Notice the empty stands in the background…I’m not sure many people knew there were games tonight, or maybe it was just the hardcore fans in attendance…

Well, the Rocky Top League website says “Mondays and Wednesdays” and I think most people didn’t think there were any RTL games tonight. It was the lightest crowd by far of any of the nights so far. I mean I had room in the bleachers to stretch out, and that was after showing up basically at tip-off and still getting to sit right at halfcourt about six rows away.

And for some reason, it’s become cool to show up late. The first game didn’t get started til about 10 minutes late because a couple players didn’t show up on time (they shall remain nameless – I don’t want to throw anybody under the proverbial bus). Undefeated HT Group, sans Courtney Pigram and his ETSU teammate Greg Hamlin (who has a knack for dunking everything), took on Richardson. Pretty much the entire Richardson team was present, but HT had only six at tip-off, and ended up with 8 total available players.

Surprisingly, Richardson, winners of only one game so far, had an early double-digit lead. Then HT just kinda flipped a switch and took control, and it was around a 20-point lead the rest of the way and cruised to victory (they’re now 5-0). I’m just going to be honest, Richardson is offensively-challenged. Their best players are Terrance Oglesby (who struggled mightily shooting tonight and his frustration was evident) and Josh Tabb. Tabb has been scoring pretty well in the league (except for tonight when he just had 9 points), but Tennessee is going to need him to consistently knock down open threes along with already-great defense and he hasn’t really shown much shooting in this league. He’s shown no trouble getting to the rim though, and he’s certainly got the athleticism. He’s just good defensively NOT to see his share of minutes come the season.

New Vol Daniel West has impressed me with his quick hands on defense, which should fit the Tennessee full-court press quite nicely

Cole Rose of Lee University (who I found beat East Carolina last December), who forced a big steal that led to an HT W Wednesday night, was pretty good as well, with some moves down low, in transition, and his shooting. Chris Conner, from Knoxville’s Powell HS and the well-known Hargrave Military Academy and heading to Maryland-Eastern Shore (a small D-I school in the MEAC), made up the scoring slack in Pigram’s absence, hitting a number of threes for 31 points

I’m not going to say anything specific about Tyler Smith because Tennessee knows what he brings (though he did hit a couple threes tonight, scoring 31 points). Daniel West was most impressive to me tonight with his defense – he’s got some quick hands, and he’s a slightly sneaky defender. He got his hands in some passing lanes tonight and during most of the league, and that’s why I think he’s going to make an impact, despite I think he’ll come off the bench to start the year.

That, and throwing alley-oops to Tyler Smith from around halfcourt will help. Yes, I finally got one on video, and here it is…

I should also point out that the last about four minutes of this game became an alley-oop contest. Tyler had a few, Michael Jenkins, the hero for HT from Wednesday night, as well, and Michael Blue, whose ability I’ve already pointed out before, was throwing down as well. It was your typical summer league garbage time kind of basketball, but it was quite entertaining.

Bobby Maze enjoying the PA system music during warmups

The second game of the night was more or less for second place and a spot in the championship game next Wednesday (barring either losing a game they shouldn’t Monday night). Toyota of Knoxville has one loss, and Rays has two losses. Toyota of Knoxville was slightly undermanned, and didn’t have Dane Bradshaw, who they probably could have used. Here’s the start of the game…

done

Bobby Maze scores, and Tony White Jr. from College of Charleston answers with three of his team-leading 30 points. These two went back-and-forth later in the game (more on that in a moment). Toyota got off to a great start with former Vol Rashard Lee hitting a number of threes. Rays came back and led most of the game, but it went down to the wire, tied at 99 with 5 minutes left, and at 105 with 3 minutes left. Maze and White Jr. scored the next 9 points, with Toyota leading 112-11 in the final minute. Then it became Maze and Scotty Hopson time…

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Hopson gets to the rim and tips in his own miss for the 113-112 lead with 12 seconds left. At the other end, the stout, fast-as-lightning Jared Stephens (from Oak Ridge HS heading to Carson-Newman) drove the floor into a crowd and lost the ball. He was bailed out with a late whistle and gets two shots for the lead with 6.4 seconds left. After some ribbing from Brian Williams, Stephens proceeds to miss the first and, following a timeout, the second. Williams grabs the board, and Hopson ends up with the ball and gets fouled with 3 seconds left. He hits the first, and here’s the end of it…

done

Rashard Lee (26 points) nearly won the game for Toyota but Rays takes control of second with a 114-112 win.

Bobby Maze and Tony White Jr. had pretty good nights, and were a good matchup on both ends of the floor

As for the Vols, Maze was VERY impressive tonight with 35 points. He’s got great control in the lane, hitting a number of tough shots and and-1s (they weren’t called though, save a couple), even some threes. He showed some defensive ability and intensity as well, sticking with the laterally-quick White. Williams (12 points) and Wayne Chism (20 points) matched up for most of the game, and I’ll give a slight advantage to Chism, though neither played particularly well (OK, they might have been having too much fun). Most of Chism’s points probably came with Williams not in the game.

Brian Williams hit two big free throws towards the end of this game to keep his team in it, and battled Wayne Chism for most of this game

This was the best I’ve seen from Hopson, as he scored 38 points relatively quietly. He hit most of his three-pointers, and of course got to the rim pretty much whenever. He even matched-up with Chism for a handful of possessions, and even got a block on Wayne, which prompted a shout of emotion. In the video of his game-winning score, you can see he let out some emotion after scoring as well. That’s about as vocal he gets. To be completely honest, he looks disinterested, or better put, relaxed. He makes the game look easy, and it looks like he is going about 80% (and still scoring pretty much at will). Once he gets slightly stronger and into the feel of fall practices and workouts, I think he’s going to be as good as advertised.

In addition to being free basketball, the Rocky Top League offers a great chance for player-fan interaction, and seeing kids crowd around players like Tyler and Wayne is a pretty common sight, even when the players are or should be warming up

The final game of the night had no Tennessee players in it, as Cameron Tatum probably took the night off after last night’s brief injury scare. KNS pulled out the close 102-101 win, thanks to 31 points from former Vol Damon Johnson, to put themselves in position to play themselves into a game next Wednesday. So I left the building to come catch up on the NBA Draft. Just one more night left on Monday, then it’s the final night, with the third-place and championship games next Wednesday.