedback on status," Brey said. "It opens up the channels to officially be able to get the feedback instead of trying to do it, if he doesn't put his name out there through an agent and through a third party. We've been very good at circumventing that."
Scott averaged 11.2 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game in Notre Dame's 2010-2011 season as part of a senior-heavy rotation that carried the Irish to a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament.
