Those of you who are like me, hate the time after basketball season between Spring football practice and Fall football practice when there isn’t much going on besides baseball. Well, we are in luck.
The Tennessee basketball players will be playing in a new summer league called the Rocky Top League. The new league will start next month and will last from June 18th until July 16th. The games will be played at Bearden High School each Wednesday night and admission is free. There will be a total of three games each night with the first game tipping off at 6:00pm.
There will be six teams in the league and each team will be comprised of former, current, and future college basketball players. While NCAA rules are clear that the University cannot be involved in putting together the league, Bruce Pearl has committed to all of his players participating, including Chris Lofton.
Players could also come from other area schools such as UT Chattanooga or Tennessee Tech. Some of the other names being mentioned are: Tony White Jr., C.J. Watson, Jon Higgins and C.J. Black. High school players would also be eligible to participate so it’s possible someone like Philip Jurick could play in the Rocky Top League.
The rules state that no more than two Tennessee players (or Division 1 players) can play together on a team. Based on those numbers, you could assume each team would have about two Tennessee players. Incoming freshman (Brian Williams and Cameron Tatum) and incoming transfers (J.P. Prince) are not considered Tennessee players for league purposes.
This will give current Vol players a chance to work on improving different aspects of their game while playing against competition besides each other. Ideally the talent level will get better as the league develops and we could see more and more former Tennessee players participating. Hopefully guys with pro experience, whether it is NBA or other, will come back to play.
The coaches will be comprised of past college or high school coaches from the area. They will participate in a draft to fill their teams. I wonder if we could see a guy like Don DeVoe involved?
Pearl is very excited about this and has some experience with this type of thing. They have something similar in Iowa called the Prime Time League that they have been doing for the last 20 years. The games are covered by statewide television and the stands are always full.
Pearl and his staff will not be able to attend the June games but since they are allowed to be on the road recruiting in July, they will be able to watch those games.