Hopkins Discusses Returning Players
Huskies head coach details the veteran roster the men's basketball team has in 2023-24.
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00:00 But, Saavir, when he was originally at Georgia,
00:05 like literally led the SEC, a major conference of assists.
00:10 And then went to Kentucky and they were a number one seed
00:12 or a two seed, I think, in the NCAA tournament.
00:15 But he's a true point guard, elite point guard.
00:19 Yeah, our talent.
00:19 I mean, they're both All-Americans
00:21 coming out of high school.
00:23 The thing that I think is not just Kentucky,
00:26 you know, he came here last year
00:28 and he averaged 17 a game,
00:30 where at Kentucky he averaged 10
00:32 and he kept getting better.
00:33 And I've said this to numerous people,
00:36 since our first year, you know, going into year two,
00:40 that year we brought back Noel, all freshmen.
00:43 We brought Noah Dickerson, all league,
00:47 and Matisse Theibel, all defense.
00:50 Since then, we lost, you know, Isaiah,
00:53 you lost Jade McDaniels,
00:54 then you lost Terrell Brown and Emmett Matthews.
00:56 Like we lost major key players to a team.
01:00 And to be able to return Keon Brooks,
01:02 who was an all league player,
01:03 return Braxton Mia, who was an all defensive player
01:06 in the league,
01:07 return Corrin Johnson, who was right on the borderline
01:10 of being all rookie,
01:11 returning Frank Kepnong, who if Braxton was all league,
01:15 is an all league caliber defensive player.
01:17 That I think is a huge part.
01:20 And then putting the pieces together,
01:21 like you say, Xavier Wheeler, who's an elite point guard,
01:24 and Paulie and Moses, the shooting.
01:26 Yeah, across the board, positionally,
01:32 I think we're as good as in the upper echelon
01:35 of our league for sure.
01:36 - And Brooks have much in input and...
01:40 - You know what, in recruiting, it's so funny.
01:42 People say, "How'd you get Keon Brooks?"
01:43 Well, he was teammates with Isaiah Stewart.
01:45 And a lot of times when you're in the portal,
01:47 it comes back to relationships and trust
01:49 in a short period of time.
01:51 And then when Xavier was in the portal,
01:54 Keon Brooks had played with him.
01:56 They talked about his experience here and him coming back.
01:59 And when Keon Minifield left,
02:02 the need to have an elite point guard,
02:04 and from player development with Coach Conroy
02:07 to one of his favorite players of all time
02:09 was Isaiah Thomas.
02:10 And Isaiah was practicing with us last week.
02:12 So there's so many great parts of the history here
02:16 and wanting to be a part of it and wanting to win big.
02:19 And I think a lot still to come.
02:23 We still have a long way to go,
02:24 but they've been tremendous for sure.