The-BALL starts this Saturday at 7pm -- see GW basketball alums Pops, Mike, JR, Monroe, TT vs Maryland

Awhile ago I wrote about The-BALL, or the Basketball Alumni Legends League, a new small league where well-known college hoops alums from local schools play against similar teams from other places. They played at the Smith Center last year for an exhibition game, and they'll be back there this year.

This year's DC Dobermans team has 5 GW alums (Pops Mensah-Bonsu, JR Pinnock, Chris Monroe, Tony Taylor and Mike Hall, who said the other day on Facebook he's on the team too) plus some folks from GMU like Jai Lewis and some from American and another college located between Foggy Bottom and the Mt. Vernon Campus.

The first game is tomorrow (Saturday) at 7 pm against the Maryland alumni team, with people like James Gilchrist and others.

There are 4 games total, this is the first, and they also play August 1, 3 and 5 against North Carolina, Virginia and Philly respectively.

It'll be pretty awesome to see some of the stars from a few years ago against some of other former local players -- we've seen a lot of them, but some not for a few years.

There are a number of different quirky rule changes (they call them "innovations") too, like a 4-point shot from farther out, single free throws for 2, 3 or 4 points, an automatic and-one point with no free throw, no zone defenses, no foul-outs, on-the-fly subs, fewer traveling calls, and honestly a whole lot more.

This is still sort of a test phase, there's going to be a handful of games this year then a full schedule in 2014.

It sounds like a lot of fun, and I hope to make it. Tickets are pretty cheap, $8 to $20. Might also be a good place to wear your 1997-98 or 2006-07 GW lineup shirts!

Here's a commercial for our local teams: