Standouts from KU basketball, K-State & Mizzou to play in Portsmouth Invitational
Kansas men’s basketball guard Zeke Mayo and Kansas State forward David N’Guessan will be teammates at the Portsmouth Invitational tournament for college basketball seniors Wednesday through Saturday at Churchland High School in Portsmouth, Virginia.
Also, Missouri guard Tamar Bates will compete in the 71st annual invitational, which annually is played before scouts from the NBA, G League and international leagues.
Mayo, a 6-foot-4 senior from Lawrence, and N’Guessan, a 6-9 senior from Netherlands, will play for Portsmouth Partnership. The squad will play its first game at 8 pm. Central Wednesday. Other players on the team: Oumar Ballo, Indiana; Great Osobor, Washington; Matthew Cleveland, Miami; Jahmai Mashack, Tennessee; Augustus Marciulionis, Saint Mary’s and Ace Baldwin, Penn State.
Bates, a 6-5 native of Kansas City, will play for Norfolk Sports Club with teammates Viktor Lakhin, Clemson; CJ Huntley, Appalachian State; Tyson Degenhart, Boise State; Jahmyl Telfort, Butler; Cam Carter, LSU; Erik Reynolds, St. Joseph’s and Deivon Smith, St. John’s.
A schedule of all games is available at the Invitational Website.
Bates averaged 13.3 points and 2.6 rebounds a game in 2024-25 for the Tigers. Mayo averaged 14.6 points and 4.8 rebounds with 2.9 assists for KU, while N’Guessan averaged 13.3 points and 7.2 rebounds for KSU.
The Portsmouth Invitational has been in existence since 1953. Eight teams of eight players play a 12-game tournament over four days. Players who fare well could land invitations to the 2025 NBA Combine.
“Everybody loves March Madness,” Michael Morris, chairman of the PIT Board told WTKR.com. “We’re the extension of March Madness. We’re pretty excited. All of Portsmouth’s kind of reveling here. It’s that time of year and the basketball world comes to Portsmouth, Virginia.
A lot of our volunteers have been in it for a long time,” Morris added. “We’ve got a long-time heritage going here. We’ve still got a couple folks who actually played in the first one who are alive and are at our functions regularly, so it’s kind of cool that tradition that’s been passed over since 1953 and it’s passed through about three generations and it’s still going strong.”
The tourney official said 240 NBA representatives and more than 100 visitors from teams overseas would attend.
This story was originally published April 15, 2025 at 12:35 PM with the headline "Standouts from KU basketball, K-State & Mizzou to play in Portsmouth Invitational."
