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Suggested Rosters, 2010 Portsmouth Invitational Tournament

Suggested Rosters, 2010 Portsmouth Invitational Tournament
Mar 15, 2010, 07:09 pm
With the 2010 Portsmouth Invitational Tournament only three weeks away, it’s time to take an in-depth look at this year’s NCAA senior class and figure out what the field might look like.

The PIT will be held as always immediately after the NCAA Final Four in Portsmouth, Virginia. Besides being very well attended by NBA executives, it is also a popular destination for European teams to get a first look at some of the best American players who might be starring in their leagues over the next few years.

If you ever felt the urge to see what it would look like if virtually every NBA team personnel member, agent and runner in America came together in one tiny and extremely cozy high school gym for four days, this would be your spot.

The organizers attempt to assemble the 64 best NCAA senior draft prospects in the country for an 8 team, 12 game tournament held over a four day period. The 58th edition of the tournament will be conducted this year from April 7th to April 10th.

The official website of the PIT can be found here.

Since the NBA has already reportedly decided to [url=continue with the “Combine” format instead of having prospects work out in a competitive 5 on 5 setting like they used to in the NBA pre-draft camp days, an event like Portsmouth should hold far greater value to NCAA seniors.

The NBA Combine will be held in Chicago from May 19th-23rd, with 52 of the top NBA prospects—virtually everyone expected to be drafted—invited to participate in non-competitive drills, interviews, measurements, and medical and athletic testing.

Despite the fact that every NBA team’s most important decision makers will be on hand, the prospects will not have a real chance to improve their draft stock, as there is only so much that can be evaluated by watching them shoot uncontested jumpers and conduct the three man weave.

Only 19 of the 52 players in attendance last year were seniors, meaning there are quite a few players who will not even be seen in a mass setting of this nature if they elect not to participate at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament.

In years past, players could elect to skip the PIT in hopes of receiving an invite to the more prestigious NBA Pre-Draft camp. That luxury no longer exists unfortunately with the NBA Combine’s current format, something that should grant the all-senior tournament greater importance with how few opportunities that exist for prospects to improve their draft stock.

Thing didn’t seem to work out that way last year—the first time that the NBA had elected to go with this radically new format-- and unfortunately many bad decisions were made.

Those advising the players on whether to accept their PIT invites seemingly struggled to understand and adapt to the ramifications of the new format, causing a great deal of frustration to all those involved.

Players like Jeremy Pargo, Curtis Jerrells, Josh Shipp, Jeff Adrien, Dominic James, Kevin Rogers, Curtis Jerrells, Luke Nevill, Levance Fields and others shockingly elected to pass on the opportunity to improve their NBA standing in front of dozens of high-level decision makers by attending the PIT, and ended up paying a heavy price.

Unsurprisingly, they ended up receiving no NBA combine invite and little to no interest from teams during the draft process—something that they surely must have regretted while sitting at home twiddling their thumbs for the ensuing two and a half months.

Instead, players such as DeMarre Carroll, Jon Brockman and Jermaine Taylor rode strong showings at Portsmouth to being selected in the late first or early second round, while other prospects like Wesley Matthews stepped up and performed extremely well, which surely played a role in helping him secure an NBA roster spot with the Utah Jazz.

You don’t have to go back to Scottie Pippen or John Stockton to see the value of the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament. Past attendees like Carl Landry, Jason Maxiell, Chuck Hayes, Jose Juan Barea and many others continue to show how NBA teams can strike gold at the PIT just in the last few years.

We’ve already heard stories this year of marginal prospects such as Louisiana Tech’s Magnum Rolle and Michigan’s Deshawn Sims—players who are receiving extremely poor advice and have decided not to attend Portsmouth reportedly, something that is extremely difficult to comprehend from a logical standpoint.

Why would a player decline an opportunity to showcase himself in front of such a large contingency of NBA talent evaluators? Only these players and their advisers can answer that question unfortunately.

It’s not always the player’s fault. Some of them are convinced not to attend the camp by self-serving NCAA head coaches who prefer their “student athletes” stay on campus—something we witnessed firsthand last year.

With the amount of travel many teams do for the NCAA tournament and NIT, players can quickly fall behind on their “studies,” which could hurt a coach’s ability to recruit replacements for them down the road.

Instead of risking any academic issues that could affect the team’s scholarship situation if the player fails to graduate (thus dragging down their APR), it may make far more sense for a college coach from a personal standpoint to convince their players to stay home, rather than encourage them to go and improve their professional future.

Fortunately the talent differential between those that decline to attend and those that end up being invited instead is often marginal at best. This gives scouts a great opportunity to see new under the radar players from places that aren’t traditional hotbeds. They will at times emerge as even more exciting prospects than those that elected to stay at home.

It’s for that exact reason that we typically don’t bother to suggest inviting seniors who are incredibly well known commodities--such as Luke Harangody, Jon Scheyer, Da’Sean Butler, Greivis Vasquez and Scottie Reynolds—as they are unlikely to attend, and probably have been analyzed about as thoroughly as can be at this juncture.

Instead, the committee will opt to invite some of the most talented players in NAIA, Division II or Division III, such as Kutztown’s Stephen Dennis, Southern Indiana’s Jamar Smith or Wells College’s Juan Paulino, which we’ve heard to be the case this year.

Notes on our Suggested list:

-This is not the official list made by the committee, but rather our own personal suggestions and observations of who will or should be invited, based on the large amount of games we’ve watched this year as well as our own conversations with NBA personnel.

With this being the 7th draft we are covering, this group of seniors has been watched closer by DraftExpress than any class ever, from the moment they stepped on campus as college freshman. Many of them have of them we started watching in high school.

• The official list should come out about 4-5 days before the tournament kicks off. There are still a number of roster spots left to be filled.

• The format of our list and teams was created as follow:

I. A pool of approximately the 100 best senior draft prospects (not best senior players) in America was created.

II. Many of the most high profile players on our senior rankings were taken off immediately, assuming that they would decline their invite or have been evaluated thoroughly enough at this stage. History shows that in the case of Portsmouth, this is usually what happens. If you are wondering why players like Damion James, Sherron Collins or Greivis Vasquez for example are not “invited”, that is your answer.

III. Since we are ranking the best "senior draft prospects," and not necessarily the "best seniors," NBA upside is at a premium over great production at times. Ideally we like to see both, but a player who has good size and athleticism for his position, and shows at least some of the coveted skills to play his NBA position, even inconsistently, will often garner an invite to see what they can do in a new setting against better competition.

• The pool of remaining players was distributed into 6 categories, according to position.

Suggested Invites

Centers:

1. Artsiom Parakhouski C, 6' 11", Radford
2. Dexter Pittman, C, 6’ 10”, Texas
3. Chas McFarland, C, 7' 0", Wake Forest
4. Omar Samhan, C, 6' 11", Saint Mary's
5. David Weaver, C, 6' 11", Wake Forest
6. Hamady N'Diaye, C, 6' 11", Rutgers
7. Brian Zoubek, C, 7' 1", Duke
8. Gerald Lee, 6-10, PF/C, Old Dominion
9. Jeff Foote, 7-0, C, Cornell
10. Jordan Eglseder, C, 7’0”, Northern Iowa

Undersized Centers/Power Forwards:

1. Arinze Onuaku, PF/C, 6' 9", Syracuse
2. Deon Thompson PF/C, 6' 8", North Carolina
3. Dwayne Collins PF/C, 6' 8", Miami, FL
4. Gavin Edwards PF/C, 6' 9", Connecticut
5. Michael Washington, PF/C, 6' 10", Arkansas
6. DeShawn Sims, PF, 6' 8", Michigan
7. Wayne Chism, PF/C, 6' 9", Tennessee
8. Bryan Davis, PF/C, 6' 9", Texas A&M
9. Magnum Rolle, PF/C, 6' 10", Louisiana Tech
10. Sylvester Seay, PF, 6' 9", Fresno State
11. Jason Love, PF/C, 6-8, Xavier
12. Jeremy Evans, PF, 6' 9", Western Kentucky

Combo Forwards:

1. Marquis Gilstrap, SF/PF, 6' 7", Iowa State
2. Raymar Morgan, SF/PF, 6' 7", Michigan State
3. Tasmin Mitchell, SF/PF, 6' 7", LSU
4. Landry Fields, SF, 6' 7", Stanford
5. Lazar Hayward, SF/PF, 6' 6", Marquette
6. Dior Lowhorn, SF/PF, 6' 7", San Francisco
7. Marqus Blakely, SF/PF, 6' 5", Vermont
8. Damian Johnson, SF/PF, 6' 7", Minnesota
9. Landon Milbourne, PF, 6' 7", Maryland
10. Roderick Flemings, SF/PF, 6’7”, Hawaii
11. Theo Robertson, SF/PF, 6’ 7”, Cal
12. Tyren Johnson, SF/PF, 6’ 8”, Louisiana Lafayette

Swingmen:

1. Aubrey Coleman SG, 6' 4", Houston
2. Marcus Ginyard, SG, 6' 5", North Carolina
3. Patrick Christopher, SG, 6' 5", California
4. Ryan Thompson, SG, 6' 6", Rider
5. Edwin Ubiles, SF, 6' 6", Siena
6. J.P. Prince, SG/SF, 6' 7", Tennessee
7. Obi Muonelo, SG/SF, 6' 5", Oklahoma State
8. Dwight Lewis, SG, 6' 5", USC
9. Tony Crocker, SG, 6’ 5”, Oklahoma

Combo Guards:

1. Jerome Dyson, PG/SG, 6’ 2”, UConn
2. Rodney Green, PG/SG, 6' 5", La Salle
3. Andy Rautins, SG, 6’ 4”, Syracuse
4. Marquez Haynes, PG/SG, 6’3”, Texas-Arlington
5. Mikhail Torrance, SG, 6’ 5”, Alabama
6. Trevon Hughes, PG/SG, 6' 1", Wisconsin
7. Keith Cothran, PG/SG, 6' 4", Rhode Island
8. Denis Clemente, PG/SG, 6' 1", Kansas State
9. Osiris Eldridge, SG, 6' 3", Illinois State
10. A.J. Slaughter, PG/SG, 6’ 2”, Western Kentucky

Point Guards:

1. Matt Bouldin, PG/SG, 6' 5", Gonzaga
2. Jeremy Lin, PG/SG, 6' 3", Harvard
3. Jerome Randle, PG, 5' 10", California
4. Deonta Vaughn, PG, 6' 1", Cincinnati
5. Devan Downey, PG, 5’ 10”, South Carolina
6. Tweety Carter, PG, 5’ 10”, Baylor
7. Jermaine Beal, PG, 6’ 3”, Vanderbilt
8. Ishmael Smith, PG, 5’ 10”, Wake Forest
9. Tory Jackson, PG, 5’ 11”, Notre Dame
10. Edgar Sosa, PG, 6’ 2”, Louisville
11. Jared Quayle, PG, 6’ 1”, Utah State

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