My All-Time Favorite Players: 5th - Scotty Hopson

Scotty Hopson was one of the most beloved Vols of my childhood. He always played with a certain swag, which is one of the reasons I was drawn to him. He could consistently knock down 3-pointers and similar to several of the players on this list, he could throw down amazing dunks. Scotty was a really cool player and I remember him as being one of my favorite Vols in my younger years.

Scotty attended University Heights Academy in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, where his No. 32 was retired. He was named the 2008 AP Kentucky Boys High School Player of the Year and was a McDonald's All-American in high school. Rivals ranked Hopson as the No. 5 overall prospect in the nation for the 2008 class, while ESPN listed him at No. 9.

Scotty was very efficient in his Tennessee debut, scoring 17 points on 7-11 shooting, in just 19 minutes of action against Chattanooga. After a 16-point effort versus Gonzaga, he scored 19 points against South Carolina. Later, as the Vols defeated Florida, Hopson scored 20 points, largely thanks to his 4 made 3-pointers. Additionally, he logged 21 points and 6 rebounds in a win over Mississippi State. Scotty played in all 34 games, drawing 30 starts, including starting in 15 of the Vols' 16 SEC contests. He scored 9.2 PPG, which ranked 10th among SEC freshman. After leading Tennessee with a 3-point shooting percentage of 35.7% and made 3-pointers, with 46, he was named to the SEC All-Freshman team. His 24 dunks on the year created some electrifying moments inside Thompson-Boling Arena.

Early on in his sophomore campaign, he recorded consecutive 25-point performances against UNC Asheville and East Carolina. Then, as the Vols gave No. 1 Kansas their first loss of the season, Scotty logged 17 points. One of the most memorable moments of his career came when he made the game-winning jump shot in a home matchup against Florida. He buried a deep, stepback 2-point shot, to give Tennessee a 1-point advantage with 16.6 seconds to go. Florida went on to miss a close jumper on the other end and Hopson was there to corral the rebound, before sprinting down the court and heaving the ball in the air, as the clock expired and the No. 14 Vols held off the gators. The only time in which he did not start during his sophomore season, he scored the most points of any SEC game in which he played in that season, with 20. Later, in the NCAA Tournament win over Ohio, he scored 17 points on 7-9 shooting. After playing in all 37 games, starting in all but one. Hopson averaged 12.2 PPG in a team-high 27.7 MPG, along with 32 dunks. He shot a remarkable 44.5% from the field, including 33.3% from beyond the arc.

In the summer prior to his junior year at Tennessee, Scotty received the high honor of being one of just 20 college basketball players selected to play on the USA Basketball Men's Select Team, a group that competed against the USA Basketball Men's National Team in the 2010. The first double-double of his Tennessee career came against VCU, as he recorded 18 points and 11 rebounds. In a victory over Pitt, he racked up 27 points, on 10-13 shooting from the field and 3-3 from beyond the arc. His scored 20 points in a career-high 39 minutes versus Florida, before a 22-point performance with 6 rebounds against LSU. After not missing a single game of his high school career, he missed the first 2 games of his Tennessee career, against Auburn and Alabama, due to to an ankle sprain. He was on a roll towards the season’s end, scoring 22 points against Florida, 23 versus South Carolina and an incredible career-high 32 points in a matchup with Georgia. He capped off the season with a 24-point showing at South Carolina. As a junior, his final year with the Vols, he saw action in 32 games, starting in an equal amount. Scotty was fifth in the SEC with an average of 17 PPG. A 45.2% shooting average from the field and a 37.6% mark from 3-point range also helped him in garnering a first-team All-SEC selection. Throughout the season, he came up clutch on several occasions, making 91.2% (31-34) of his free throws in the final 4 minutes of the second half, as well as overtime. Additionally, he was the top rebounder for the Vols with over 3 per game and hammered down a remarkable 34 dunks on the season.

Hopson began his professional career overseas, in Greece, while later playing in Israel and Turkey. In 2014, he tried to gain his footing in the NBA, after being traded 3 times in a span of 4 days during the 2014 summer. Scotty sneaks in to my top 5 of all-time favorite Vols, because of the fond memories he brought to the court during my childhood years of watching the basketball Vols. I always have favorite Tennessee players, but there are a handful of players that have played for the Vols in which I can not point to a specific point in time when I began liking them, it just came naturally. This was the case for Hopson. No matter where his professional career takes him, Vol fans, including myself, will always have great memories of Scotty Hopson.