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Are you ready for some basketball?

The Pilot Rocky Top League's second season is still a couple of months away, but time seems to fly where Tennessee men's basketball is concerned.

Wasn't it just three years ago that the Vols' men's basketball program was mired in mediocrity?

Back then, it would have been hard to imagine UT being ranked No. 1 in the country, as they were for a week this season, much less a Bearden High School gymnasium packed with 2,000 fans watching glorified pick-up basketball in 90-degree heat.

Pilot has told league commissioner Andre Whitehead that it will return as the main sponsor, and the HT Group and First Tennessee are back on board as the first two of six sponsors.

Whitehead said this summer's season begins June 16 and 18. There will be three games the following week, the 23rd, 25th and 26th. The season concludes with games on June 30 and a playoff round on July 2.

The games again will take place at Bearden High School, and the season will be shortened a week, from eight games to six games.

"We did that so that all the Tennessee players will be able to play the whole season,'' Whitehead said. "We'll have numbers on both sides of the jerseys, another statistician and we've also added a security guard because of the number of people at the games."

Whitehead said the league draft has yet to be scheduled, but it will take place sometime between June 9 and 13, and player applications will be taken until the start of June.

All of the returning Vols, with the exception of J.P. Prince, who underwent recent shoulder surgery, will play in the league. So will signees Daniel West, Renaldo Woolridge and Phillip Jurick. Scotty Hopson, who is expected to sign with UT at a press conference in Hopkinsville, Ky., on Wednesday, has said he will play in the league after enrolling on June 2.

Whitehead said he has had talks with former Maryville High School and Florida standout Lee Humphrey, and that Humphrey has said he will play if he's not enrolled in graduate school.

Former UT fan favorite Dane Bradshaw is expected to take part, and former UT standout Damon Johnson, last year's league MVP, also will return.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.