Virginia Tech senior basketball player A.D. Vassallo is down in Portsmouth, Va., this week participating in the Portsmouth Invitation Tournament, which has become a staple for college seniors looking to improve their draft stock.

The PIT, which runs through Saturday, draws scouts from every NBA team. According to DraftExpress.com, Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge and Nets president Rod Thorn were all in attendance Thursday night.

Vassallo, a 6-foot-6, 216-pound wing, gave them something to think about. The former Faith Christian Academy (Hurt) player scored a team-high 21 points on 9 of 17 shooting (3 for 6 from 3-point win) in his team’s 90-80 win. He also had five rebounds, three assists and zero turnovers.

To put that in perspective, he had only one game in his entire Tech career in which he had at least 20 points, five rebounds and three assists without turning over the ball (Jan. 10, 2009 vs. Virginia: 29 points, seven rebounds, three assists).

UPDATE: Vassallo had 10 points, seven rebounds and four turnovers in 22 minutes in his team’s loss Friday night.

He’s still a long shot to be drafted. His name doesn’t appear on any of the mock drafts I’ve seen on the Internet. DraftExpress ranks him the 64th best senior in this class (only 60 players will be drafted June 25, including underclassmen) and had this to say about his prospects after his big game Thursday:

“A.D. Vassallo had a strong statistical performance, putting in 21 points on 17 shots in his team’s losing effort [Note: His team actually won], showing the versatile scoring ability he’s known for, hitting from behind the arc as well as with some solid mid-range shots on the move. Despite scoring impressively, Vassallo didn’t alleviate any concerns about the rest of his game, however, as he is a below average athlete and defender and shows very questionable shot-selection at times.”

Vassallo obviously has the offensive game to be a contributor in the NBA. He led the Hokies in scoring in each of the last two seasons and finished his career fifth on Tech’s all-time scoring list with 1,822 points. He improved his rebounding, assists and steals in each of his four seasons in Blacksburg. But the NBA is fickle when scouting talent. There aren’t many roster spots available to rookies.

I was intrigued to find Hokies point guard Malcolm Delaney’s name on DraftExpress’s 2010 draft board. He is already being projected as a high second-round pick (No. 33 overall). I think we’ve yet to see how good Delaney can truly be. He had a pretty good sophomore season, despite nagging wrist and hip injuries that affected his offensive game late in the season and increased double-team attention from opposing defenses.

In my opinion, Delaney was an all-ACC first-team player through his first 20 games. That seven-game stretch from Jan. 10 to Jan. 31 was the best he’s played as a collegian. He shot 50 percent and averaged 22.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and three assists during that span.

As his scoring took a dip toward the end of the season, he became a better distributor. He averaged 9.3 assists over the last four games. It’s not too far-fetched to expect him to be one of the most versatile playmakers in the ACC next season. If that’s the case, he could be the Hokies’ first basketball player to leave school early for the NBA.