LEXINGTON, Ky. — Anyone who was at Rupp Arena on Wednesday night will surely have no trouble remembering it. Oh, that was The Bryce Hopkins Game. Wait, what? Yes, it’s true, Kentucky erased another double-digit deficit to win a game without two starting guards, thanks to yet another stunning breakout performance by someone at the end of John Calipari’s bench. Kentucky 71, LSU 66.
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Hopkins, a 6-foot-6 freshman wing, had not scored a point since Jan. 25, almost a full month, and had produced a total of just 10 points in the Wildcats’ first 14 SEC games. He’d played six minutes in the previous six games combined. So when Kentucky spotted LSU an 11-point lead on Wednesday, just as it let Alabama race ahead by 13 on Saturday, with no TyTy Washington (ankle) or Sahvir Wheeler (wrist) to rescue a floundering offense, Hopkins was not just an unlikely hero. He was an unimaginable one.
But then there he was, to everyone’s shock and delight, getting buckets when no one else could. Hopkins scored nine points in 93 seconds early in the second half against the Tigers, including an offensive board and three-point play to push Kentucky ahead for good with 15:33 to go. In all, Hopkins made five of his six shots, scored 13 points and grabbed four rebounds in 16 minutes Wednesday. The Cats outscored LSU by 16 with him on the floor, and the team’s next-best plus/minus was half that. Like Kellan Grady four days earlier, Hopkins electrified the crowd at Rupp and changed the entire energy in the building with his barrage. The place roared for him.
In the stands, his father, Clyde, was overcome with emotion. Other players’ families hugged and high-fived him. C.J. Fredrick’s parents, Davion Mintz’s and Keion Brooks’ brothers. The ushers and security personnel and random fans who could tell by the joy whose kid was his.
“Oh, man, it was unbelievable,” Clyde said. “I’ve just been keeping the kid’s confidence up, going over there on their days off, shooting with him and talking to him and just telling him to stay confident, stay coachable, be a great teammate. I’ve been saying, ‘You’re on a great team, but your time will come too.’ So I’m just at a loss for words, I’m so happy for the kid to finally get his opportunity and do what he did with it. It was surreal to see. And to hear that place erupt like that — for him, because he was giving them the spark they needed — whew, that was special. And I can tell you he’s on Cloud Nine.”
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Most years, a guy like Hopkins would’ve played a lot more by now for Kentucky. He was a consensus top-40 recruit from Oak Park, Ill., where he averaged 24.4 points and 12.5 rebounds as a high school senior, earning invites to the prestigious Jordan Brand and Iverson all-star games. He was even the talk of preseason practice in Lexington, where there was some early buzz that he might be the best player on this team. Yes, really.
But this is an unusual Calipari roster, for once loaded with quality veterans. Two super seniors and four juniors among the top seven players in the rotation, Washington the only freshman getting major minutes. This was a rare bad year to be young at Kentucky — even worse to halt all that summer momentum with a back injury Hopkins suffered doing power cleans during his introduction to a college strength and conditioning program. That stunted his development.
“Once you fall down that ladder, it’s tough at this level to regain your spot,” his father said. “Especially when everyone else is playing so well. This team is so, so deep, everybody is just waiting for their number to be called. There are great players on the end of the bench who could go off any night, but I think that’s what makes this group really special, and I’m just so proud of all of them. I’m so happy for my son to be a part of this. They’re a brotherhood, and I know Bryce was thrilled to really be a part of it this time, to really impact the game.”
It’s hard for talented young guys to be patient. Five-star freshman forward Daimion Collins’ high-water mark in conference play was 10 points and six boards in nine (also really surprising) minutes at Alabama two weeks ago. He’d scored just two points in the preceding month. But Calipari believes he will — or at least could, the way injuries keep piling up — need those guys come March, and he’s been desperate to keep them engaged. Which is why he recently showed the team a speech from Alabama football coach Nick Saban about how backups must prepare for their big break or risk wasting it when the time comes.
“Basically what he said is that you have guys that are results-driven” and don’t appreciate the value of the process, Calipari said. “You missed out on the grind. You didn’t learn all the stuff you have to learn to really reach your potential. Every one of you at some point in your career will be in this boat, that you’re not playing as much as you think (you should), not getting the shots you think (you should), so now you don’t work. And then you get an opportunity and you don’t take advantage.”
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Hopkins might’ve moped some early on, “fought it,” as Calipari put it, but he didn’t stay down in the dumps. His father, a former player at Tennessee Tech and star at Division III Illinois Benedictine College, moved to Lexington for the season and has worked diligently to keep Bryce’s spirits high. They talk on the phone a few minutes before every game, and Clyde prays for his son and the team. With Washington and Wheeler out again Wednesday, Hopkins and his father both knew this was a chance to shine.
“After the game, I told him, ‘Man, look, everything we prayed for tonight came true. Everything,’” Clyde said. “For him to have that coming-out party and pull out such a great win, it was just wonderful.”
The best part, everyone seems to agree, was watching the way Hopkins’ teammates swarmed him to celebrate his breakthrough. Jacob Toppin in particular, another guy who just keeps carving out a bigger and bigger role for himself, bear-hugged Hopkins after two of his biggest shots of the night. The bench went crazy every time Hopkins scored. Afterward, national player of the year candidate Oscar Tshiebwe, who had a standard 17-point, 16-rebound performance, beamed about Hopkins.
“I’m so proud of Bryce. He don’t even know how much we are proud of him,” Tshiebwe said. “Bryce was unstoppable in the summer, (and) what we saw from him tonight, that’s the Bryce we need.”
Jacob Toppin, right, bear-hugged Hopkins after two of his biggest shots all night.Hopkins said his teammates supported him long before now, always reminding him to keep his head up and keep working. One of Mintz’s favorite lines stuck with him: It can’t rain forever; the sun has to shine someday. When the clouds finally rolled away Wednesday, his fellow Wildcats were there to celebrate the occasion.
“Those are my brothers,” Hopkins said. “Just for them to embrace me like that when I was doing going, it felt really good to me. I’m glad they’re my brothers and I can’t wait to keep going to war for them this postseason.”
Calipari said it plainly: Kentucky is going to need Hopkins again at some point if these Cats are going to make a deep NCAA Tournament run. They might even need him again soon, like Saturday at 18th-ranked Arkansas, which has won 12 of its last 13 games. Wheeler and Washington might sit out again, in which case it’ll be all hands on deck to try to steal a win at rowdy Bud Walton Arena. Whatever happens there, the sixth-ranked Wildcats (23-5, 12-3 SEC) have already demonstrated a critical championship characteristic.
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“A good team has good players,” Calipari said. “A great team has great teammates. These guys are terrific teammates. That gives us a chance. And we are talented, but when you’re great teammates, people watch the game and you know what they say? ‘Man, are they fun to watch. Man, do they cover for each other. They make the game easy. Look how hard they play and fight for each other.’ ”
Years from now, maybe The Bryce Hopkins Game will be a tiny footnote in history. Or maybe it’ll be part of the story Kentucky fans retell in perpetuity about what made the program’s ninth NCAA title team so unbeatable.
(Photos: Jordan Prather / USA Today)
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