March 8, 2001
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.-- Samford University men's basketball player Marc Salyers (Sr., Owensboro, Ky./Apollo HS) is one of 64 players invited to attend the Portsmouth Invitational, a camp for the top collegiate players in the nation to show their skills to be potentially drafted or signed by NBA teams.
The camp will be held in Portsmouth, Va., April 4-7. Salyers, a 6-9 forward, is the second consecutive Bulldog to be invited to the camp. Reed Rawlings of Chattanooga, Tenn., a 6-7 forward, was last year's invitee.
The Portsmouth camp is the first of three development camps for NBA prospects leading up to the NBA Draft June 27 in New York City, NY. The other camps will be held in Phoenix, Ariz., and Chicago. Each camp is considered a "stepping stone" for players to progress toward the league's draft.
Salyers was one of the top players in the Trans America Athletic Conference this season, averaging 17.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. He was a first-team All-TAAC selection this season and was the TAAC Tournament Most Valuable Player in 1998 and 1999. The Bulldogs finished 15-14 (12-8 TAAC) this season, losing to regular season and tournament champion Georgia State in the tournament semifinals.
Salyers, who played in 118 games in his career, finished sixth in scoring in Samford history with 1,604 career points, just 17 points shy of the No. 5 spot held by Bill Lankford (Lankford played in 108 games, scored 1,621 points and averaged 15.0 points during his career from 1954-57). Salyers also finished with 604 career rebounds and 301 assists.
He scored in double figures 75 times in his 118 career games, including a clip of 54 of his last 61 games. He had 14 double-doubles (points-rebounds), including three this season. He set his career high with 28 points and grabbed 12 rebounds against Toledo in an overtime loss this season and scored 20 or more points 27 times in his career.
Samford teams were 74-44 (48-28 TAAC) during his career and won a regular season TAAC championship, two TAAC tournament championships and made two appearances in the NCAA Tournament.
The PIT is the nation's oldest amateur athletic event. Every year, top college seniors are invited to the tournament to play in front of NBA coaches, scouts and more than 1,000 active and former NBA players who have risen from the PIT. Proceeds from the tournament go to benefit hometown non-profit organizations and student/athletic scholarships.
