On Friday, it’s Bryce Hopkins vs. Kentucky. Whether the former Wildcat likes it or not.
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NCAA Tournament preview: Kentucky vs. Providence
Click below to read more coverage from the Lexington Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com ahead of Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament game against Providence at Greensboro, N.C., on Friday night.
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A day before his current basketball team, the Providence Friars, will play against his former college team, the Kentucky Wildcats, sophomore Bryce Hopkins was hit with a series of questions about what this game will mean to him.
Up at the NCAA Tournament podium and surrounded by his teammates Thursday afternoon, Hopkins — the 6-foot-7 forward who went from little-used Wildcat to star Friar in a span of a season — answered those questions in a matter-of-fact tone.
He had seen some bracketology updates heading into Selection Sunday that pitted UK vs. Providence in the first round, so he wasn’t that surprised to see the two teams paired up for Friday night’s game in Greensboro. Hopkins revealed that he and his former Kentucky teammates remained in a group text with each other even after his transfer, and they’d engaged in some fun back and forth after the NCAA Tournament bracket was revealed.
He said that after playing relatively little as a freshman last season, he was simply searching for a place that would give him a bigger role.
“That’s pretty much the biggest reason why I had transferred — just looking for an opportunity to put myself in the best position to showcase my talents,” Hopkins said.
He praised Kentucky’s current team — mentioning Oscar Tshiebwe and Jacob Toppin, specifically — and said he’d given his fellow Friars an early scouting report.
“I feel like if we move the ball and play to the best of our abilities, we’ll have a great chance at coming out with the win,” he said.
A few minutes later — back in the Providence locker room — Hopkins spoke to the Herald-Leader about his first season at Kentucky, his current season with the Friars, and all that had happened so far in his college career.
The last time Hopkins was seen in a Wildcats uniform was March 17, 2022, when Saint Peter’s upset Kentucky in overtime in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and the freshman forward watched all 45 minutes from the bench.
“It was tough,” Hopkins said. “But I was just trying to stay in the moment and cheer my teammates on and embrace my role on the team, which was cheering my teammates on and just giving them confidence. It was tough that I didn’t play. But I just had to make the best of it.”
Making the best of it is about all Hopkins could do last season.
Before the games began, the freshman had wowed his teammates and coaches in preseason practices, with many of them saying at the time that he had been the most surprising Wildcat in those early sessions. That he didn’t factor into Kentucky’s season at the end remains a sore subject with many UK fans, especially after Hopkins became a breakout star — and a first team All-Big East selection — in his first season at Providence.
What could have been had Hopkins broken through at UK remains a popular question. His Providence teammates were asked Thursday if the ex-Wildcat had shared anything of his previous experience with their upcoming opponent.
Senior forward Ed Croswell provided the biggest sound bite out of that one.
“Bryce has explained to us, like, you know, he wished he had a fair chance at Kentucky,” Croswell said. “But he has moved past it, and he is at his happy home now, and Providence has taken him in. … And now he is playing some of the best basketball of his career.”
Croswell made similar comments to The Athletic last month, as did others around the Friars’ program. In that story, Hopkins was also quoted as saying he felt like he was “under a microscope” in his one season with the Wildcats, constantly looking over his shoulder whenever he made a mistake, figuring UK Coach John Calipari was about to take him out of the game.
Hopkins said things had been different as soon as he made the move to Providence.
Coach Ed Cooley had recruited Hopkins hard in high school — the player said he was planning to go there until blue-blood Kentucky jumped in — and Cooley recruited him personally once Hopkins entered his name in the transfer portal.
“As soon as I got here, Coach Cooley gave me my confidence back and made me believe that I’m the player I believe I am,” Hopkins told The Athletic. “And that’s big for me.”
In Providence’s locker room Thursday, he recounted his one season at UK to the Herald-Leader, explaining that it was a little more complicated than feeling like he hadn’t received a fair shot.
Hopkins said he suffered a lower-back injury during the summer before his freshman season that kept him out for about two weeks. Not long before the team’s exhibition games — when Hopkins was generating major praise from his teammates — he hurt his back again and was sidelined for another couple of weeks. It was an injury that lingered into the season — Hopkins said he tweaked it again in one of UK’s games — and by the time he felt like he was back to full strength, he had fallen a bit behind.
“Coach Cal pretty much had his rotation set,” Hopkins said. “It was kind of tough to get my spot.”
He played sparingly down the stretch, with such players as Keion Brooks and Toppin getting most of the minutes at his position. Over the final two months of the season, he played more than five minutes only once, and that was the game that made his absence at the very end all the more perplexing: 13 points in 16 minutes to help save the Cats in a 71-66 win over Louisiana State.
Even after that performance, he played seven minutes total over Kentucky’s final six games.
“Things didn’t work out,” Hopkins said Thursday. “We had a great team last year, and I’m pretty sure Coach Cal just felt comfortable playing his older guys, which is understandable. I don’t fault him at all for that. If I was a junior or senior, too, I’m pretty sure Coach Cal would put me in over a freshman. I don’t fault him at all.”
Hopkins will be all over the court Friday night, the one-year anniversary of Kentucky vs. Saint Peter’s, his final night in a Wildcats uniform. A lot has obviously changed since then. Hopkins averaged 16.1 points and 8.5 rebounds per game for the Friars this season, finding a new home and flourishing there.
He said he’d seen UK fans taking note of his play this season on social media and thanked them for the support.
“It was a blessing playing for Kentucky last year,” he said. “And I’m glad that they’re still following me.”
His former teammates are happy for him. They said as much during their own media session Thursday. His former coach made it clear Thursday that he didn’t want to see him leave.
“He is a terrific player,” Calipari said. “Being with us and part of our family and hated to see him go, but I understood. Still love him. He bounces it. He is physical. He can shoot the ball. He gets to the foul line. He is a terrific player.”
And Hopkins made it clear that there are no hard feelings.
While his Providence teammates talked about him and reporters asked about his past life at Kentucky, he often looked uncomfortable with all of the added attention. When asked how much he didn’t want Friday night to be about “Bryce Hopkins vs. Kentucky,” he flashed a smile for the first time.
“I want a lot of people to know that it’s not about that matchup. It’s not a revenge game,” Hopkins said. “I’m playing for my teammates and just trying to put my teammates in the best position to win. … I’m just trying to stay level-headed.”
That could be a challenge leading into Friday night’s game. His former coach said Thursday that everyone involved in the NCAA Tournament has “butterflies,” regardless of their personal situation or past involvement in March Madness.
Hopkins’ current coach knows his star player is going into what will technically be his first NCAA Tournament action with some added anxiousness.
And no matter how much everyone involved doesn’t want Hopkins vs. Kentucky to be the story, at some level, there’s no escaping it.
“Bryce and I have had a great week together, and we’ve spoke about that,” Cooley said. “He is human. His former teammates are human. I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a lot of excitement. But what we’ve got to do as the guardians of the game and the leader of the team, you have to tell him, it’s OK. It’s OK to have that level of anxiety, level of excitement, and just taper it, understand it. You’re not trying to prove anything right or wrong. You’re just trying to go out there and play and try to help Providence College advance.
“It’s going to be natural. He’s going to be nervous. I’m pretty sure his other teammates are going to be nervous. But it’s not about Bryce. This game is about Providence College versus Kentucky.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2023 at 4:40 PM.
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