University of Tennessee Athletics
Starpower: Hopson the glue for Vols
March 05, 2011 | Men's Basketball
March 5, 2011
BY JOSH PATE
UTsports.com
You could envision it right there, hanging on your wall. It was like those trademark Michael Jordan, arm extended, tongue hanging out, eyes focused, cameras flashing, defenders watching, slow motion type of dunks that lives forever on a poster. Only the numbers were reversed.
No. 32. It's just below the sewn "Tennessee" that stretches across this year's media guide. That's Scotty's jersey. And it was Scotty's jersey that soared over top of South Carolina's Brian Richardson. All 6-foot-4 of the freshman was engulfed by Scotty's acrobatics as Tennessee's star sprinted to the rim, lifted his right hand a la Jordan and elevated into the sky and over Richardson for a dunk.
It's not like we haven't seen a dunk of that caliber before. We have. And it's not like we haven't seen shades of Scotty Hopson just take over a game and own it defensively and offensively. We have. But nothing has been poster-worthy. This was. Scotty seemed to be a tad surprised, landing his wheels and just staring stone-faced into the student section. The students liked it.
That's the Scotty that makes us think NBA, that draws scouts from major cities like Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia and the like, that surprises us when he doesn't score 20.
"I try to have that mind-set the entire game and just stay in attack mode," he says.
Head coach Bruce Pearl has pleaded with his scorer to go ahead and just lock into top gear until this plane has landed. And yet, there is always a time that a little patience and poise is needed. Scotty knows that. We know that as we watch.
It's just that those sprinkles of combustion that ignite a run, that spark a comeback, that don't do anything but reassure us it's Scotty Hopson out there that keep Tennessee fans hungry for more. Perhaps there is a pressure cooker that's been placed on the junior. He is, after all, a junior. The label "McDonalds All-America" in high school sort of brings on that added expectation to perform ... now. Only, Scotty didn't have to. When he got to Knoxville, Tyler Smith and J.P. Prince and Wayne Chism were Tennessee basketball. Who needed points? Even last year was the same cast and Scotty only had room for a dozen points a night.
This year's different. And it should be. This is Scotty's team. Even with freshman stud Tobias Harris scoring 14 a night or Cam Tatum averaging double figures. Scotty is just shy of 17 points a game. Scotty takes the heat when losses mount. As Scotty goes, so goes the team. Through the Vols' first 26 games, only three of the losses had Scotty as the leading scorer. Shut Scotty down, shut the Vols down. In that same span, Scotty led the Vols in scoring in 10 of the first 16 victories. Scotty scores, the Vols win. His best night was in Pittsburgh with 27 points for a signature win for this club.
Scotty, for his part, has taken on the role as the face of this team. Just look at the advertising. We admire his circa 1990 flattop haircut with lines shaved in, Kid `n Play style, and the television chatter applauds his willingness to keep it rather than ditch the assumed summer dare. All the while, Scotty brings Tennessee back to where it's supposed to be. Through mid-February, it was Scotty who dug the Vols out of losing slumps. Scotty led the Vols in a victory against Belmont to snap a three-game losing streak in December. Scotty led the Vols over Vanderbilt after dropping two straight. Scotty led the Vols vs. LSU after losing at UConn. And then against South Carolina after losses to Alabama, at Kentucky and at Florida, there was Scotty.
While we were watching him dunk and thinking of posters that used to (or still do) dot our bedrooms, he was just doing his job.
