LOUISVILLE – Scott Chalk has seen Taveion Hollingsworth at his best.

The Paul Laurence Dunbar High School coach watched his star guard lead the Bulldogs to a 2016 Kentucky state title as a junior.

Chalk then got a close-up look this year as Hollingsworth earned the state’s top individual honor. The Lexington native posted 28.3 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 3.1 steals per game on his way to being named Mr. Basketball.

Chalk got the chance to coach Hollingsworth one last time Saturday at the Kentucky Derby Festival Basketball Classic. He wasn’t surprised at all when the Western Kentucky signee scored 18 points and earned team MVP honors in a game that featured 14 Scout.com Top 100 players.

“He does belong,” Chalk, who coached Team Thunder, told the Daily News after the game at Freedom Hall. “He’s been underrated the whole time so we’ve really tried to embrace that and have that chip and carry that, make that a mantra to keep going with.

“We’ve really preached that to him. ‘You need to have a chip. Every time you’ve got something to prove.’ He loves that.”

Hollingsworth fit right in Saturday night with some of the best basketball talent in the nation.

This year’s KDF Classic field included signees to high-profile regional schools Indiana, Kentucky, Louisville, Notre Dame and Xavier. There were also signees headed to other nationally prominent schools like Michigan, Oregon and UCLA.

Hollingsworth was the only player on the floor that had signed with a program from outside a power conference. The three-star prospect signed with WKU in November.

Hollingsworth has embraced his situation as a highly productive prep star who’s still an under-the-radar prospect nationally.

“It’s driving me pretty good,” Hollingsworth said. “It shows all the teams that looked me over. For me to get MVP over all this talent, it shows a lot.”

Hollingsworth flashed his entire skill set Saturday in his 21 minutes on the floor. The 6-foot-2 guard got his 18 points largely by driving to the basket, using a quick first step to get by longer defenders. He buried a pair of 3-pointers, too.

Hollingsworth also beat taller players for seven rebounds, second-most on his team. After one defensive board, he fired a pass 70 feet up court that led to a teammate’s fast-break dunk.

His MVP performance Saturday came a night after he and Auburn signee Chuma Okeke won a two-on-two competition Friday.

Michigan signee and Team Thunder teammate Jordan Poole said he hadn’t heard of Hollingsworth before this week but came away impressed.

“With top-tier guys, when the lights come on you’re totally going to excel,” Poole said. “… He had some fans out here for him and he kind of did his thing, hitting shots and making a lot of plays. He played well today.”

Hollingsworth is the sixth Kentucky Mr. Basketball in WKU history and the first since Steffphon Pettigrew of Elizabethtown High School in 2007. He was also named recently as the Kentucky Gatorade Player of the Year.

Hollingsworth is the first Kentucky Mr. Basketball from Lexington since 1984 winner Steve Miller, who also went to WKU. His 2,495 career points are the most in Lexington high school history.

Hollingsworth is part of a stacked group of incoming players for WKU in 2017-18. The guard from Lexington joined five-star center Mitchell Robinson and four-star guard Josh Anderson as WKU fall signees.

Junior college guard Jordan Brangers, a former Texas Tech signee, signed with the Hilltoppers last week. Scott HS guard Jake Ohmer, who coach Rick Stansbury offered a scholarship to after an electric week in the Kentucky state tournament, committed last month and is scheduled to sign his NLI on Wednesday.

Guard Lamonte Bearden, a transfer from Buffalo, will be eligible to play next year after sitting out the 2016-17 season. Forwards Moustapha Diagne and Robinson Idehen and guard Miles Weber, all of whom are enrolled at WKU, are expected to join the team next season.

Five players from the 2016-17 Topper roster still have eligibility remaining – forwards Justin Johnson and Jabari McGhee and guards Tobias Howard, Damari Parris and Tyler Miller, a walk-on.

Chalk said Hollingsworth fits in well with the talent on WKU’s 2017-18 roster.

“A lot of people are talking about how thin he is, but he’s a lot stronger than he looks,” Chalk said of the 165-pound guard. “And he likes the contact. He’s never shied away from contact.

“I think he’s going to do really well. I don’t think they really realize how good he’s going to be yet. They’ll find out as they go through fall practices and stuff. He’s better than everyone even thinks he is.”

Hollingsworth plans to report to campus in June after the conclusion of the Kentucky-Indiana all-star series. His preseason workouts will include a series of summer practices leading up to an August team trip to Costa Rica.

Practice will then officially start in October, with WKU taking the court for the first time in November. Hollingsworth said this year’s Toppers are looking to make some noise in Conference USA and beyond.

“We should be really good,” Hollingsworth said. “We should have a big impact on this conference, maybe go dancing.”{&end}