LSU lands Alabama high school basketball star Trendon Watford

After five players declared for the NBA Draft from LSU's Sweet 16 team, the Tigers were in dire need of a big splash on the recruiting trail.

Monday afternoon they made that splash, gaining the services of versatile 6-foot-9, 230-pound forward Trendon Watford of Mountain Brook (Birmingham, Ala.).

Regarded as the No. 17 overall prospect in the Class of 2019 by 247Sports, Watford decided on LSU over Alabama, Memphis and Indiana.

Video: Trendon Watford highlights

The 5-star forward put together an impressive high school career that included 3,783 points, 1,909 rebounds, three consecutive state championships and a strong showing at the McDonald's All-American game (10 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists).

As a senior, Watford earned second team MaxPreps All-American honors, averaging 23.7 points, 11.8 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 2.5 blocks and 2.1 steals per game to lead Mountain Brook (31-3) to the No. 5 spot in the final MaxPreps National Top 100 rankings.

His most impressive performance of the season came in the City of Palms Classic quarterfinals against the 2018-19 national champions IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.).

Watford was unstoppable, finishing with 38 points and 12 rebounds while going 19-23 from the charity stripe to hand the loaded Ascenders their only loss of the season.

The Mountain Brook star will join 6-2 guard James Bishop of Mount St. Joseph (Baltimore, Md.) and 6-6 junior college transfer Charles Manning in the Tigers' Class of 2019 haul.

Watford's brother, Christian, played at Indiana University from 2009-2013 and is currently in the NBA G-League.