Scotty Hopson

[ChuckG]

I think you were trying to say glass half empty not half full. Glass half empty describes a person that is pessimistic and generally negative about life. While a glass half full person is optimistic and positive about life and the world.

[BigPapaVol]

Originally Posted by Unimane

Man, you are just a glass half full kind of guy, huh? This is the umpteenth post about how the Vols don't measure up in some way.

Scotty has a ton of potential and definitely showed that promise as a freshman. If one paid attention to his play and not his hype, they would've seen Hopson as a pretty raw player with excellent physical capabilities. It's no surprise that Hopson was up and down his first year in the SEC, but he does have that ability to take over a game. His measurables are NBA quality and he has one of the best first steps we've seen in Knoxville, particularly for an off-guard. I just hope he reaches his physical maturity here and not while on the bench for the Dallas Mavericks.

Best first step? He rarely used it and his handle was so poor he defaulted to deep jumpers. It did get better, but his first step needs work.
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[hatvol96]

Originally Posted by cotton

Aggression, physical, and mental toughness are approximately 5,201 x more important to Scotty's game than the arc in his shot. I hope he has spent his practice time accordingly.

I do, too. However, I'm still haunted by three different coaches who have their teams in the preseason Top 25 laughing at me the summer after Hopson signed because they were getting a kick out of UT signing someone even more passive and timid than Vincent Yarbrough, who drove me to apoplexy on a regular basis.

[zjcvols]

Originally Posted by hatvol96

I do, too. However, I'm still haunted by three different coaches who have their teams in the preseason Top 25 laughing at me the summer after Hopson signed because they were getting a kick out of UT signing someone even more passive and timid than Vincent Yarbrough, who drove me to apoplexy on a regular basis.

that's my fear exactly.

[cotton]

Originally Posted by hatvol96

I do, too. However, I'm still haunted by three different coaches who have their teams in the preseason Top 25 laughing at me the summer after Hopson signed because they were getting a kick out of UT signing someone even more passive and timid than Vincent Yarbrough, who drove me to apoplexy on a regular basis.

As I have said before, I hope that is the product of youth in a small town kid, and that he will grow out of it.

I don't know which three coaches you specifically mean, but I count 5 (including Pearl) that were all hot and bothered by him on ability alone currently in the rankings.

The kid has talent, I just wish somebody would feed him some gunpowder each morning for breakfast.

[dickens821]

Scotty has said he's gotten more aggressive in at least one interview i read, but that doesn't mean much. I hope he has.... I think his shot will be better this year though. 15 points a game is what I see from him.

[hatvol96]

Originally Posted by cotton

As I have said before, I hope that is the product of youth in a small town kid, and that he will grow out of it.

I don't know which three coaches you specifically mean, but I count 5 (including Pearl) that were all hot and bothered by him on ability alone currently in the rankings.

The kid has talent, I just wish somebody would feed him some gunpowder each morning for breakfast.

A guy with Hopson's personality wouldn't last a week playing for any of the three. I'm betting that clue will give you a pretty good guess who I'm talking about.

[cotton]

Originally Posted by Unimane

I think he looked like a kid willing to defer to his elder players. I was actually surprised by his attitude, much better than I thought it would be. I was expecting a kid who thinks he's god's gift to basketball and might sulk if he wasn't the primary option. He was remarkably humble with his teammates, though. I think we get an older, more mature version this year.

He looked to me like a kid who got stuffed by a midget from Marquette and didn't want it to happen again. What you name humble, I see as bashful.

Nobody on this board wants to see him succeed more than me. He has the ability, but he is going to have to find some fire in his belly to ever reach his potential. Again, he is young and I am hopeful, but that is a lot harder to teach than the proper shape of a jump shot.

[cotton]

Originally Posted by hatvol96

A guy with Hopson's personality wouldn't last a week playing for any of the three. I'm betting that clue will give you a pretty good guess who I'm talking about.

For personal development, I'm not sure a marine seargent coach might not have been a better choice for Scotty. There were certainly some that wanted him.

I'm still inclined to give a tenative freshman a pass for his first year on campus before passing judgement. As passive as he was a times last year, he still had a good season for a freshman and showed occasional flashes of brilliance.

EDIT: WTH is the red thumb above my post?

[hatvol96]

Originally Posted by cotton

For personal development, I'm not sure a marine seargent coach might not have been a better choice for Scotty. There were certainly some that wanted him.

I can think of a couple of guys for whom signing Hopson would have been the worst thing to ever happen to both the coaches and Scotty.

[cotton]

Originally Posted by hatvol96

I can think of a couple of guys for whom signing Hopson would have been the worst thing to ever happen to both the coaches and Scotty.

Maybe he'll take off this year and make the point moot.

[hatvol96]

Originally Posted by cotton

Maybe he'll take off this year and make the point moot.

Had he signed with the guys I'm talking about, I'm not sure he would have made it to this season.

[cotton]

Originally Posted by hatvol96

Had he signed with the guys I'm talking about, I'm not sure he would have made it to this season.

Maybe. I know that one of your favorites had an unmitigated hissy fit because he mistakenly thought Scotty's HS coach had steered him to UT.

My point is that several top coaches who are excellent evaluators obviously thought it was possible to coach the passivity out of him, evidenced by the sheer number of trips they made to podunk KY trying to land him. I just hope they were right.

[Hardwood_fanatic]

Originally Posted by cotton

Aggression, physical, and mental toughness are approximately 5,201 x more important to Scotty's game than the arc in his shot. I hope he has spent his practice time accordingly.

Agreed. Watched him play high school ball here in KY several times. His talent allowed him to skate by, with little effort on the defensive side of the ball. Also, he could be sloppy and still score on O. All Scotty needs is someone to absolutely get in his psyche and instill a work ethic, and a killer instinct on BOTH sides of the ball. Make him hungry, and the kid is absolutely golden.

[hatvol96]

Originally Posted by cotton

Maybe. I know that one of your favorites had an unmitigated hissy fit because he mistakenly thought Scotty's HS coach had steered him to UT.

That would have been a car wreck of historical proportions.