Two of WKU Hilltopper Basketball’s 2017 signees will have another chance to shine on national TV in all-star events this week.
Center Mitchell Robinson will compete in the Jordan Brand Classic at 7 p.m. CT Friday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. The game will air on ESPN2.
On Saturday, guard Taveion Hollingsworth will participate in the Derby Festival Basketball Classic at 6 p.m. CT at Freedom Hall in Louisville. That game will air nationally on FS2 and in the Louisville area on WDRB.
Both players have already showcased their abilities this spring.
Robinson – a five-star, 7-foot center out of Chalmette (La.) High School – competed as WKU’s first McDonald’s All American last month at the prestigious event in Chicago.
The top-10 national prospect finished with 14 points, including five highlight-reel dunks.
Robinson is one of 24 players nationally selected for the Jordan Brand Classic. Previous participants include LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Blake Griffin and Chris Paul.
Hollingsworth – a 6-2 guard out of Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Lexington, Ky. – joins plenty of top talent in the Derby Festival Basketball Classic, which was first held in 1973 and is billed as the oldest high school all-star game in the nation.
It’s featured numerous standout players over the years, including Jamal Mashburn, Moses Malone, Rex Chapman, Pervis Ellison, Isiah Thomas, Dominique Wilkins, Darrell Griffith, Derek Anderson, Anfernee Hardaway and Michael Beasley.
Hollingsworth is the first WKU signee to compete in the game since George Fant and Derrick Gordon in 2011.
It’s been a strong spring for the standout guard, who was named 2017 Kentucky Mr. Basketball and the Kentucky Gatorade Player of the Year. He’s the sixth Kentucky Mr. Basketball in WKU history and the first since Elizabethtown’s Steffphon Pettigrew in 2007.
Hollingsworth won most valuable player honors earlier this month at the Ohio-Kentucky All-Star Game, scoring 19 points to lead the Commonwealth to a narrow victory.
How to follow the Hilltoppers: For complete information on WKU Hilltopper Basketball, follow the team’s social media channels, @WKUBasketball on Twitter, @WKUBasketball on Instagram, and WKU Basketball on Facebook.
-@WKUSports-
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Zach Greenwell
Associate Director