![]() “Going there, it’s the highest of the highs,” Hopkins says. This was an Illinois state player of the year, a kid rostered at the Jordan Brand Classic, a four-star prospect who averaged 24.4 points and 12.5 rebounds as a senior, wondering how he could be forgotten by John Calipari and the Wildcats’ staff before he had a chance to do anything to remember. Still, a clean slate suggests the slate was, in fact, previously messy, and it’s undeniably why everyone is here. Dwelling on what was feels a little paradoxical. This is a Providence story, a Bryce Hopkins story, a story about a basketball mind-wipe that gets someone to 16.4 points and 9.1 rebounds a night for what is, as of Wednesday morning, a team tied for first place in the Big East. King of the Boards – Bryce Hopkins 9 rbsĬhief of Dimes and That Dude – Jared Bynum With 19 pts and 5 assists (7-8 Fg, 3-4 3 pt, 2-2 ft, 2 st) /g9VkNA7Q1i I think these are the people he wanted to be around.” We always tell kids, choose the people, not the brick-and-mortar. You can see him flourishing in that comfort zone. “I do know this: This is where he always wanted to be,” Providence assistant coach Ivan Thomas says. It’s the remarkable result of a simple but hard-learned lesson: Trust your instincts when you know where you belong. No one would notice if Hopkins’ world didn’t look so much different nine months later, while the world he left behind roils more than anyone prefers. That it comes up at all, though, is kind of a win. “The rock bottom of my career,” is how Hopkins puts it, when anyone asks. A top-40 prospect who showed up at Kentucky with the same vision as every freshman who shows up in Lexington, who then fell all but out of sight entirely: 28 games, 181 minutes, one double-digit scoring night, total misery.Īt the very end of it, TV cameras found Hopkins on the bench, staring out at an impossible NCAA Tournament loss he didn’t even play in. The guy at the party whose name you can’t quite recall. In the college basketball season of 2021-22? He was a cipher. 17 team in the land, a 6-7, 220-pound positionless train car trending toward the top of the Big East Player of the Year race. ![]() In this college basketball season of 2022-23, Hopkins is the leading scorer and rebounder for the No. It didn’t happen with a heel-click of his LeBron XX Time Machines, recently plucked from an online shoe exchange, but there was something like a blustery disaster involved. “I feel like I’m wanted and needed here,” he says, “so that makes me feel like I’m at home.” Before he could be anything at all, Bryce Hopkins had to get his location right. No one asks Ed Cooley for a guess as to when it’ll happen, because, well, who knows. That the best Bryce Hopkins has yet to be seen. Hopkins finishes up and takes a front-row seat for film right about the time his head coach, still way back at the other end of the gym, tells everyone that the Friars’ top option is only scratching the surface.
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