Episode 87: Dennis Hopson - Head Basketball Coach Lourdes University (Sylvania, Ohio)

Basketball and Life: with Coach Jon Cook

When I was growing up I was like any other basketball loving kid. I had idols. I loved Dr. J, and of course I enjoyed the Magic vs. Bird debate. Michael would come along a little later, and I became a fan much later in his career. But for me the true heroes of the sport were the college players that I watched on television. Try to understand that I was a kid growing up in rural northwest Ohio, and I did not have cable television. I lived for the games and the players that could be brought to me via my old school antenna. Thankfully that meant that I could watch Roosevelt Chapman at Dayton regularly, but my real hero was Dennis Hopson at The Ohio State University. I was completely immersed in his playing career for the Buckeyes. And like many who rooted for Dennis, I struggled to understand or accept when his NBA career did not go as expected. While he may have disappeared from the basketball world's public eye relatively early in his basketball journey, Dennis Hopson continued an odyssey that includes scouring in the NBA, coaching in the CBA, in NAIA basketball as well as in the Mid-American conference, and at the high school level. Today Dennis is the head coach at NAIA Division II Lourdes University in Sylvania, Ohio and is the director of the Hopson Elite AAU Basketball Program. Please enjoy my conversation about Basketball and Life with Lourdes University head coach, Dennis Hopson.