Ed Cooley has seemingly made it a point to hardly ever criticize the officials in his post game press conferences, but following Saturday’s 73-68 loss at St. John’s, he dipped his toe in those waters — and he did so on behalf of his best player.
When asked about how Bryce Hopkins rebounded from a slow start to finish with 29 points and nine rebounds against the Johnnies, Cooley hinted at what Hopkins has had to work through of late, “I think Bryce is getting a little frustrated because there is a lot of contact he’s drawing,” Cooley said. “We had to play through some frustration.”
The calls for Hopkins to get a more favorable whistle were at their loudest in PC’s 85-83 overtime loss at Xavier. Hopkins took six free throws in 45 physical minutes on that night. At the time it was fair to chalk that one up to the officials letting both teams play, and the strength of Xavier’s Jerome Hunter helping him hold up against the speed and power combination of Hopkins.
Still, more and more it looks as though Hopkins is driving through contact and not getting the calls he was earlier this season. It’s as if he is being punished for being such a physical mismatch.
The numbers in Big East play certainly bear that out.
Through the first seven league games, Hopkins attempted 67 free throws.
In the seven since? That number has dropped to 29.
Providence was living at the free throw line for much of this season, and opposing coaches would be quick to point out that Hopkins, Devin Carter, and Ed Croswell still rank first, second, and fourth in conference play in free throw attempts per game.
Still, over the past five games Hopkins (who has led the league in FTA all year) is ranked 9th in the Big East in getting to the line — and there have been a number of times over the past few games in which he has seemingly drawn obvious contact and not gotten the benefit of the doubt.
He’s certainly not getting these types of calls:
Case in point:
Was it the reason Providence lost on Saturday? Hardly. Cooley referred used to term “listless” on three occasions following the game, but it’s becoming increasingly apparent that Hopkins isn’t getting the benefit of the doubt of late.
The numbers certainly bear that out.
I think ever since Shaka Smart whined about MU not getting "their share of calls" in their loss to PC, the refs have responded by not making obvious calls when Hopkins is getting hacked/slapped/bumped. The fact of the matter is that during the MU game, their strategy was to foul Hopkins all night long- because they could not stop him- and he made them pay at the line. That was an obvious turning point. Hopkins has great body control and is being treated unfairly. This needs to be remedied. I give him a lot of credit for keeping his cool and composure.
Reminds me a bit of how Tatum never used to get calls at the rim in the early part of his career.