Portsmouth player list released

Next week I’ll be at the 2010 Portsmouth Invitational Tournament (PIT), which features only NCAA seniors, and I’ve been anxiously awaiting them to announce the players attending. Jeremy Lin will definitely be there, for you Asian-American community fans. They’ve finally posted the 64-player list (8 players on 8 teams), which I’ve copied below since they will eventually erase it after all is said and done. Of course, this list could change, as players have been known in the past to ditch the invite at the last moment (don’t worry, I don’t see Jeremy flaking), presumably based on strategic advice from their agent.

DraftExpress even wrote last year that eventual Utah Jazz 50th pick in 2009, Goran Suton, pulled out of last year’s PIT at 3:30pm on the day of his first scheduled game due to “fatigue”.

Last year, six players that played in the PIT got drafted. DeMarre Carroll (pictured) was drafted as high as 27th by the Memphis Grizzlies. My unofficial count of the 2008 and 2007 rosters also leaves me with about that same number drafted each year.

On this year’s player list, I see a handful or more players outside of Jeremy that could be drafted, based on year-long observation of the NBAdraft-net and DraftExpress boards: Marqus Blakely of Vermont, Da’Sean Butler of West Virginia (who will most likely pull out as he’s gone down with a knee injury as I write this), Wayne Chism of Tennessee, Aubrey Coleman of Houston, Lazar Hayward of Marquette, Theo Robertson of Cal, and Omar Samhan of St. Mary’s.

At the point guard position, I don’t see anyone comparable at Jeremy’s size and athleticism except for Ben Uzoh of Tulsa (6′3″ 205). Of course, that’s also because the D-1 power program point guards won’t be attending: Jon Scheyer of Duke, Greivis Vasquez of Maryland, or Matt Bouldin of Gonzaga. I’ll save another blogpost for Jeremy’s direct competition at point guard in the Draft (not PIT) for later, though.

Let’s just hope the folks at PIT know what they’re doing and put Jeremy at point guard. He’s been known to be considered a “scorer”, which is a bad label for his style of play.

I’ll be reporting live from the PIT starting next Wednesday evening, April 7th, 2010, via Twitter at http://twitter.com/poormanscommish.

See the current player list at: Portsmouth Invitational Tournament

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