Top recruit Hopson jumps over state line to play for Tennessee

With athleticism and slashing ability, Scotty Hopson should be a good fit in Bruce Pearl's system at Tennessee. Ben Smidt/Icon SMI

NEW YORK -- Walking the aisles of a Wal-Mart in Hopkinsville, Ky. last winter, Scotty Hopson happened upon two Kentucky Wildcats fans. "They came up to me out of nowhere and said I should come play for the 'Cats because 'Cats drive Mercedes," says Hopson, a 6-foot-5, 185-pound swingman. "Come to think of it, I didn't even have my license at the time."

Wildcats fans tried to claw their way into Hopson's recruitment last season. At games with University Heights Academy, Hopson felt some referees would not give him calls because he first committed to Mississippi State, then de-committed from the Bulldogs and was leaning toward Tennessee. As he entered the gym at the King of the Bluegrass tournament in December, Louisville supporters in attendance held up a red Cardinals jersey with his No. 32 on it and posters begging, "Scotty, the Cards need you."

A month earlier, just hours before the fall signing period was to begin, Hopson had told a local newspaper that he was set to sign with Mississippi State. He had already given a verbal commitment to coach Rick Stansbury, a Kentucky native, but at midnight he changed his mind. His mother, Jeannette, advised Scotty to wait until after the fall signing period. "I just felt things were going so fast," Jeannette says. "It was best to take a step back."

Aside from his mother, the driving force behind the delayed commitment was also the man who helped Hopson rise in the class of 2008 rankings from top-50 to a top-10 prospect. Former college basketball player Larry Marshall, who runs a New Jersey-based AAU program, had returned to his old Kentucky hometown some 70 miles from Hopkinsville two years ago when family members alerted him to Hopson. In town for a short stay, Marshall went to watch a University Heights game, but Hopson was benched for unknown circumstances. "I saw what I needed to see in the warm-ups," says Marshall, who has also helped shepherd the Lakers' Andrew Bynum since high school. "I saw what he had in athleticism and aggressiveness and what he lacked in footwork, balance and ball handling."

That summer, Marshall invited Hopson to workout in New Jersey. Out on Cliffwood Beach along the Jersey Shore by five o'clock each morning for a week, Hopson was slow to understand why he was there. Using a heavy ball and running miles in the sand, Marshall knew Hopson never worked that hard before. "I was asking him if he wanted to be the best, not just a player who gets by on athletic gifts," Marshall says. "He needed a stronger foundation to understand the game."

Though he was up for improving his game, Hopson also listened to Marshall's counsel regarding college recruiting. After playing in the McDonald's All-American game last month, he took a second visit to Tennessee on April 1. When Hopson was through touring the campus, he met with Vols coach Bruce Pearl. Anxious to gauge Hopson's standing, Pearl asked what he thought, knowing that Hopson was scheduled to host Kentucky's Billy Gillispie in his home the next night. Hopson delayed, saying he needed to pray on it. A short while later, Pearl inquired again. Taking a moment alone with Marshall and his mother, Hopson listened to Marshall, who said, "God carried you here with one set of footprints, now you have to choose and make another set on your own." When Pearl re-entered the room, Hopson was ready to commit and his mother warned the coach not to get too excited. "I told Bruce that I know how he gets excited and paints his chest and all of that," she said. "But I didn't want him tearing off his shirt when Scotty committed."

But Pearl couldn't contain himself. "Bruce and his staff started crying," Marshall says. "If he could have, he would have painted his chest, run out through the streets and gotten arrested for being buck naked."

Dressed in a Tennessee-orange sweatshirt on Saturday night, Marshall watched Hopson score 21 points in the Jordan Brand All-American game at Madison Square Garden. The starry-eyed southerner opened eyes with one wrong-legged dunk over Georgia Tech-bound Iman Shumpert midway through the second half. As he bulled past the white team's matador defense on a fast break, the right-handed Hopson leapt off his right foot and dunked with his left hand. "Looking at his feet, I didn't expect him to take off then," said Shumpert. "I talked to Scotty afterward and said, 'I know it was a crowd-pleaser, but you realize, you went off the wrong foot, right?'"

Still finding his footing and balance on the court, Hopson will follow fellow bluegrass native Chris Lofton's path out of the commonwealth to Tennessee. Though he recently got his a driver's license, he insists the only car he drives is his mother's 1998 Buick. "Listening to Larry and my mom steer my career has gotten me this far," Hopson says. "I just have to have the drive to get better."