Rick Pitino takes victory lap following St. John's landing Bryce Hopkins

St. John’s landed highly-touted veteran forward Bryce Hopkins out of the transfer portal on Monday. Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino took to social media following Hopkins’ commitment to express his excitement for his arrival on campus.

“We are so excited to have Bryce Hopkins [as] part of our family. He epitomizes everything I love in a basketball player; Passionate, Hungry, and Driven. Can’t wait to work with him! Will become a great one for St John’s,” Pitino’s tweet read.

Hopkins, who will be a fifth-year senior, committed to St. Johns after spending three seasons with Providence. He’s been recovering from an ACL tear in Jan. 2024, which kept him out for all but three games during the 2024-25 season.

Before that, he starred in his role as forward for the Friars. During his first season with the program in 2023, Hopkins averaged 15.8 points per game with 8.5 rebounds while starting all 33 of Providence’s games that season. He logged nearly identical numbers for his team during the 14 games he played the following season before tearing his ACL halfway through.

When he was able to come back for the three games this past December, Hopkins averaged 17.0 points, 7.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists for the Friars. Providence went 2-1 with him in the lineup, including an 83-64 win over BYU, who earned a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament this season and made it all the way to the Sweet 16.

His nagging knee issue would shut him down for the rest of the season. However, Hopkins was impressive despite not playing at 100%.

Hopkins began his career playing for John Calipari at Kentucky during the 2021-22 season. He saw action in 28 games for the Wildcats as a freshman that season, starting none of them. After the season, he entered the portal, where he would have a breakout season after committing to the Friars.

Before college, Hopkins was a four-star recruit, according to the On3 Industry Rankings, a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. He was the No. 8 power forward in the 2021 recruiting class and the No. 2 player from the state of Illinois.

He’s joining a St. John’s program that earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament this offseason. They finished the year with a 31-5 record which included Big East regular season and conference tournament championships.