Not even 11 months after that day he announced to depart from the program, former Wildcat and current Friar, Bryce Hopkins, will face his former team in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Kentucky (6-seed) and Providence (11-seed) are less than 24 hours from fighting for their seasons to stay alive, all the way east in Greensboro, North Carolina. The arena hosting the event, Greensboro Coliseum, holds over 21,000 fans so it should be quite the Big Blue environment on Friday evening.
With the surrounding questions looming around the Kentucky transfer's mentality going into Friday evening's game, it looks as if Hopkins is still in contact with his former teammates via group message even after the transfer.
Bryce Hopkins seemed very focused and team-oriented going into Friday's matchup with his former team. "People are saying it's the 'Bryce revenge game' but I just gotta stay level-headed, stay focused and do whatever my team needs me to do to win."
Hopkins, the 2nd year transfer, averaged 2.1 points off of 6.5 minutes as his time at Kentucky, and at times seemed disgruntled due to his playing time. Hopkins has done a great job of taking on a bigger role with Providence this season, leading the Friars in minutes per game (34.7), points (16.1) and field goals made (172). In between practices today, two Kentucky players that have seemingly had role/lineup issues themselves caught up with their former teammate:
The Cats will look to win their 1st NCAA Tournament game since 2019 tomorrow night in a streak that has given fans grief the longer it gets. Let's have ourselves a weekend, folks!!