Bryce Hopkins Goes for 29 Points and Nine Rebounds in the Mal Brown Scrimmage
The Mal Brown Scrimmage returned to the Amica Mutual Pavilion on Saturday, and it provided an opportunity for Providence fans to get their first look a roster filled with newcomers.
Ed Cooley has emphasized (and reemphasized) this fall that his team is incorporating eight players who didn’t see a minute of action for the Friars last year, with the only scholarship returnees who saw action being All Big East point guard Jared Bynum, rebounding dynamo Ed Croswell, and defensive-oriented combo guard Alyn Breed.
Cooley and his staff chose to play Bynum, Croswell, and Breed together on the Black team, and they were joined by graduate transfer guard Noah Locke and 6’10 redshirt freshman Rafael Castro.
That five-some played all 40 minutes of the scrimmage, while the White team featured a much younger roster comprised of freshman point guard Jayden Pierre, redshirt freshman guard Corey Floyd Jr., freshman guard Quante Berry, sophomores Devin Carter and Bryce Hopkins, and graduate transfer center Clifton Moore.
Unsurprisingly, it was sloppy for the White team early. They trailed 17-4 five minutes into the game, and saw the Black team stretch its lead to 34-14 12 minutes into the game.
Key to the early spurt was the play of Castro and Locke. Castro had nine points in the game’s opening seven minutes, including a dunk on a pass from Croswell, a pair of layups and a corner 3-pointer. Castro had two loud blocks in the first half, meeting a soaring Floyd Jr. at the rim, and then reaching high to knock away a Hopkins fadeaway.
Locke buried three of his first four 3-point attempts of the game, finishing 5-9 from beyond the arc. He looked as advertised from long distance, hitting a pair of transition threes and then connecting from the top of the key off of a Croswell offensive rebound and pass. His first three 3-pointers came in the opening eight minutes of the game.
It looked as though the Black team was going to overwhelm the White squad throughout much of the first half, but White cut it to 46-34 at the break before pulling to within a bucket in the final minute of what would eventually be an 87-84 victory for the Black team.
Here are some player impressions from the scrimmage:
Once he started getting downhill, Bryce Hopkins shined: Hopkins finished with 29 points and nine rebounds on 12-20 shooting from the field and 2-7 from distance. Those numbers alone are impressive, but they are even more so when factoring in that he didn’t score until there was 7:27 on the clock in the first half. On that bucket Hopkins simply overpowered Breed in the paint to make it a 34-16 game, and from then on he led the White team’s charge back into it.
My notes on Hopkins are filled with lines about his powerful drives to the rim. He is so explosive and strong when going downhill, but complemented that well by becoming an issue when getting the ball in the middle of the Black team’s 2-3 zone in the second half. He’s creative with the ball in his hands and got to the rim, dished, and threw in a one handed push shot at one point when attacking the zone. He also created his own transition offense after coming up with three steals.
Castro shines early: If Saturday was any indicator, Rafael Castro will at least see some time this year as a rim protector and active body on the interior. He got a little bit happy with his jump shot as this game wore on, but his two blocks were loud and he finished with 13 points and 12 boards in 40 minutes. He shot 5-13 from the field and 1-5 from deep, but in this type of environment the eye test is often more telling than the box score, and Castro was one of the biggest impact players early.
Unsurprisingly, Bynum and Croswell had their way: Bynum finished with 23 points, seven rebounds, and four steals, but more importantly, he was the tone-setter late in this game. He hit a tough step-back 3-pointer with 5:35 to go to make it 74-62 White team, then in the final minute he shook Carter with another step back in which he connected on the three and was fouled with 1:41 to play. It was a 79-75 game before that shot.
Croswell made 9-13 shots from the field and was simply too much to handle on the interior. He had a lot to say to Carter after pinning his shot against the glass with a minute to play. He also had a loud block after a pretty Hopkins spin midway through the second half.
Jayden Pierre can go: I remember calling Craig Leighton at one point last winter, after I’d seen Pierre for maybe the fourth or fifth time and telling him it had been a while since I was so enthusiastic about a Providence commit. I loved the combination of Pierre’s scoring ability, creativity with the ball, and his poise.
Throughout watching him last season, Pierre’s pull-up and mid-range game really stood out, and we saw that in Saturday’s 12 point, seven assist effort. He rose confidently off a screen when the White team was struggling to score early, and showed some good chemistry with Hopkins in the second half.
His best spurt came during crunch time, however. He hit a mid-range shot with 4:30 left in the second half to make it 74-67, then found Carter on a beautiful wrap around pass on the next possession to slice the lead to five.
On White’s ensuing possession, Pierre threw a pass fake (see below) and pulled up for an 18 footer to bring his team to within 74-71 with 2:59 to go. Just about a minute later he finished on a pretty drive.
This is what I liked so much about Pierre when he was at Long Island Lutheran. He would play a secondary role and get teammates involved, but made huge plays when it counted most.
Additional Notes:
It was somewhat surprising to see that Carter ended up with 22 points, seven rebounds, and four assists, as it didn’t seem like he was filling the stat sheet to that extent. He was aggressive defensively, at times picking up Bynum well beyond the 3-point line. Carter has a nice hesitation dribble which he used to get to the rim on more than one occasion, and he knocked down a three with under a minute left to cut a seven-point deficit to four.
Both Floyd Jr. and Berry had their moments. Floyd got the White team on the board with a bank shot, and he threw one down on Castro after a back cut moments later. Later in the first half, he tried to throw down a vicious one-hand dunk over Castro, only to be denied at the rim.
Berry scored a pair of buckets on five attempts. His first score came off a baseline jumper off the bounce, then he hit a 3-pointer on a drive and dish from Hopkins.
Moore finished with eight points and five rebounds, and seemed to struggle with the power of Croswell on the interior. He was slow getting out of the gate offensively, but knocked down his only two 3-point attempts of the game in the second half. He also had what looked to be a big-time block on a Castro dunk attempt in the second half, but was called for a questionable foul. His best sequence came early in the second half when he bounced home a baseline fadeaway and then blocked a shot on the other end, which led to a Floyd layup.
Both teams shot over 40% from three, and there was a fun sequence in the second half in which everyone was hitting. The Friars made threes on three consecutive possessions in the second half. After Moore made one to cut the lead to 57-53, Locke countered on the ensuing possession. Hopkins then countered that shot with a three of his own, followed by Locke making a tough fadeaway, and a second Moore 3-pointer to make it 62-59 with just under 10 minutes left.