St. John's Bryce Hopkins is '100%' healthy and ready to learn from Rick Pitino
Providence's Bryce Hopkins talks to reporters during the Big East media day in New York on Oct. 23, 2024. Credit: AP/Seth Wenig
The wait is almost over for St. John’s Bryce Hopkins.
When the Red Storm open their season in November, the 6-7 transfer from Providence will turn the page on a 22-month period over two seasons in which he was limited by injury to three college games.
“It’s going to be fun,” Hopkins said Wednesday at the team’s appearance in Manhattan at the adidas Brand Center Store. “I’m looking forward to it. Just being out there, playing in Madison Square Garden and playing with a new group of guys, it’s going to be amazing. I can’t wait.”
His “new group of guys” is a Red Storm team with Final Four potential. Coach Rick Pitino brought back star Zuby Ejiofor from a squad that won the Big East regular season and tournament championships and added the nation’s top-rated group of transfers.
Ejiofor is St. John’s acknowledged returning star, but he’s not the only player on the Red Storm roster who has been voted to an All-Big East first team. Hopkins earned that honor as a sophomore with the Friars in 2022-23 after transferring from Kentucky. That season he averaged 15.8 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists.
He looked to be on his way to an even better performance as a junior when his college career got badly derailed by injury. A torn ACL ended his season after 14 games. He tried to come back last season but aggravated the injury and played only three games. With designs on playing in the NBA, Hopkins made the jump to join Pitino and the Red Storm in March.
“I’m pretty much just looking at it as [joining] Coach Pitino, playing for a . . . legend in the college era, and I’m just looking for him to help me get to that next level,” Hopkins said. “I know I have a lot of stuff to learn from him and he can give me some stuff to get to that next level.”
Hopkins also considered transferring to Georgetown to play for Ed Cooley, his first coach at Providence and the one who coaxed his move from Kentucky.
Cooley attended the NBA Draft in Brooklyn last month with first-round pick Thomas Sorber, was asked about Hopkins donning a Red Storm uniform and replied, “That one hurt.”
Pitino’s delight was communicated in a social media post in which he wrote, “He epitomizes everything I love in a basketball player: Passionate, Hungry, and Driven. Can’t wait to work with him! Will become a great one for St. John’s.”
Physically, Hopkins finally is right.
“I’m 100%,” he said. “I feel great going through the workouts, great going through practice. I feel really good right now.”
His game, he said, will look more disciplined and mature.
“I’m more patient on the court now,” he said. “I’m not trying to press or force anything. I let the game come to me and I just try to make the right play every possession.”
He said he has greater appreciation for this opportunity after missing all that time.
“That’s one of the things I was looking at when I was out,” he said, “just not taking it for granted.”
Hopkins should not be taken for granted by Red Storm opponents in any way. Ejiofor said his play at summer workouts and practices has met or exceeded expectations.
“He can get downhill and is creating for others,” Ejiofor said. “[He’s] a really big piece to what we’re trying to build here at St John’s. Obviously, we know what he did his sophomore year before the injuries and the [feats] that he was able to accomplish. So we expect . . . just for him to come in and do exactly what he does.”
Most transfers during Pitino’s first two seasons at St. John’s had to adjust to the rigors of his practices and his demand for attention to detail, but Hopkins seems unfazed.
“My freshman year, I played for Coach [John] Calipari [at Kentucky], so I’m kind of used to it,” he said. “[I’m] older, too, I know what Coach wants from us and I know the level that he’s pushing us and where his vision is for us and winning the national championship.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
