COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou rising junior forward Jeremiah Tilmon announced Monday that he will he enter his name in the 2019 NBA Draft pool in order to test the process, but will take steps to retain his collegiate eligibility to allow a return for his third season in Columbia.

“It’s always been a dream of mine since I started playing basketball to make it to the NBA,” Tilmon said. “I want to get everything I can out of this process. I’m excited to learn from it and get the feedback I need.”

“Jeremiah has a chance to take advantage of a valuable opportunity and gather information through the process to help him moving forward,” head coach Cuonzo Martin said. “We fully support him using the resources available and we’ll assist him in any way we can.”

Tilmon led Mizzou on the inside during his sophomore campaign, posting 10.1 points per game and grabbing a team-best 183 rebounds. During his Mizzou career, Tilmon has been extremely efficient in the paint, posting field goal percentages above 50 percent in each of his two seasons.

Tilmon is the first Mizzou player to shoot over 50 percent from the field in back-to-back seasons when attempting 200 or more shots since Laurence Bowers did so in both the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons. The last Mizzou player to accomplish the feat in his freshman and sophomore seasons was Arthur Johnson in 2000-01 and 2001-02.

The East St. Louis native also saw improvement in SEC action from year one to year two, posting a better clip from the field (54.4 percent) and 2.6 more points per game while committing 10 fewer turnovers. Tilmon’s player efficiency rating during conference play soared from to 9.9 to 17.8 from his freshman to sophomore year.

During his two seasons at Mizzou, Tilmon has collected six double-doubles, scored in double digits 27 times and has reached the 20-point barrier on a pair of occasions.

The NCAA deadline for withdrawal from the NBA Draft is May 29.

— Mizzou Athletics —