Mississippi State junior Jarvis Varnado has declared himself eligible for the NBA Draft, ending months of speculation by State fans on whether Varnado would return for his senior season.

One bright spot in this news is that Varnado has not hired an agent. That leaves him the option to return for this senior season if he decides to. That could be the case if he is not seen as a early round draft pick by NBA scouts.

"We are in full support of Jarvis and his father’s decision to enter the NBA draft and test the waters," said MSU coach Rick Stansbury, whose 231 victories are the most in school history and 16th best in SEC history. "It will be a great opportunity for Jarvis to experience some workouts and gain knowledge of things he needs to work on."

Should he return for his senior season, he would need just 19 more blocks to surpass former LSU great Shaquille O'Neal's SEC career mark of 412 and 141 to tie the NCAA record of 535 Louisiana-Monroe's Wojciech Mydra set from 1998-2002.

He's also just 93 points shy of becoming the 31st MSU player to score 1,000 for a career, while his 727 rebounds rank ninth all-time. If he were to grab the total of 317 boards he had this year, he would finish third with 1,044, behind Bailey Howell (1,277) and Rickey Brown (1,092).