Rick Pitino challenges struggling Bryce Hopkins to be an ‘alpha dog’ for St. John’s

On Thursday morning, Rick Pitino brought Bryce Hopkins into his office for a chat.

The message was the same as the one he gave after Tuesday’s win over DePaul: St. John’s needs more from the Providence transfer.

They went over the film of his performance in the Big East opener, when Hopkins failed to grab a rebound in 23 minutes and was minus-7.

“I will say this: If I didn’t love him and believe in him, I would’ve [taken him] out of the starting lineup after that performance, no question about it,” Pitino said of his starting forward. “But because I love him and believe in him wholeheartedly, 100 percent — I talked to him — I know he’ll bring it in the Kentucky game.”

Hopkins began the season well, highlighted by a 26-point, five-assist, five-rebound performance in a win over Baylor during the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. Since then, however, his play has fallen off.

In the past four games, Hopkins is averaging nine points, 4.5 rebounds and shooting 41.3 percent from the field.

He also has twice as many turnovers (10) as assists (five) in that span for the 22nd-ranked Johnnies. St. John’s also has been outscored by 21 points across Hopkins’ 92 minutes in this stretch and is plus-55 without him.

Bryce Hopkins shoots a jumper during St. John’s win over DePaul on Dec. 16, 2025 at Carnesecca Arena. Corey Sipkin for New York Post

“Bryce can be a top-10 player in the country if he changes his personality [on the court], if he becomes an alpha dog,” Pitino said. “It really is tough. We all know we have our personalities. Can we totally change between the lines? That’s Bryce. If he wants to become a top-10, top-15, top-20 player in the country, he totally has to do a makeover of his personality because it would make him so much better. He has to develop Zuby [Ejiofor’s] personality on the court.

“That’s exactly what I told him. ‘Bryce, you’re going to have a great game one night and then a bad game like you did the other night if you don’t change your personality.’ Dillon Mitchell had a bad offensive night but he still got eight rebounds.”

After the DePaul game, Pitino said Hopkins has to “pick up his effort level,” and scoring “shouldn’t make you do other things” well. On Thursday, he hammered home those points to him. St. John’s needs the 6-foot-7 forward at his best against Kentucky on Saturday in Atlanta.

Pitino said Thursday he plans to stick with the same starting five of Hopkins, Ejiofor, Joson Sanon, Oziyah Sellers and Ian Jackson for the Kentucky game.

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He prefers Dylan Darling — the team’s lone traditional point guard — off the bench after the Idaho State transfer scored a season-high 17 points in Tuesday’s win over DePaul.

This will mark the third straight game that Jackson has started at point guard.

“I think he’s so valuable that if he gets two early fouls, it can put us really behind the eight-ball,” Pitino said of Darling.