A second player from NetScouts Basketball’s most recent women’s China tour, Chelsea Hopkins has signed with the San Antonio Silver Stars of the WNBA. Hopkins joins her teammate in China, Chelsea Poppens (Iowa State) on the Silver Stars roster.
Hopkins was a two-year starter for San Diego State after transferring from Duke. She was named the 2013 Mountain West Conference Player of the Year and was an honorable mention All-American. Hopkins topped the nation with four triple-doubles and finished seventh in assists during the 2012-13 campaign. She also set an Aztec single-season record with 232 assists and completed her Aztec career with 442 assists, fourth in school history.
On NetScouts Basketball’s China tour, Hopkins was the starting point guard on a 9-0 team and averaged 5.2 points, 3.9 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game. Hopkins and Poppens join fellow NetScouts Basketball China Tour alumnus Briana Gilbreath (Phoenix Mercury, USC) in the WNBA. Alexis Gray-Lawson (Cal) who recently played with Hopkins and Poppens in China also played in the WNBA with Phoenix.
Hopkins and Poppens highlight many of our tour players from this summer who have signed to play professionally.
Aulani Sinclair (Indiana) will play in Hungary, Talia Caldwell (Cal) and Jessica Lawson (South Florida) in Poland, Nikki Greene (Penn State) in South Korea, Taleya Mayberry (Tulsa) in Germany, Sarah Eichler (Green Bay) in Denmark, Jaime Russell (Illinois State) and Morgan Johnson (Iowa) in the Czech Republic, Lauren Oosdyke (Northern Colorado) in Iceland and Jacqui Kalin (Northern Iowa) in Israel.
Among our men’s players, Derek Needham (Fairfield) signed in Lithuania, Isaac Butts (Appalachian State) in Germany, Devin Sweetney (St. Francis-PA) in Switzerland, Robert Crawford (Central Arkansas) in Hungary and Roger Franklin (North Texas) and Jason Conrad (Chico State) in Holland. Conrad, a 7-footer, recently made his professional debut with an 18-point, seven-rebound performance.