John Calipari on Bryce Hopkins: "We need him out there"

As he’s done with freshman center Daimion Collins during periods this season, John Calipari is now trying to do the same with another rookie in Bryce Hopkins: finding spare minutes.

The Kentucky head coach has been eager to find more minutes for his first-year players not named TyTy Washington. Unfortunately, the situations haven’t always called for more playing time. Both Collins and Hopkins, while clearly possessing unearthed talent, just haven’t played well enough to warrant minutes over those in front of them.

That’s a testament to Kentucky’s core group, which continues to separate itself from the rest of their Wildcat teammates. But at the same time, it’s prevented real opportunities for two freshmen who sure could use them.

“I’m trying to get Daimion (Collins) in there–I’m trying to get him going. I’m trying to get Bryce (Hopkins) in there,” Calipari said after the win over Vandy. “But we got a core group that are playing pretty good and have played good for a while.”

Hopkins is slowly finding himself on the floor more as of late. He played 12 minutes against High Point, six against Georgia, and 15 against Vanderbilt on Tuesday night. It wasn’t until the win over Vandy that Hopkins finally made a true impact. He hit a pretty pull-up jump shot, grabbed five rebounds, and recorded an assist as well.

15 minutes against the ‘Dores were the most he’s played since Nov. 29 and his third-most this season. And not so shockingly, Hopkins has played better when given more opportunities. In recent games, he was clearly forcing the issue and turning the ball over more times than he was scoring points. All of his past miscues could have been avoidable if he’d just taken an extra half-second to assess the situation.

But he was able to settle in a bit more than usual against Vanderbilt as Kentucky held a sizable lead. It’s about playing within the speed of the game for him, which he was able to find down in Nashville.

“How about Bryce (Hopkins)? 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.”

As Calipari said, Hopkins had been playing out of sync from the rest of the action. If he’s going slow, everyone else is going fast, and vice versa. It took him a couple of minutes to settle down against Vandy, but once he did, he found a solid rhythm. It’s a small step, but an important one with so much season still left to be played.

“I’m really happy for Bryce,” Calipari added.

As we’ve seen with Sahvir Wheeler, injuries can pop up at any time. Kentucky will need Hopkins if something similar happens to another frontcourt player. Calipari will need him to be ready in that situation.