who bested Cooley to win Hopkins\u2019 services<\/a> for his final season of eligibility.<\/p>\nThe Illinois native began his college career at Kentucky and left after one season for Providence, where Cooley was the head coach.<\/p>\n
He averaged more than 15 points and eight rebounds per game in his season-plus at Providence before he suffered a torn ACL in his left knee.<\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s Red Storm forward Bryce Hopkins shoots a jump shot at practice in Carnesecca Arena on Oct. 16, 2025. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
After returning late last season, he entered the portal again and ended up in Queens, where Pitino hopes he\u2019s an integral part of a top team.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t start in the preseason opener against Towson, with Pitino wanting Hopkins to up his game and reach his potential.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hoyas head coach Ed Cooley reacts on the floor during the second half of Georgetown\u2019s loss to DePaul in the Big East Tournament on March 12, 2025 at Madison Square Garden. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
But Pitino said Tuesday Hopkins would be in the starting five when St. John\u2019s hosts Michigan at MSG for another exhibition game.<\/p>\n
\u201cBryce has been great the last week,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cHe played terrific in the opening exhibition game. He\u2019ll start out against Michigan. \u2026 His body looks great. He\u2019s lost a lot of weight. He\u2019s toned it down. He\u2019s shooting the ball well. He\u2019s playing good basketball.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s what Cooley expected when Hopkins got to Queens.<\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s head coach Rick Pitino addresses the media during the 2025 Big East media day at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 21, 2025. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n
\u201cBryce is a really good player,\u201d Cooley said. \u201cWe were really fortunate to take him from Kentucky and come into Providence and to go into St. John\u2019s, I think he\u2019s gonna be one of the better players in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Pitino is a big reason why.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s playing for arguably the best college coach in the history of college basketball in Rick Pitino,\u201d Cooley said. \u201cI think he\u2019s an incredible motivator [and] innovator of the sport. \u2026 I think [Hopkins] chose where he could go develop and be the best player he can be and I thought he chose a coach who was gonna push him to be the best player he can be.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Bryce Hopkins slams home a dunk during St. John\u2019s preseason win over Towson on Oct.18, 2025 at Carnesecca Arena. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
Despite his disappointment, Cooley added he had no regrets in not getting Hopkins.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think you can ever look in the rearview mirror when you think about recruiting in today\u2019s day and age,\u201d Cooley said. \u201cIt\u2019s [about] today. What have you done for me lately? He\u2019s playing for an incredible team, he has this building [MSG] to play in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ed Cooley won a recruiting battle for Bryce Hopkins once before \u2014 but not this time. And now…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":322858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,30695,2076,161341,3913,1317,1337,1338,30692,62,1378,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-322857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-big-east","10":"tag-college-basketball","11":"tag-ed-cooley","12":"tag-georgetown-hoyas","13":"tag-ncaa","14":"tag-ncaa-basketball","15":"tag-ncaabasketball","16":"tag-rick-pitino","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-st-johns-red-storm","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115415801109161894","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322857","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=322857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}