Two-sport star Hampton transfers, Baskerville skips spring drills to hit books

Scooter Hobbs, shobbs@americanpress.com

LSU lost a two-sport athlete to the NCAA transfer portal and another key football player will sit out the spring practice to concentrate on academics.

The Advocate of Baton Rouge reported Friday that Maurice Hampton, a safety in football and an outfielder on the baseball team, entered the transfer portal.

Meanwhile, Micah Baskerville, who came on strong at linebacker over the second half of last season, will not participate in football drills this spring in hopes of being academically eligible for the fall, the paper reported.

Hampton, who started five games in football last fall, traveled with the baseball team for its game at New Orleans on Wednesday, but was not at practice on Thursday.

LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri told The Advocate that Hampton told him as early as December that he planned to concentrate solely on baseball.

Mainieri said that he cautioned Hampton against it because with football he was so far behind his baseball teammates on a crowded outfield depth chart that he would have to be patient.

Hampton was one of the stars of LSU’s 2019 recruiting class, particularly after he reportedly turned down a $1.8 million signing bonus in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. He was 2-for-4 in five baseball games this season.

He’d contributed far more in football, playing in 13 of 15 games during the Tigers’ 2019 national championship run and started five of the 10 games last season at safety.

He had 27 tackles, two for losses.

Baskerville started five games last football season and ended as the Tigers’ fourth-leading tackler with 55, including 41⁄2 for losses.LSU Tigers defensive back Maurice Hampton Jr. (14) stops University of Oklahoma Sooner’s Jalen Hurts for he first down during the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia on Saturday, December 28, 2019.

Dennis Babineaux/Special to the American Press

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