The St. John’s basketball team is starting to see the difference maker it thought it was getting with Bryce Hopkins.
Earlier in the season it was a question as to which Hopkins was going to show up for the Red Storm on a nightly basis, the confident and aggressive version or a passive, indecisive player that looked lost on the court at times.
In the month of December, it was mostly the latter of the two choices, but during St. John’s four-game winning streak he has flashed his All-Big East potential.
“Whatever the team needs me to do. I’m just going to do it,” Hopkins said on Saturday night after the Red Storm topped Villanova in Philadelphia as he led the Johnnies with 20 points and six rebounds.
“I try to let the game come to me whether it’s getting rebounds, getting assists, getting our guys going, or score. Whatever it may be, I just want to impact winning.”
Since St. John’s loss to Providence, Bryce Hopkins is averaging 15.2 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.0 assists per game on 51.1-percent shooting.
Earlier in the season head coach Rick Pitino said he wanted to see Hopkins develop a different persona on the court. He wanted him to get meaner, tougher, and more physical and he’s coming through on the coach’s wishes.
“I think he’s developing a much better personality – and what I mean by that is he’s really getting into the team and the emotion of the team,” Pitino explained. “He’s really coming out of his shell.”
During the five-game stretch in which the Storm dropped two games to Kentucky and the Friars, Hopkins posted only 10.0 points per contest on 34-percent shooting.
The trends are not hard to find with Bryce Hopkins. In St. John’s victories he’s shooting 55.6-percent from the field while he connects on his shots at just a 29.8-percent rate in losses.
It’s a pattern the Red Storm will hope continues as the team looks to build upon its current winning streak on Tuesday night (7:00 p.m. ET, FS1) inside Madison Square Garden against Seton Hall (14-4, 4-3 Big East).