With all of the freshmen bigs NLR brought in this offseason, you would think that Mia Hopkins Mia Hopkins 6'1" | C North Little Rock | 2027 State AR ‘ minutes and impact would be diminished. Well, you’d be wrong.

Towards the beginning of the conference slate, Hopkins played a big role against Conway, posting 14 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 5 steals/deflections. She has had at least four double-doubles this year, including a contest against Nashville where she scored 11 points and pulled down 13 boards.

Hopkins is clearly a nightmare in the post. Offensively, she crashes the glass, scoring a chunk of her points off of putbacks. On the other end of the floor, she is coming to help on drives in the nick of time and sending shots into outer space.

Mia Hopkins Mia Hopkins 6'1" | C North Little Rock | 2027 State AR is a great two-way post presence, and she is helping put this talented team in a great position in the 6A Central.

Mia Hopkins Mia Hopkins 6'1" | C North Little Rock | 2027 State AR is one of the premier post defenders coming out of the 6A classification. Though she will have to fight some solid young teammates to keep her starting job, there is no denying her ability to impact the game defensively.

I was ignorant of Hopkins’ game until I watched her play Little Rock Central this past year, and she put on a shot blocking clinic with 7 denials against the reigning 6A champs. She has excellent defensive IQ, perfect timing, and physicality, all great attributes for solid defenders. It also helps that she is 6’1″ and has a long reach.

The offense is still coming along for Hopkins, but her length makes it easy for her to score over the defense in the post. She is also a great rebounder, allowing her to gather misses and put them right back up and in.

Mia Hopkins Mia Hopkins 6'1" | C North Little Rock | 2027 State AR is still an underrated player in the 6A classification, but I would imagine her continued stellar defensive play puts her on the recruiting map before long.