NCAA Basketball: 10 best players from state of Tennessee of last decade
By Joey Loose
5. Garrison Mathews – Lipscomb
When Mathews arrived at Lipscomb in 2015, he was heading to a basketball program with limited history and experience at the D1 level. By the time this 6’5 guard from Franklin left campus he had contributed four impressive seasons and solidified himself forever in Bison’s history.
He got his feet wet as a freshman and transformed into one of the A-Sun’s best players for his next three seasons. In each of those seasons, he averaged at least 20 points and 5 rebounds per game, scoring nearly 2500 points in his four-year career. He led the Bisons to their first ever NCAA Tournament trip during his junior season, with 33 points in the A-Sun Tournament title game. During his senior season, Lipscomb was upset in the conference tournament but went on a crazy run, losing the NIT title game to Texas. Mathews even scored a career-high 44 points at NC State in the NIT quarterfinals.
Mathews was First Team All-A-Sun for each of those final three seasons, finally winning A-Sun Player of the Year as a senior. One of the conference’s best offensive players of all time, he led the league in numerous offensive categories, including shooting from a 40% clip from long-range as a senior. The conference’s Tournament MVP as a junior, there’s no doubt he left an immense legacy behind on the Nashville campus. Nowadays, Mathews is in the NBA, playing most of the year with the Houston Rockets last season.