NCAA Basketball: Portsmouth Invitational brimming with talent

The Portsmouth invitational assembles some of the top seniors in college basketball to compete in front of NBA scouts. Who will play themselves into consideration to be an NBA draft pick?

The Portsmouth invitational is one of the most exciting parts of the pre-draft process. 64 of the best seniors in college basketball are divided into eight teams and play multiple games in front of NBA scouts.

This is an ideal scenario for these players since very few (if any) are sure-fire draft picks. Over the next few months, some of these players will play their way into second round picks, but most will have to fight for summer league roster spots and training camp invites.

Scouts and decision makers from foreign leagues will also be in attendance, so everyone has something to play for. This creates a high level of intensity and adds stakes to the tournament which makes it very interesting to track.

An additional bonus of the PIT is that at least five players must be invited to the NBA Draft Combine in May. Last season, Davon Reed, Damyean Dotson, Jamel Artis, Kadeem Allen, and Derrick White were rewarded for their excellent work in the PIT and earned invites to the combine.

Four of those five players were drafted and White was even selected towards the end of the first round. Artis was the lone member of this group to go undrafted, but he has played 14 games for the Orlando Magic this season.

Two additional players (Jabari Bird and Sterling Brown) were not invited to the combine, but strong PIT performances helped them get drafted and multiple other combine snubs earned two-way contracts.

This proves that there is talent in this tournament and teams can find promising young contributors and role players year after year. If a team is really fortunate, they can find a future franchise player as Jimmy Butler is the most notable recent alum. There have been countless starters mined from the PIT (Jae Crowder and Kent Bazemore, just to name a couple) as well.

This article will examine the best players in the tournament. I will give predictions on who I think will use the PIT as a springboard to earn a spot in the NBA Draft combine. I also will look at which team will win this tournament.