Sunday--Monday

The past two days have been great! Yesterday we went for a hike up to Abrams Falls in Cades Cove. Although the weather was hot, we had a great hike. We made sure to bring along plenty of water.

This evening we went to the first games of the Pilot Rocky Top basketball league. The games are held at Bearden High School in West Knoxville. The place was packed and rather warm but we had a great time anyway. Coach Pearl was in attendance -- he had the gaggle of sportswriters/casters hanging around him.

Here is the story from the KNS about the league:

Summer league to feature top players

Vols could be part of basketball at Bearden

By MIKE GRIFFITH, knsgriff@aol.com
May 2, 2007

A summer basketball league featuring current and former University of Tennessee men's players is coming to Bearden High School in Knoxville.

Andre Whitehead, an enterprising journalist who runs a Tennessee High School basketball Web site, put the Pilot Rocky Top League together with sponsorship from Pilot, appropriate sanctioning from the NCAA and the blessing of Vols' coach Bruce Pearl.

Whitehead, 42, said the model he used for the league is Iowa's "Prime Time League,'' which has been in existence some 20 years.

"That league has gotten so big that some of their games are shown on television and the statistics appear in the newspaper,'' Whitehead said. "I just felt this was something Knoxville needed with the emergence of basketball.''

Admission and parking for the games is free. The games will be played at Bearden High School on Monday and Wednesday nights from June 18 through July 16 at 6 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 9 p.m.

There will be six 10-member teams made up of current collegiate players from schools' within a 100-mile radius of Knoxville, along with former local players and current and former high school players, Whitehead said.

NCAA rules dictate that there be no more than two Division I players on the same team. The league will hold a draft to disperse players to the teams, each of which has a different sponsor.

The News Sentinel is one of the businesses sponsoring a team this summer.

Whitehead said that in addition to current Vols, UT signees Cameron Tatum and Brian Williams could play. Former UT players CJ Watson and Jon Higgins are being courted to play, as is former Bearden standout Tony White Jr.

"It helps UT because some players, like Ramar (Smith) might have gone home to play in Detroit in a summer league,'' Whitehead said. "Now, he can stay here and play in a competitive league.''

Whitehead said the list of head coaches for the league includes (with former affiliation in parenthesis): Steve Adams (Tennessee Wesleyn); Rick Campbell (Lincoln Memorial); Chad Smith (South-Doyle); Andy Rines (Heritage); Pat Walden (UT) and Kevin Feltner (Carson-Newman).