1-2 Punch

#51
#51
kidbourbon said:
Because his pure talent has been manifested this year. To be clear, I'm not just saying he is the most talented player we've had since Houston...I'm saying he is the best player. Lofton certainly did more over the course of his career. But whoever said they would trade Lofton his junior year for Scotty this year....well, maybe that person is smart...but I think that statement is dumb.

Lofton was a great shooter, and he benefited from the helter skelter system that we played. But if the opposing team wanted to stop Lofton from scoring, they could do it. Put your best defender on him, and mission accomplished. Done. The guy couldn't do anything other than shoot, and he couldn't create his own shot.

Scotty, on the other hand, can create offense by himself. There isn't a guy in the NCAA that you can put on Hopson who can stop him from getting to the basket without fouling him. Nobody. This obviously wasn't true of Lofton. Scotty has more basketball skills than Lofton. He can do things with relative ease that Lofton couldn't dream of doing. So I don't really even see how this is a close call. And, yes, he didn't really bring it all to the table until this year. But what you're seeing right now when you watch Scotty Hopson play basketball is a much much better basketball player then you saw when you watched Chris Lofton, even on Lofton's best day.* And, again, I don't think this is even a particularly close call.

*I bolded this part because it is basically my main point.
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I don't disagree, but again, the duration of time in which which Hopson has played like that has been so short that as a Tennessee fan I basically don't care. We're only a handful of weeks removed from Pearl blaming the worst stretch of basketball in his UT tenure on Hopson's inconsistency. Hopson only finally put it together and moved his level of play higher than Lofton's about 15 minutes ago.

I guess I'm not just interested at all in how good a player "really" is or what kind of skills he has unless it shows up on the floor for the Vols, and Hopson's prodigious talent barely has. Calling Hopson our best player since Allan Houston puts a lot more weight on one 15-game stretch of basketball than I think makes sense.
 
#52
#52
I take Lofton as a Jr over Hopson as a Jr all day and twice on Sundays. As a college player with the short porch 3, a dominant shooter like Lofton absolutely changes the game.
 
#53
#53
BigPapaVol said:
I take Lofton as a Jr over Hopson as a Jr all day and twice on Sundays. As a college player with the short porch 3, a dominant shooter like Lofton absolutely changes the game.
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I'm definitely leaning more to this side. Hopson is clearly a more talented athlete, but I'd take Lofton as a junior. Also, I disagree with kidbourbon's saying that Lofton couldn't create his own shot.
 
#54
#54
LawVol13 said:
I'm definitely leaning more to this side. Hopson is clearly a more talented athlete, but I'd take Lofton as a junior. Also, I disagree with kidbourbon's saying that Lofton couldn't create his own shot.
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Lofton, by his Junior year, could get a shot. He could drive it reasonably, was a good passer and could go up with somebody hanging on him like nobody I've ever seen. Good Lord, dude was SEC POY. Hopson barely eked himself into the discussion with 3 or 4 good games late.
 
#55
#55
LawVol13 said:
I'm definitely leaning more to this side. Hopson is clearly a more talented athlete, but I'd take Lofton as a junior. Also, I disagree with kidbourbon's saying that Lofton couldn't create his own shot.
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Agree he was much better his last two years creating his shot.
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#56
#56
Vercingetorix said:
I don't disagree, but again, the duration of time in which which Hopson has played like that has been so short that as a Tennessee fan I basically don't care. We're only a handful of weeks removed from Pearl blaming the worst stretch of basketball in his UT tenure on Hopson's inconsistency. Hopson only finally put it together and moved his level of play higher than Lofton's about 15 minutes ago.

I guess I'm not just interested at all in how good a player "really" is or what kind of skills he has unless it shows up on the floor for the Vols, and Hopson's prodigious talent barely has. Calling Hopson our best player since Allan Houston puts a lot more weight on one 15-game stretch of basketball than I think makes sense.
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I understand what you're saying, and you make a fair point.
 
#58
#58
kidbourbon said:
The guy was an AMAZING shooter. If he could create his own shot (against a decent defender) he'd be in the league.
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I'm not so sure it's as much creating his shot against a good defender as it is creating his shot against defenders significantly taller than him. But, either way, I agree that that's the only holding him back.
 
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