My Final RTL Post

Well, the Rocky Top League came to an unfortunate end last night, with HT Group (my pick I must remind you) finishing it’s unbeaten run. After being in attendance every night except the first, I must say that I enjoyed the league as a whole. I can’t see how anyone would say that’s it’s worthless or a waste of time or anything negative about it to be honest.

I mean it’s free basketball. Not only that but it’s a great deal for the fans – the access to the players really has no limits, so getting an autograph or Kodak moment is a piece of cake. And it’s also a chance for the fans to get a look at their Vols – and other local players – up close and personal, in a setting much, much different from games in the winter. It’s more of an exhibition than anything else, really, so getting to see some flashy play and high-flying, athletic players is a treat.

For the players, it’s nothing more than a chance to really showcase their skills, stay in shape, and play with different guys than the teammates they’ll play with most of the year. Obviously there isn’t as much intensity as in real games and it’s not like these teams are playing real team defense or running any specific offensive sets (it is pretty much pickup ball with “refs” and a clock with a large crowd watching). But I wouldn’t totally say that you absolutely can take nothing away from this league.

Granted it’s very different from real games, but with the Tennessee players you can still see some of the skills, some strengths and weaknesses offensively. This particular year, this league was great for getting to see the new players – Cam Tatum (sort of), Bobby Maze, Scotty Hopson, Daniel West, and occasionally Philip Jurick. What did I learn about the new Vols?

Bobby Maze can score in a variety of ways – he showed the ability to get to the basket, a pull-up jumper off the dribble, and the ability to knock down the three. He might have been the most intense player on the court each night. I think he could also be a pretty good defender. As I said in the earlier post, just from the little I’ve seen he almost has to be an upgrade over the departed Ramar Smith at this point (I really liked Ramar, though he was frustrating to watch at times).

Scotty Hopson is long, a little lean, but he makes the game look so easy. He struggled shooting consistently from three, but he can get to the rim incredibly well. I’m not convinced that the Scotty I saw each night was the one we’ll see this season, I still think he was holding back a little. You can absolutely see the potential and athletic ability he’s got.

West has some developing and strengthening to do, but he’s going to be a solid backup PG in my opinion. He’s got quick hands defensively and has really good handle (thanks to where he’s from). Not sure he would be a starting PG in the SEC, but I think he’ll be a good player.

Jurick is definitely raw, and I see him redshirting this year, but that might have been expected coming in. He’s got the height and if he was a step quicker would be an outstanding interior defender/shot blocker. But he’s not there yet.

Along with Maze, Cam Tatum was the most impressive of the “new” Tennessee players. I wasn’t sure he could break in the starting five, but I think that’s a real possibility after seeing him because he is so athletically gifted and can shoot. With the PG situation seemingly more stable than maybe last year, I could see starting Tatum and bringing Prince off the bench like last year.

But the League obviously isn’t just for the Tennessee guys, as Courtney Pigram showed last night. Pigram was obviously the best of the non-Vols and with the experience of going to this league, I now have a vested interest in following some of these guys from ETSU, Charleston, Coastal Carolina, and Carson-Newman. I can now say I’ve seen Terrance Oglesby play live.

I’m glad they brought his league back, and its seems to be popular. I think you might see continued increases in the number of big-name school players the next couple of years. Or at least I hope that’s the case.

Finally, take my observations for what they’re worth – it is just summer league (which makes me wonder what the NBA summer leagues are like…). I gotta admit I’m slightly a homer, not delusional, and I tried to be objective with reporting what I saw. Before the RTL I considered us the favorite in the SEC (who else is there that really scares you?) just based on the raw talent of the roster and having Tyler Smith, Wayne Chism, and depth.

I leave you with this excellent video from utvolfan84, a VolQuester with YouTube. He’s got some other good highlights from the RTL as well. It’s the last half of the title game, including Tyler’s block on Maze that I was referring to. Enjoy!

HT Finishes the Deal

Championship night at the 2008 RTL (thanks to GVX for this photo)

Wednesday night at the Rocky Top League final night was pretty much like I expected. The house was packed, and the basketball was at a very, very high level. How packed was the Bearden High School gym? So packed that it was two-deep standing room only along the baseline, and who knows how many were left outside of the doors, as the gym’s legal capacity had been reached (and was probably exceeded…). I was in the gym at 5:30, so I had no worries about that.

More about the championship game first, but the third place game between Toyota of Knoxville and Knoxville News-Sentinel had some excitement as well. No Wayne Chism or Rashard Lee for Toyota, which of score hurt their scoring. The first half of this game was just utterly boring. With no real draws of interest outside of Dane Bradshaw, that’s somewhat understandable. However, the game picked up steam just before halftime, as Toyota led.

Tony White Jr. was another player who really impressed me over the course of the last couple of weeks

Tony White Jr. led the way for Toyota, picking up the scoring slack with 26 points. I’ve been trying to get some quality footage of the guy, but my timing just hasn’t been well with the camera. Try this though. But I did get him draining this three, one of the few he hit tonight…

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As I mentioned, the second half was completely opposite from the first half – much more quality basketball being played. It was pretty close throughout, mostly thanks to former Vol Damon Johnson, who was absolutely on tonight. He hit a number of threes, scored on a number of drives, including many in which most people probably were looking for a walk call. These were the type of travels that most pros, even those that play in Spain like DJ, I think get the benefit of…he’s played basketball for awhile, and you can notice the experience he has over pretty much everyone else. He led everyone in this game with 43 points. The old mad can still play some ball.

Dane Bradshaw probably played the best defense on Damon Johnson of any of the Toyota players, but DJ still dropped 43 points on Toyota

Flash forward to the final minute. KNS up 99-98 with the ball…

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A beautiful dish from Cameron Sharp of Carson-Newman (with a buzzcut now) to Chauncey Thompson, his C-N teammate. KNS gets a stop and gets free throws, and Johnson hits the first to make it 102-98. White Jr. drives the other way and is fouled shooting a three, and hits all three free throws. Thompson is fouled and goes to the line with 8 seconds left and KNS up 102-101. It’s a one-and-one, and Thompson misses the first and Toyota…

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Carlton Hill makes a memory with this pretty amazing game-winning shot. Hill played college ball at Alma College in Michigan, but now works here in Knoxville at the Thornton Center on campus. This nice bit on Hill makes you feel good for the guy. Hill had 13, and the way-more-athletic-than-you-think-when-you-see-him Andy Tipton, a former Carson-Newman player, had 17 points.

Toyota’s hero Carlton Hill getting some love from Dane Bradshaw

But in all honesty nobody came to Bearden tonight for that game – it was ALL about Rays and HT for the championship. I expected there to be quite the intensity, especially from the Tennessee guys, since there was a championship – and bragging rights – on the line. The matchups were great – Tyler Smith/Scotty Hopson, Bobby Maze/Daniel West and Courtney Pigram, and Rays now had Brian Williams, who missed the first matchup between the two teams.

Yes, you can still play intense basketball, you just have to take you bling out first Tyler…

You could tell the intensity was there. A few minutes into the game, Tyler backs down Hopson, who swats Tyler into about the second row of the bleachers, letting out a hoot in the process. This of course didn’t please Tyler, whose shot I can’t remember EVER being blocked like that last year. The crowd of course loved, but Tyler was having none of it. Off the ensuing inbounds, you knew what was gonna happen – Tyler was gonna show the new kid what’s up. Well, he did with this aggressive move to the rim…

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Scotty’s face, meet Tyler’s elbow. Tyler was more of himself tonight, with some of the post moves that make you know why he’s going to be a first round NBA draft pick next year. He had his usual 37 points on the night, but this might have been his most impressive game of the league with 12 boards and 7 assists (filling up the stat sheet of course). I might get laughed at for this (I have before), but when he’s near the basket one-on-one he reminds me of LeBron, if only in the sense you pretty much know he’s going to score, or at worst get fouled. Tyler has a knack for the big-time play (see Ole Miss and Memphis and Florida), but also the big time block (ask Ramel Bradley in 2:24 of this EXCELLENT video and AJ Graves). He put one of those of poor Bobby Maze tonight (I know, it should have been Hopson) that was more emphatic than Scotty’s block on him. I swear he almost shattered the backboard he hit the glass with his hand so hard.

My action shot of the Tyler-Scotty matchup

The injured JP Prince (with towel on his head) and the not-playing-tonight Cam Tatum were in attendance, even offering a couple bits of commentary over the PA system in-game

Here’s some more footage of the Hopson-Tyler matchup, following a very pretty alley-oop from Daniel West (14 points, 10 assists) to Michael Jenkins (West DEFINITELY has these halfcourt lobs down to perfection)…

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Brian Williams is going to be a great player if he continues developing and becomes a consistent inside scorer. Tennessee has been missing a big guy like him under Bruce. Among his 25 points he had one dunk that sort of reminded me of a youthful, LSU version of Shaq, and had this rather authoritative post move tonight as well…

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Here’s some “bad” of Williams. He misses a three from the corner way off (he did knock one down earlier though), but at least the finish was pretty for us fans. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned and documented via video a Daniel West-to-Tyler Smith alley-oop like every night. Here’s another…

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Here’s some Rays highlights. Hopson doing his thing, cleaning up his own miss con autoridad, and B-Maze getting to the rim…

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Nothing too different from these two guys tonight, as Hopson and Maze had 36 and 39 respectively. I know it’s summer league, but at this point it’s hard to say the Maze isn’t an upgrade over Ramar Smith at PG, at least offensively, in the sense that Maze has some semblance of a jumper. I still think Hopson was holding back a little, and his three shot was off most of this league, but I’m not too worried about. As he gets in the weight room, some practice and game experience under him I think he’ll be as good as advertised, though now I would say Tennessee will have his services beyond this year. Some growing pains are possible, but don’t all freshman? I remember watching Derrick Rose at times last year wondering what the hype was about him (foolish I know, but at the time it wasn’t) and he turned out fine.

Bobby Maze and Scotty Hopson got good experience playing with each other in the RTL, which should help their chemistry going into the season

Amidst all the crowd’s attention directed at the Vols, it was Courtney Pigram who absolutely stole the show tonight. Of course his initials are CP, and he showed some Chris Paul in his game tonight, with a couple of just sick floaters and finger-rolls accompanying his long-range game. He actually was more aggressive getting to the rim tonight since his three wasn’t falling as well (that didn’t keep the guy from launching though). I was forced to wonder how he ended up at ETSU being from Memphis. If he played for the Vols, there obviously wouldn’t be as much worrying about missing the bombs from Chris and JaJuan. I wasn’t sure about it before tonight, but I am now – Courtney Pigram has a legit chance to play in the NBA in my opinion. The only drawback I see is his height (he’s maybe six-foot) and the RTL certainly didn’t prove if he can play defense.

The offensive skills in this game was ridiculous. It was more like a normal basketball game, with some decent defense and even something resembling effort from the stripes. The game was close throughout, never getting into double-digits I’m almost certain. And of course it came down to the end. Of course it comes down to the end. I’ll just go straight to the end – HT’s up 124-122 with the ball in the final minute, but Pigram’s foot catches the paint and turns it over out-of-bounds. Maze drives and is fouled with about 30 seconds left. He hits both free throws, and it’s 124-all in the last half-minute. OT again?

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No, thanks to Pigram (apologies for the shaky camera work). He hits the game-winning bomb, then strips (um, fouls?) Maze and HT wins the RTL 133-126, though it was obviously not that close. Pigram scored 45 points, and though I’m not sure it’s official as far as I know, should be the League MVP.

I’ll have one last final wrap-up post on the RTL later today.

YOUR 2008 ROCKY TOP LEAGUE CHAMPIONS – HT GROUP

 

Happy Birthday To…Me!

Yes, today is in fact my birthday. Just two problems though: (1) I’m turning 20, not 21, and (2) I’ve got a test and a project to finish today for tomorrow. Do I hear my first college all-nighter? Probably not since I’ve haven’t slept much this week already and will pass out at some point from exhaustion, but pulling one’s been in the back of my mind this week, just looming there.

Of course the final RTL night is tonight, and I’m looking forward to that. I fully expect Rays and HT to leave it all out there – there IS championship involved, even if it’s a pickup basketball league. Hopefully Scotty Hopson decides to take over tonight and prove to me that he’s been holding it back the past weeks as I think he has. Most of all, I hope both teams are at full strength and there aren’t any players MIA – been a problem the last week, but I don’t see it tonight. I DO see a very packed gym though – I plan to be there at 5:30…

Back to my birthday, I’m looking forward to the calls, text messages, and Facebook wall posts from those that remember. Those type things are always good. Then there’s always the hope for turning 21 just one year from today…

RTL June 30 – What a Show

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…

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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…

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And here as well…

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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…

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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…

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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.

The Week Ahead…

It’s another weekend of inactivity around here, so I’ll go ahead and make a post just for something new, and to explain what I’m about to do. So here goes…

It’s the last week (or 4 days) of summer school for me here in Knoxville, and I have a good bit of school and not a whole lot of time. I’m not banking on sleeping much this week. But is school gonna keep me from going to the RTL Monday and Wednesday? Of course not. I’ll be there, and there will be posts for those two nights, in addition to a wrap-up of some sort of my thoughts in retrospect. I’ve enjoyed going and writing about them too much to bail now just because I have some schoolwork to do this week.

After that, it’s going to be a bit of hibernation. After school I’m getting some vacation time at a lake and the beach (and maybe another one, we’ll see). So I’m not going to post often (or ever) in July.

Two reasons: (1) There isn’t much going on anyways. Yes, I’ll post if something important happens, but it’s going to most likely have to be Tennessee-related or worthy of a post. (2) I’ll spend the month figuring out what to do with August and the Fall, since August means football is close and Fall semester for me means football more than school. August will likely be for football previews, and I’ll probably structure the Fall posts somehow (hey, that’s why I’m taking time off, to figure this stuff out).

In the long run, it should be an improvement.