View from 315A

Tonight I attended the opening two games of the second annual Rocky Top Basketball League with JTL and MPW at Bearden High School.

There was one major improvement over last year. Bearden has placed a large fan (for air conditioning, not an obese supporter) at the front of the gym which amazingly increases ventilation.

The one negative difference came in the form of the public address system. On the first night of last year’s league there was no p.a. announcer. This was unfortunate as it was difficult to decipher who was who. As this year showed, there are worse problems. They have installed perhaps the most annoying p.a. announcer in human history. He began at the end of last season and wants to recreate the And One atmosphere as he interjects “commentary” after every play. At one point he literally turned the microphone on so that we all knew he was laughing at Ron Slay. MPW and I have begun plotting to cut the wires. Any suggestions?

Most of the UT team participated. J.P. Prince (shoulder surgery) and Ryan Childress (on crutches) were there but did not play. Renaldo Woolridge was slated to play in the first game but did not attend.

The two games I saw were total blowouts. The “coaches” who selected current UT players were rewarded heavily. The first game saw the team sponsored by the HT Group rout the News Sentinel team, 123-76. My game notes:

• Tyler Smith, who announced on April 24th he would return for a junior season scored a game high 32 points for the HT Group. He added 12 rebounds, and six assists. He was the first pick in the draft for this league and showed why. Early in the second half, he blocked a shot (with both hands!) , hit a fall-away three-point bucket from the wing and knocked down a fading 15-foot jumper in under a minute.
  
• UT freshman point guard Daniel West was largely unimpressive. He was clearly the quickest and fastest player on the court, but is greatly undersized. He scored only six points in a game absent of defense. He worked his way open but often failed to finish.
  
• 6'10" Freshman center Philip Jurick was less impressive than West. After losing the opening tip to the more athletic Tyler Smith, his first shot was rejected by a much smaller player. He grabbed five rebounds and blocked six shots but had nearly as many fouls. His only points came on an easy two-handed stuff.
  
• Jurick looked far older than his promotional photos and his complexion has cleared significantly. His arms are covered with tattoos.
  
• Unlike virtually every other UT player the past two seasons, Jurick had virtually no interaction with his teammates despite remaining for the last two games.
  
• Former UT player and 2003 SEC player of the year Ron Slay led the News-Sentinel squad with 28 points, but missed two relatively open dunks.
  
• The HT Group also featured Lee University star and personal favorite Cole Rose. He is a poor man’s Dane Bradshaw. Rose is growing his hair out. He had two dunks, one of which saw he and Smith alone on one half of the court with him taking the dunk himself.
  
• Last year’s league MVP and former UT player Damon Johnson was the News-Sentinel team’s top selection. His brother Jovan, who played at Penn State, was in attendance.
  
• The aforementioned nauseating p.a. announcer really liked East Tennessee State's Courtney Pigram's shoes. I know. he mentioned it often over the p.a.

The second game was more lopsided than the first. Ray’s ESG (formerly Kingston Alley) dominated the Richardson Construction team 140-115. The game was far more decisive than the 25-point margin indicates. My notes:

• Ray’s ESG featured four current UT players while Richardson featured only one.
  
• The game marked the first Knoxville game of the much ballyhooed McDonald’s All-American Scotty Hopson. He was very wiry and needs to add a great deal of weight to play at the next level. Even so, he was quite impressive. Every move he made seemed effortless. He had some impressive dunks, caught anything thrown near him, and had a smooth stoke.
  
• Hopson finished with 25 points including three three-pointers in limited playing time due to the vast point discrepancy. He hit on 11 of 20 attempts.
  
• Hopson demonstrated more showmanship than any UT player since Slay, signalling the crowd after dunks.
  
• Hopson was the only UT freshman in attendance with no visible tattoos. I am thinking of starting a pool to see how long that lasts.
  
• Junior college transfer Bobby Maze was also on the Ray’s ESG squad and far outclassed Daniel West, his competition for the starting point guard position. He has an uncanny resemblance to Allen Iverson. Do not ask him about it though. See the “Separated at Birth?” post for the story there. Maze had 14 points and nine assists.
  
• Bruce Pearl was allowed to attend this game as his son participated. He stayed throughout.
  
• Steven Pearl predictably took a charge with 1:11 into the first half and 1:07 into the second half. In a league where fouls are kept at a minimum to insure a frenetic pace, Pearl still was able to draw charges that quickly. The man is a flopping genius!
  
• Though he continues to add even more muscle, his skin has yet to turn green delaying our hopes that he will become the living embodiment of the Incredible Hulk.
  
• Brian Williams also appears to have dropped weight and played and looked great, often matched against John Mueller, a 6'10" center who played at Marquette from 1997-2001. Williams scored 21 points.
  
• The only current UT player on the Richardson roster is Josh Tabb. He has had designs shaved into one (and only one) side of his head. We are hoping he lost a bet or is attempting to ridicule Florida players for having similar dos. The probability of this is not good. Tabb scored 26 points.
  
• Richardson also drafted former UT player Stanley Asumnu who did not play on this night.

Having enough of the highly annoying p.a. announcer, I left midway through the third game. To commemorate Wayne Chism’s birthday, his teammates doused him with silly string before the game. The final contest was evidently the best game of the night with Dane Bradshaw scoring 27 points to lead his Toyota of Knoxville over First Tennessee, 109-101. Cameron Tatum scored 37 points in the loss. Coming off minor knee surgery, he hit 13 of 30 shots.

We did not leave before first talking with Tyler Smith. We thanked him for returning. JTL, who has less tact than me (seiously), asked him about the rumors of JaJuan Smith's drug dealing. He vehemently denied the rumors. I believe his exact words were, "Hell no!" Then again, I would not expect him to tell me were it true. His adamance gave me assurance though.