Player Preview Series: Bryce Hopkins' road to recovery
Player Preview Series: Bryce Hopkins' road to recovery
Bryce Hopkins has packed a bit of everything into his college career.
He lived out the dream of so many high school stars when he committed to John Calipari and Kentucky in October 2020, cementing himself as one of the best prospects in the country in doing so.
Prior to his freshman year at UK, Hopkins was highlighted as the surprise of the Wildcats’ offseason workouts before an injury sidelined him early in the season and forced him out of the rotation — taking away a spot he would never reclaim in Lexington.
At the end of his freshman season Hopkins decided to do what he strongly considered when he was going through the recruiting process in high school: committing to Ed Cooley and Providence. Hopkins had built trust with Cooley in high school, but the allure of Kentucky and pressure from the outside led him to Lexington. Transferring to Providence was a logical next step, and it paid off for him immediately.
“I was coming here, honestly,” Hopkins said of Providence to The Athletic in February 2023. “And then I had people in my ear telling me that I should go to Kentucky, just to see what I can do there. People were saying I could do it at that level, and I still feel I could do it at that level, but it just didn’t work out. But I don’t really know. I feel like the right decision would’ve been to come here first and then just go from there.”
“Going there, it’s the highest of the highs. In the summer, Coach Cal was telling me I’m one of the best players on the team, and I was making a big name for myself going into the season. Then I dealt with a back injury that sent me off for a week and a half or two weeks, and after that it was the next man up and guys were making names for themselves while I was out. So when I came back, I had to work from the bottom up. I had to fight for my spot again. Things just didn’t really go in my favor. He pretty much already had his rotation, and I just had to keep fighting through that adversity, and that’s pretty much that.”
At Providence Hopkins thrived — taking the Big East by storm from the jump. He had 24 points and 10 rebounds in his Big East debut, a road victory at Seton Hall, and followed that up with one of the great performances in school history with a 29-point, 23-rebound masterclass against Marquette.
A Providence team slated for the middle of the Big East pack in the preseason started 6-0 in league play, a stretch that also included a 27-point outburst from Hopkins against eventual national champion Connecticut.
If Hopkins had fallen off the radar of so many in his year at Kentucky, by the middle of his sophomore season he had already become a star. Averaging over 17 points and nine boards a game late into February, he was firmly in the mix for the Big East Player of the Year award before the Friars fell apart late in the season. Regardless, he was one of just two players named unanimous 1st Team All-Big East after averaging 15.8 points and 8.5 rebounds per game, while shooting 41% from three in conference games.
The season ended with what must have been a head-spinning series of events for Hopkins, as his Friars fell in a potential revenge game against Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and three days later Cooley was off to Georgetown.
Cooley’s departure had the potential to send Providence into a state of flux, but Athletic Director Steve Napolillo moved quickly to hire Kim English from George Mason before both Hopkins and co-star Devin Carter announced their intentions to stay in Friartown.
That quickly, Providence went from potential despair to unabashed joy seemingly overnight.
The Friars started the ensuing season hot. They entered their first matchup of 2024 with an 11-2 mark and a #23 ranking in the AP Poll before disaster struck when Hopkins tore his ACL against Seton Hall.
As silence overcame the Amica Mutual Pavilion, it was hard not to think of all Hopkins and his team were on the verge of losing.
It wasn’t just that Providence lost their star, but they lost someone who provided stability and reassurance for a program that was reeling just nine months prior in the wake of Cooley’s departure. No injury feels fair, but this one was particularly cruel.
The season was over for Hopkins and in serious question for Providence. The Friars dropped four straight, rallied behind a star turn from Carter, but eventually fell just short of an NCAA Tournament bid.
Carter, an honorable mention All Big East selection the year prior, turned himself into a lottery pick over the final two months of the season, while Hopkins had weeks upon weeks of rehab ahead of him.
With the 2024-25 season just two weeks away, Hopkins’ return date is still to be determined.
This wasn’t supposed to be how it unfolded for the player who entered last season on the watch lists for the Naismith Player of the Year and the Karl Malone Award, as well as on multiple preseason All American teams.
Still, Hopkins set any disappointment aside and earned praise for becoming a vocal leader, even when he couldn’t suit up last year. “I remember in the Big East Tournament, he was the loudest voice in the program,” Providence assistant coach Matt Palumbo said in an interview this summer. “In practice he’s been amazing — vocal and coaching everyone.”
There are no bigger question marks in the Big East than the one surrounding Hopkins heading into this season:
When will he return?
Will he eventually look like the player he was prior to the injury?
What elements of his game was he able to enhance during rehab?
How does the adjustment to English’s offense look in year two?
Let’s work backwards and start with what year two in English’s system could look like.
There was much consternation in Friartown regarding Hopkins’ adjustment to English’s offense, thanks almost solely to his struggles from beyond the 3-point arc. The questions should have been more about the adjustment to a reworked jumper, as opposed to a new system.
Hopkins was coming off a year in which he hit 36% from distance, but made them at a tick under 20% last year with a retooled jump shot. Hopkins’ jumper looked more like a set shot during his first season in Providence, and he came back with a higher release and more elevation as a junior. He just couldn’t find consistency with it through the first 13 games of the season.
Hopkins improved in other areas offensively last season, upping his offensive rebounds from 1.6 per game to 2.3, and shooting 53% from inside the arc after making them at 47% as a sophomore.
He cut down on midrange jump shots, which hadn’t proven to be efficient for him in his first year in Providence, while 50% of his field goal attempts came at the rim, as opposed to 41% the year before. While it felt like he lived at the free throw line more as a sophomore, Hopkins upped his free throw attempts per game from 5.8 to 6.2 last season.
Challenges with the jump shot also overshadowed the vast improvements Hopkins made on the defensive end. Providence’s defense was 18 points per 100 possessions better with Hopkins on the floor last year, by far the best mark on the team (Josh Oduro was next closest at 8 points per 100 possessions).
“I’ll never forget Coach Felton immediately saying that’s where it’s going to hurt the most,” Palumbo recalled. “When Bryce went down, we knew from the jump that defensively we were going to miss him as much as anything.”
How did Hopkins transform from an average defender to such a significant defensive piece? “He’s got all the tools — the rebounding, the physicality, the toughness, the competitiveness. Credit to him, he just took it personally.”
When talking about Hopkins’ approach this summer the terms often shared are resilient, focused, and forward-thinking. Now, as a long offseason nears an end, Friartown inches closer to seeing Bryce Hopkins once again and providing what’s sure to be one of the more emotional greetings home in program history.
“I’ve been telling him all offseason, he’s going to be stronger — that ACL is going to be stronger and his game is going to be better when he does return,” English said on Saturday.
With a return date that is still yet-to-be-determined, the buzz surrounding Hopkins’ return had felt like more of a murmur, but coming out of this weekend it’s growing.
His social media savvy coach provided just enough of a glimpse of Hopkins running, shooting, and dunking to ramp up the buzz on Friday, and seeing Hopkins introduced on Saturday for Late Night Madness served as a reminder that the season is around the corner — and Hopkins isn’t far behind.
