Dayton’s Camara will participate in Portsmouth Invitational

Fourth-year forward has one season of eligibility remaining but by playing in PIT will have to petition NCAA if he wants to return to college

Credit: David Jablonski

Dayton Flyers forward Toumani Camara will play in the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, which takes place Wednesday through Saturday at Churchland High School in Portsmouth, Va.

Camara’s invitation to the event was announced Sunday. The Portsmouth Invitational gives 64 college basketball seniors from across the country the chance to compete in front of professional scouts. Eight teams of eight players compete in a 12-game tournament in four days.

The last Flyers to play in the Portsmouth Invitational were Scoochie Smith and Charles Cooke in 2017. Dyshawn Pierre played in the Portsmouth Invitational in 2016. Jordan Sibert also received an invitation in 2015 but was unable to participate because of an injury.

Camara, a 6-foot-8 forward from Brussels, Belgium, averaged 13.9 points and 8.6 rebounds in his second season at Dayton. He made the All-Atlantic 10 Conference first team and the all-defensive team.

Camara played two seasons at Georgia and two seasons at Dayton but has one season of eligibility remaining if he chooses to use it because the 2020-21 season didn’t count against anyone’s eligibility because of the pandemic. He participated in the Senior Day ceremony at UD before the final game of the regular season but has not made any announcements about his future plans.

According to the Portsmouth Invitational, a player who competes in the event and decides to return to college can petition the NCAA to do so. That happened with one player last year. Courtney Ramey, of Arizona, served a three-game suspension after playing in the Portsmouth Invitational.

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