MARTIN, Tenn. – The 2024-25 University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball roster continues to take shape as head coach Jeremy Shulman has announced the signing of junior wing AJ Hopkins from Florida SouthWestern State College.
“I’m so excited to welcome AJ to the Skyhawk family,” Shulman said. “He is an elite shooter – one of the best in the country – and is also an outstanding defender with tremendous upside.”
Standing at 6-6 and weighing in at 190 pounds, Hopkins comes to UT Martin from Florida Southwestern State College, located in Fort Myers, Fla. He played two seasons under head coach Eric Murphy, helping the Buccaneers to a 42-18 overall record with a 19-9 mark in the conference standings (including 22-9 and 12-4 in league play in 2023-24). Hopkins scored 472 points with 110 three-pointers (in 281 attempts, 39.1 percent), 160 rebounds, 64 assists, 49 steals and 26 blocks in 60 career games at FSSC, logging 50 starts.
Hopkins notched All-Citrus Conference second team accolades as a sophomore, averaging 9.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.4 assists per outing while making 77 three-pointers (second-most for a single-season in school history) on a 41.6 percent accuracy (185 attempts). He upped his production to 10.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game in conference play, knocking down a sizzling 45 percent (45-for-100) of his tries from beyond the three-point arc. His 45 triples in league play ranked fourth in the Citrus Conference while he went off for 13 games of double figures scoring in 2023-24, including three 20-plus point outings. He pumped in a career-high 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting (including 7-for-11 from three-point land) at No. 4 Daytona State on Feb. 3. Overall, he made at least three 3-pointers in 13 separate contests, including a trio of games with at least six trifectas (6-for-9, 20 points against East Georgia State College on Nov. 11; 6-of-9, 20 points against St. Petersburg College on Feb. 21). He pulled down a career-best eight rebounds at Tallahassee Community College on Dec. 16 while boasting seven multi-steal games and a pair of multi-block performances (including a career-high three swats against Santa Fe College on Feb. 24).
An Atlanta, Ga. native, Hopkins logged the most starts (26) on the team as a true freshman in 2022-23, averaging 6.0 points and 2.1 rebounds over 29 games overall. He shot an even 80 percent (24-for-30) from the free throw line and scored in double digits five times with his season-high tally of 15 points (4-of-7 shooting with three made treys) coming on Feb. 6 at Hillsborough Community College. He had five multi-steal outings and three games with at least two blocks (tying a career-high with three rejections against State College of Florida on Feb. 16.
Hopkins was a two-time all-state honoree at Whitefield Academy, wrapping up his storied high school career with 1,200 points, 600 rebounds and 200 assists. He averaged a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds per game during his senior campaign, achieving second team all-state and first team all-region honors. He has a rich athletic background in his family as his father Arthur ran track at Maryland, his mother Yvonne played basketball at Drake and his sister Moriah played volleyball at Xavier.
