Prime Time League ending after 31 years

The Prime Time League is coming to an end.

The summer basketball league has ended after 31 years and will not be played this summer, PTL founder and director Randy Larson announced Thursday.

The league, which split games between North Liberty and Waterloo, consisted of current Iowa and Northern Iowa players, as well as high school standouts and former area players.

"With the opportunity created by an NCAA rule change to have four hours of practice together each week in the summer, and another four hours of individual skill work with the players, there just isn't a need for it," Larson said in a release. “When we started 32 years ago, college coaches couldn't even watch their players scrimmage; now, they can actually coach them all summer, which is great for the players.

"Between summer school classes and homework, strength and conditioning workouts — and now eight hours of either practice or skill drills — the coaches at Iowa and UNI concluded that their players were just being asked to do too much. They correctly wanted the summer to still be the off-season, albeit one with much more development than it used to have when coaches didn't get to help the players improve."

The PTL created a nice summer filler as fans got to see a glimpse of the upcoming Iowa and UNI squads in a low-key setting. Most notably, the PTL provided the first look at the incoming Panther and Hawkeye freshmen.

The league featured high-scoring affairs and little defense — but also a nice avenue for offseason competition.

"Randy did a great job helping young players develop during the summer," Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said in a release. "The league was his idea and he loved doing it. Thank you to the fans, staff and coaches who supported the league."

Larson highlighted many PTL standouts in his farewell release, including Ricky Davis, Jess Settles, Matt Gatens, Ryan Bowen, Wyatt Lohaus, Chris Street and others.

“We want to thank Randy for his vision and passion in making the Prime Time League everything it could be," Panthers coach Ben Jacobson said in a release. "He always worked to make it the best league possible for our players and fans. Regardless of the team they played on, a team’s record or role on a team, our players always had a great opportunity to get better in some aspect of their game.

"He and Fran were willing to play some games the past few years at the SportsPlex in Waterloo. That decision meant a lot to me, our players, fans and our program. Randy’s efforts will always be appreciated. We also want to thank the coaches and fans. They made the experience a quality one for our players.”

Larson ended the release by thanking everyone involved.

“I started doing it for the players," Larson said, "but the people who for three decades have stopped me and said they enjoyed coming to the games were more the reason I kept doing it. It was a treat."

Dargan Southard covers Iowa and UNI athletics, recruiting and preps for The Des Moines Register, HawkCentral.com and the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Email him at msouthard@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Dargan_Southard.