Did John Calipari promise Bryce Hopkins playing time that never materialized

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Bryce Hopkins was a non-factor for UK in postseason play and now has his name in the transfer portal. (Photo by Jeff Houchin)

It seems like the hits keep coming for John Calipari in this postseason.

In the past UK fans have gotten used to announcements like the one from TyTy Washington r that said he was leaving after one season to enter the NBA Draft. Everyone understood In the beginning that, as a projected lottery pick, Washington could choose to take the millions of dollars and run after one season.

Dontaie Allen’s announcement that he would enter the transfer portal also came as no shock to most UK fans. Allen seemed to get off on the wrong foot with his head coach (possibly from what might have been a forced recruitment due to public pressure) and never seemed to be able to get any traction with his coach even after his monster game against Mississippi State in the 2020-2021 season where he single handedly saved the game for the Cats by scoring 23 points on seven 3-pointers in a double overtime victory. So even though Allen had his moments ,John Calipari never seemed to see any value in having Allen on the roster.

But when a player like Bryce Hopkins enters his name in the transfer portal it might be showing the symptoms of a bigger problem. It’s difficult to tell players, through a public forum like a press conference, that they are important to the team and should play more minutes going forward but then, in a surprise move, they don’t. Being disingenuous concerning playing time doesn’t help a coach hold onto his players. Especially players that have talent but need game experience to develop. Hopkins didn’t get that and decided to enter his name in the transfer portal and continue his career at a different school.

One doesn’t have to be a Basketball Bennie to realize why Hopkins is leaving. For most of the past basketball season John Calipari said he had to find a way to get Hopkins more minutes.

In mid-January after a win over Vanderbilt Calipari said: “I’m trying to get Bryce in there. But we got a core group that are playing pretty good and have played good for a while. How about Bryce? We need Bryce,” Calipari said. “But I can’t accept him going into the game and the game is faster than him. Then you can’t be in. And that means you gotta practice and prepare with unbelievable energy so you can play that way. And then make easy plays, you don’t need to go and do crazy stuff. You just don’t need to. You’re trying to get minutes and get on the floor–and we need him out there.”

Then in mid-February after another reserve player — Daimion Collins — had a breakout game against LSU. Calipari once again mentioned trying to get more minutes for both Collins and Hopkins.

“Daimion Collins was the difference maker … What I love about it is I didn’t play him for six games. Never even looked at him. He now has just forced me to figure out how to play him. The other guy we gotta get in, but he’s gotta earn more minutes, is Bryce ). When you have that kind of depth, you have a lot of room for error,” Calipari said then.

Keep in mind that Collins played a total of 23 minutes in the last eight games of the regular season and conference tournament. That’s 3 minutes per game for Collins after Calipari said that based on Collins play he was “forcing Calipari to play him more.” Fortunately for Calipari, Collins has apparently decided to stick it out at UK for at least another year even though those promised minutes never materialized.

Hopkins found himself in the same situation (promised minutes that never materialized) and he has chosen a different route going forward. He too, like a lot of fans, might have grown tired of the Calipari rhetoric.

Calipari said this about Hopkins after his game saving 13-point performance against LSU at the end of February: “A guy like Bryce, I think we’re going to need Bryce for (an) NCAA tournament run. I’ve said it to you guys from day one. Some of it is he fought it. You know, he fought it. He was behind some guys. They were playing well and you had some opportunities; you didn’t take advantage. But he’s practiced, he’s being coached, he’s coming in the gym, spending extra time. That was big. Our guards, you know, you’re playing guys 40 minutes. You know what I’m saying?”

And yes we all know what he is saying. He’s saying that he couldn’t find more minutes for a player that showed great promise against an NCAA Tournament team like LSU even though his guards were either injured or playing the entire game and consequently that player wasted a year at UK and is now moving on.

To put all this in perspective, two players thatCalipari said he absolutely had to find more minutes for down the final stretch of the season played a total of 23 minutes in eight games for Collins and 27 minutes in eight games for Hopkins. Keep in mind that Collins played 13 of those 23 minutes in a single game and Hopkins played 16 of those minutes in a different single game.

A coach cannot publicly say he needs to find more minutes for players because they are forcing him to play them due to their improved performance and then only give those players an average of 3-4 minutes per game (and 0 minutes in some of those games) and expect all of them to hang around for next year.

Hopkins has proven the point that actions and words have consequences. Meaningless rhetoric from the head coach doesn’t fly anymore in the days of the new transfer portal.

So now the coach and fans wait to see if another transfer shoe is going to drop. Most likely Jacob Toppin will stay. Lance Ware is staying. The aforementioned Collins has already said he will stay. Savhir Wheeler will most likely stay unless he is recruited over by a player from the transfer portal. It appears that CJ Frederick is still solid with this team. That could leave a somewhat depleted roster of players that have both a lot of experience and a lot of talent, especially at the guard positions.

So it looks like Calipari will be starting over for the 2022-23 season with a group of players that could be very talented (if Shaedon Sharpe stays and Oscar Tshiewbe can work out the details on his student visa/NIL deals, both of which are big ifs) but somewhat inexperienced at the guard positions.

Of course with a couple of can’t miss freshmen arriving in Cason Wallace and Chris Livingston, the cupboard is far from bare but if next season the musical chairs continue and players believe they have a spot in the rotation only to find out their spot is actually at the end of the bench there could be many more defections at the end of the 2023 season.

9 Responses

  1. This is not the first time Cal has done this to players. He even stated that Washington would not come back until he was healthy. We find out later that Washington did indeed finish the year playing hurt. Yes, UK may have been a better with Washington in the lineup, but only when he was 100%. Cal had enough good players to find a rotation when both Wheeler and Washington were out and Grady did a reasonable job at the point. Why not give some minutes to Hopkins and see what he can do. Even you had to take a loss, what’s the big deal? UK wasn’t going to win the regular season conference, and Cal doesn’t care about the Conference Tournament, so what was there to lose by giving Washington more time to recover and giving Hopkins a good enough chance to make him want to come back?
    Players talk, and you can bet there is a lot being said about Cal behind closed doors that we never hear. Players and there parents can read through Cal’s BS just like the rest of us.

  2. With have the biggest fraud in the business heading our great program.
    I didn’t use coaching our program because it’s becoming more and more evident that he can’t coach!

  3. Again I think Barnhart needs to put Cal on some of kind of a notice if you don’t start delivering the of KY basketball golden standard that were expecting then your job is on the line. I really think next season is his either make or break point weather he’s sticks around. I been reading that the Lakers may offer him a coaching job at some point weather that happens remands to be seen

  4. Right from the get , it felt like and currently still feels like , the UK tradition, and winning championships or winning in general is a by product of getting players here , then to the NBA. This is a deal with devil so to speak.

  5. Come on BBN! Calipari is not here to win championships. He is here to get his favorite players into the NBA! Apparently, he makes more from doing that than he does his $9 million a year salary.

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