Tennessee signee Philip Jurick and ETSU F Greg Hamlin tip-off the second game of the night June 30 between undefeated HT Group and Knoxville News-Sentinel

The final night of the round robin portion of the 2008 Rocky Top League might have been the best night basketball-wise. The four teams that are still going to be playing Wednesday already pretty much knew their scenarios, so it was really about the basketball tonight – and overall lack of defense. The players certainly didn’t disappoint.

These three games were rematches of the games from the opening night, with First Tennessee taking on Toyota of Knoxville to open things. Toyota was without Wayne Chism, and Rashard Lee and ETSU’s Isaiah Brown didn’t make it til halftime, so Toyota had little inside before then, but actually led at the half. Cameron Tatum was dressed, but didn’t play, but instead watched from the bench, most likely not wanting to risk anything after his scare last Wednesday.


Cam Tatum didn’t play for First Tennessee, but was being a good teammate cheering his team on from the bench

First Tennessee came out in the second to take a double-digit lead thanks to the return of James “Boo” Jackson (I can’t find anything on the guy though…), who was a difference-maker inside and had 24 points. But Dane Bradshaw led Toyota back into the game, which was close the last few minutes. Carson-Newman’s Zach Hyatte hit a a pair of free throws to give FTB a 89-87 lead. The Pride of Bearden Tony White Jr. was then fouled on a drive and hit both free throws to tie it at 89.


Former Tennessee players Dane Bradshaw (top) used his 3-point shooting to keep Toyota in the game in the absence of Wayne Chism, and Rashard Lee (bottom) has been a team leader throughout the RTL, but was late tonight and only scored 3 points

Under a minute left now, former Vol Jon Higgins missed a shot, and then foolishly fouls Jared Stephens (remember him?), another Carson-Newman player (soon-to-be), to put him at the line. Unlike the last time though, Stephens coolly hit both to give his team a 91-89 lead. Then came the end…

Higgins (24 points) makes up for his mistake with the game-winner, as Toyota couldn’t get a shot off after a timeout with little time left. No Vols played in this one, but it came right down the end, a 92-91 win for FTB. Dane’s 23 points had the fans (and the refs) wrapped around his finger (the loudest cheers during this game were when Dane hit a shot, Tennessee fans love the guy, as they should), thanks to play and 3-point shooting, but it wasn’t enough.

The second game featured undefeated HT Group at full strength against Knoxville News-Sentinel. HT asserted themselves midway through the first half, mostly thanks to Courtney Pigram and his absolutely ridiculous shooting from all over the gym. Pigram was impressing the crowd once again with his shooting, and even had a couple of dunks and nice drives, totaling 32 points. He has been arguably the most impressive player to me outside of perhaps Bobby Maze. He’s got the handle, the strength, and the shooting, despite being relatively short, to be an NBA player (he actually withdrew from this year’s draft). Bottom line, the guy can play.

Pigram also plays with his athletic teammate Greg Hamlin, who enjoys dunking…often. Take a look…

And here as well…

Both of those courtesy of Daniel West. HT has the best team out here for two reasons: first, they have the most athletic starting five (Tyler, Pigram, West, Hamlin, and Michael Jenkins) and second, they play so well together. Proof…

Of course, Tyler Smith was Tyler Smith, scoring inside at will. A ho-hum 33 points tonight. I inexplicably and accidentally deleted a beautiful play I caught on my camera where Pigram puts on a spin move at halfcourt on a fastbreak and feeds Tyler who emphatically threw it down. I quickly managed to catch this coast-to-coast drive from Tyler, one of about 5 he had in the game…

Daniel West showed some offense tonight as well, knocking down a handful of long-range shots and putting some nice moves in the lane off drives and even finishing some circus shots while being fouled. He finished with 19 points and had 8 assists.

Philip Jurick also played, my first good look at him. When they say he’s a bit raw, they would be right. I didn’t see much of an inside offensive game from Jurick – just 9 points tonight – and it’s clear that needs quite a bit of development there. But he was surprisingly stout on defense – he had close to 7-8 blocks (the GVX article says 5, but I would argue that), and altered many more shots around the basket. He certainly had double-digit boards as well (11), and that was sharing PT with Chattanooga’s Jeremy Saffore. Personally I think he redshirts this year since I just don’t see where there’s going to be minutes available, but his interior defense makes me hesitate to say that’s a total given just yet.


Don’t exactly chalk Philip Jurick up as a redshirt JUST yet…

All this makes it sound like this game was a blowout, and it seemed that way, but KNS, behind former Vol and European star Damon Johnson hung around – the lead was never more than 15. Suddenly, they made a run, as a Johnson 3 made it a 2-point game with a minute left. Down 3 in the last 20 seconds, Jalen Steele of Tennessee AA State Champion Fulton HS hit a fading-away three with under 10 seconds to go to tie it and force OT, three of his 25 points.


It was Former Vol night at the RTL, as Damon Johnson, last year’s League MVP, and his 30 points kept his overmatched KNS team in the game with unbeaten HT Group, forcing OT

In OT, KNS just didn’t have enough left to finish the game, and HT remained unbeaten with a 128-123 W in OT. They will face Rays in a rematch of that epic thriller Wednesday for the RTL Title.

Speaking of Rays, they faced Richardson in the final game. Most of the crowd stuck around for this game, as this night had a reasonable draw for Tennessee fans in all 3 games. Rays led by 10 in the first half, and stretched the lead to about 20 midway through the second. Richardson hung around, but it never got as close as the game before this one.


Tennessee and Rays teammates Brian Williams and Scotty Hopson will be playing in Wednesday night’s RTL Championship Game against HT

Nothing too different for Maze (37 points), Scotty Hopson (34), Brian Williams (29) and Josh Tabb (24). Maze had some nice steals tonight and got a few dunks off those in transition. Hopson, who I still think may be holding back a little bit (I could see him going off BIG Wednesday night), was himself, but the most notable play for him was a JuJuan-like (although he made it look effortless) 360 dunk. Williams actually drained the first two threes he took, drawing calls of awe from the stands. Josh Tabb showed some signs of a jump shot at times, and has perfected the finger-roll off the drive because he did that seemingly every time he scored.


Bobby Maze brought some serious defense tonight, as he and Josh Tabb defended each other throughout the game, a fun matchup to watch

But at the end, those who stuck around (the place emptied halfway at half of this game) were rewarded with two of the sickest dunks I think I may have ever seen. The first was an alley-oop from an angle from Tabb, and the aforementioned Michael Blue, who played his best all-around game tonight (40 points), came from nowhere to finish it. This kid’s jumping ability is insane. It literally brought the entire gym down – the crowd exploded in amazement and got many people out of their seats. It was one of those where the players watching on and off the court show total amazement. I’m banking on SOMEBODY getting that footage, so if I find it on YouTube I’ll post it. I got the second one, where again Blue comes out of nowhere to slam home a miss off a three…

Sick. Just sick. The guy can leap out of the building LITERALLY, and it’s sort of a shame he won’t be playing Wednesday night, as Richardson lost 127-112 and finished…last.

Wednesday night: Toyota-KNS at 6pm for third, and HT and Rays for the title following that game….

It’s going to take quite a bit to match what we were treated to tonight.