Knoxville no hoops hotbed, but homegrown talent left mark

The JumboTron pyrotechnics ignite. The crowd stands in anticipation. The public-address voice roars into the introduction of the starting lineup.

“… and from Knoxville, Tennessee, …”

You don’t hear that often in college basketball but when you do, there’s a jolt of connection. Alas, Knoxville, for all its charms, hardly rates as a hotbed of basketball talent among cities its size. University of Tennessee coaches through the years surely coveted the pipeline of homegrown players Baton Rouge feeds to LSU.

But I come today not to bury Knoxville basketball history but to praise it.

After a drought dating to the 1980s, the local prep scene has rejuvenated. Last month in Thompson-Boling Arena, Jordan Bowden started for UT in a match with Furman, led by Devin Sibley, the Southern Conference player of the year from Karns. Ty Greene, Dre Mathieu and others recently enjoyed nice college careers.

Looking at the long haul, I wouldn’t attempt to deliberate the “best” players ever to come out of here. Rather, let’s acknowledge some who helped put Knoxville on the basketball map. For the purposes of this exercise, we’re talking men’s hoops and Knox County specifically.

Paul Hogue grew up here in the 1950s but segregation sent him north to the University of Cincinnati, where he started on back-to-back NCAA champions in 1961-62. He was named most outstanding player of the 1962 Final Four, helping the Bearcats knock off Ohio State.

Hogue was also the Helms Foundation national player of the year. A first-round draft pick of the New York Knicks, Hogue had a short NBA career. Knoxville saluted its native son in 2011, attaching his name to the east-end city park where he played pickup games.

The mid-1960s were a boon for UT, with Rod Widby, Bill Justus and Jimmy England staying home to help launch the Ray Mears era.

Widby was the 1967 SEC player of the year, a second-team Associated Press All-American. (There’s never been a first-team AP All-American from Knoxville). He scored 50 points in a 1967 game, a UT record that stood for 20 years. His pro success, however, lay with the Dallas Cowboys as a punter.

Justus, his Fulton High teammate, was first-team All-SEC in 1968 and ’69. England, from Holston High School, was first-team All-SEC in 1970 and ’71. To this day, England ranks first and Justus second in UT career free-throw shooting.

In terms of Knoxville’s NBA link, Elston Turner is the man, hands down. The Austin-East grad was first-team All-SEC at Ole Miss in 1981, and helped the Rebels to the 1980 SEC tournament title. That was a prelude to an eight-year career in the NBA. And that, in turn, was a prelude to 22-years-and-counting coaching run in the league.

No other Knoxvillian played more than two years in the league. Doug Roth of Karns was the most recent, a Washington Bullet in 1989-90.

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Who else? Ed “Britches” Montgomery, made All-SEC at UT (1950). Another Knoxville Vol, Herb Neff, rounded up 36 rebounds in a 1952 game against Georgia, an SEC record unlikely to be broken. Rob Jones in the 1980s joined Widby, England and Justus in the 1,000-point club at UT. Bearden star John Johnson started two years at Maryland in the '80s.

If I’ve omitted your particular hero, apologies offered. It’ll be fun to see who’s got next.