according to Pitino<\/a>, with a strong showing in the fifth-ranked Johnnies\u2019 73-63 victory over CAA preseason favorite Towson at Carnesecca Arena.<\/p>\n\u201cI try to do whatever coach asks me to do and take it as constructive criticism,\u201d the 6-foot-7 Hopkins said. \u201cI try to take it with a grain of salt and I always know he wants the best for me. With me not starting today, I didn\u2019t take it harshly. When my number was called, I tried to come in and do my part.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hopkins finished with 13 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals in 26 minutes. It was an impressive start for Hopkins, who appeared in just three games last season for Providence as he recovered from a torn ACL the previous season.<\/p>\n
Bryce Hopkins puts up a shot during the second half of St. John\u2019s 73-63 preseason win over Towson on Oct. 18, 2025 at Carnesecca Arena. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t trying to send a message to Bryce, I was trying to teach him about greatness,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cGreatness doesn\u2019t happen without practicing great. \u2026 I don\u2019t want him to be the best player on our team, or one of them. I want him to be one of the best players in the country. And unless he understands that, he will never reach that plateau, and I believe he can, and that\u2019s why I said the things I said.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hopkins helped the Red Storm overcome a shaky first half. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
They outscored Towson by 21 points over the final 18:23. Zuby Ejiofor, Joson Sanon, Sadiku Ibine Ayo and Oziyah Sellers each scored nine points and Dillon Mitchell had eight points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals.<\/p>\n
Red Storm men\u2019s basketball player Bryce Hopkins speaks at media day in Carnesecca Arena, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
The Johnnies struggled against the Towson press late in the game and were outrebounded by five. They were also held to 21 first-half points, but rebounded well after the break to take control.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were tight tonight playing in front of the home crowd. Guys were nervous,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cNo matter how experienced a team you are, the first exhibition game everybody\u2019s nervous. But we didn\u2019t panic, we stayed with our defense, stayed with our offense \u2014 the offense got better.<\/p>\n
Oziyah Sellers passes the ball during the second half of St. John\u2019s preseason win over Towson. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cOziyah didn\u2019t play well, Zuby didn\u2019t play well, Ian [Jackson] wasn\u2019t playing well defensively, Dylan Darling didn\u2019t play well, and we won the game. We\u2019re going to play much better than this, but for our first game out, I was very pleased.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the best minutes came when Pitino went big, using Mitchell, Hopkins and Ruben Prey in a three-forward lineup. That trio sparked a 20-5 run early in the second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it looked good,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cWe have a group of guys that are very versatile in the frontcourt between me, Bryce, Ruben, Zuby, That\u2019s an advantage that not a lot of teams have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The big news to come out of St. John\u2019s media day was that Bryce Hopkins, one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":314797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,2076,1317,1337,1338,30692,62,1378,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-314796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-basketball","12":"tag-ncaabasketball","13":"tag-rick-pitino","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-st-johns-red-storm","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115398200866041016","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}