No player that entered the transfer portal last spring received more criticism than Bryce Hopkins, but he knew it was for a bigger reason. He knew he wanted to play in the big games and shine in the big moment, and he did exactly that for the St. John’s basketball team in the Big East Tournament.
In Saturday’s 72-52 championship victory over UConn, he was sensational with 18 points, five rebounds, two assists, and a steal. He made 7-of-9 shots from the field and was named to the Big East Tournament All-Tournament Team.
For the week, he made 16-of-23 shot attempts and averaged 15.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 1.0 steals per game. He lifted the burden of playing well against Providence and everything flowed from there.
“A hundred percent,” he said after the win if all the hate he got was worth it for a moment like Saturday night. “I feel like the biggest thing for me is I'm just extremely blessed to be back healthy playing basketball at a hundred percent. I feel like that's the biggest thing.”
Hopkins drilled one of the biggest shots of the game after UConn had cut a once 18-point lead to seven, 49-42, with 12:34 left. He put the final dagger in the Huskies with a layup that extended the lead to 20 points, 69-49, with 3:27 remaining and let out the biggest burst of emotion with a scream that he has seen all season.
“It means a lot,” he added. “We put in so much work, starting in the summer, and we're still putting in a ton of work right now, and it's just so rewarding that all the work we put in in the summer and all the long days, the long nights, the ups and downs, it paid off.”
Before the game, the message was clear from Rick Pitino that St. John’s would not win unless Bryce Hopkins and Dillon Mitchell were dominant and they took their coach’s message to heart.
“We're not done yet,” Hopkins added. “We have a lot more to go that we want to achieve, but this is definitely rewarding right now for sure.”