Across the pond, his game got even better.
St. Francis College grad Chris Hooper took the international game by storm last season, competing for the Reading Rockets of the English Basketball League. He was several thousand miles away from home, but the former Terriers standout hardly missed a step. After all, it was still basketball, and he’s always been pretty good at that.
“I was prepared for it and I had the whole offseason after I finished at St. Francis last year,” Hooper said. “Then I had three months before I even went out to England, so I was pretty much ready when I got there. I wasn’t really surprised by anything.”
Hooper hit his stride in the very first game — notching a team-best 22 points in the season opener — but he didn’t find his true on-court rhythm until just before Christmas. The squad was riding a six-game win streak, and suddenly Hooper’s offense exploded. After he scored 33 points in a game just before the holiday break, he knew his role on the team had changed.
“My coach had a talk with me before I left and he told me the guy that was playing behind me had been let go,” he said. “So I went from 25, 30 minutes to 40 minutes real quick. So before I left, he just told me that there was going to be a lot of weight on my shoulders and they wanted me to pick it up even more.”
The 6-foot-6, 240-pounder didn’t have to change much of his game before turning pro, but he did alter his mindset a bit when he picked up the extra minutes. The game was still fun for him, but now there was a business mindset that Hooper knew he needed to adopt if he wanted to stay on the roster.
“That’s when it became even more of a dedication thing,” he said. “You’ve always got to go hard because otherwise you’re going to get cut or waived.”
Hooper’s new mindset served him well down the stretch with Reading as the team continued to put him front and center on offense and defense. He spent his Christmas break working on conditioning, determined to be prepared for 40 minutes on the court, and the challenges his coaches set for him.
“I know I can get 15 and 10, but can I get 20 and 15?” Hooper said. “Things like that. Before every game [the coach would] tell me that they’d choose me over any of the other bigs in the league any day, now prove [him] right. So once he says that, I’m just ready to do that.”
Hooper is the first to point that he wasn’t totally pleased with how the season ended — Reading came up short in the playoffs — but he’s happy with a performance that won him the Eurob
“I’m just looking to work out and progress my jump shot,” he said. “I’m just trying to expand my skills.”
