KNOXVILLE — As if the Tennessee men’s basketball team hadn’t been through enough already this season, the Volunteers had to watch their leading scorer go down in a heap.
Junior guard Scotty Hopson sprained his left ankle during Tuesday’s practice, but the severity of the injury remains uncertain.
“What he’s suffered is a left lateral ankle sprain,” said Chad Newman, UT’s senior associate athletic trainer. “We’re going to do further testing in the morning. I have to give it 24 hours to really tell. I can’t really tell much in a couple of hours.
“We’ll treat him a lot over the evening and see how he responds in the morning. He was pretty sore. We have a game in 48 hours, so … we want to give it every chance we can by resting it as much as possible.”
Hopson didn’t put any weight on his left foot as he was helped out of Thompson-Boling Arena, and Newman said the player will be on crutches and in a walking boot. UT plays at Auburn on Thursday night.
“[Hopson] made a nice back-door [cut]; we got the ball to him underneath the basket; he just came down on, it looked to be on Kenny [Hall]’s foot a little bit,” coach Bruce Pearl said. “We’re not sure how serious it is.”
Pearl said if Hopson has to miss games, reserve Josh Bone would get minutes at both wing spots. Skylar McBee, who backs up Hopson at 2-guard, would get a boost in minutes, and Renaldo Woolridge also might get some playing time.
Added Pearl: “That’s what your depth is there for. A lot of what we do revolves around what [Hopson] does. It won’t change too much what we do. Other guys are going to have to do more and we’ll have to play-call a little bit differently, but our attacks will still be the same.”
Tobias Harris, who missed a second day of practice after rolling his ankle in the second half of Saturday’s win at Ole Miss, was shooting after practice.
Junior wing Cameron Tatum missed three games last season after an ankle sprain.
“I wouldn’t want nobody to go through that, especially none of my brothers,” he said. “[Hopson]’s pretty good with handling injuries. His legs are bigger than mine, so he’ll probably be healed by tomorrow. My legs are a little skinnier than that, so mine took a while.
“I think it triggered in everybody else’s mind that it’s time to step up. You see a leader go down, you’ve got to have people to step up.”
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