Dan Trist, a senior center on the Lafayette College men’s basketball team, has accepted an invite to compete in the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament to be played from April 8-11 in Portsmouth, Virginia.

Trist is originally from Sydney and went to school at North Sydney Boys High School before being recruited by Leopards coach Fran Hanlon.

The Portsmouth Invitational invites the top college seniors from across the country to participate in a 12-game tournament in front of representatives from every NBA team.

Talented Aussies like Aron Baynes, Brock Motum and Ryan Broekhoff have used the tournament as a launch pad to lucrative European deals wbile imports like Rotnei Clarke and Kendrick Perry have also played in the tournament before securing a gig in the NBL. Either way a strong showing at the tournament will be the best way to kick start Trist’s professional career, be it in the NBL, Europe of potentially the NBA.

Trist’s game really developed during his senior year at Lafayette going from 13 points and 5 rebounds per game as a sophomore to 17 points and 7 rebounds per game as a senior. In the process Trist became the Patriot League’s second leading scorer.

He delivered 18 points and nine rebounds in the Leopards’ final loss of the season to Villanova in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

A unanimous All-Patriot League First Team selection, Trist is seventh in Lafayette history with 1,491 career points.

Authors Thoughts:
A lot of NBL coaches will be keeping an eye on Trist’s performance as he is tipped to be one of many Aussie’s who graduated school this month and are now be looking for a new team to play for… A homecoming to the Sydney Kings would be an incredible coop for Kings fans.