Cal should have figured out a way to get him some more play. An issue he's had is a consistent theme of over "overstocking" on guys at the 4 position and then trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
This has been a common theme for several years now with gaps in '18-'19 and '19-'20, years where we only had 3 and no transfers.
Every year he has done it we've lost a guy to transfer.
'22-'23 (? xfer)
Toppin, Collins, Livingston, Ware (reality is he's played him at 4 quite a bit)
'21-'22 (Hopkins xfer)
Brooks, Toppin, Hopkins, Collins
'20-'21 (Fletcher xfer)
Jackson, Brooks, Toppin, Fletcher
'17-'18 (SKJ xfer)
PJ, Wenyen, Vanderbilt, SKJ
The reality is though in Hopkins case his stats this year are very similar to Keion's last year but KB was a better defender than Hopkins is this year statistically speaking.
Ironically when we've had 3 dominant guards we've lost the 4th or 5th guard to transfer too.
'15-'16 (Matthews xfer)
Ulis, Murray, Briscoe, Hawkins, Matthews
'18-'19 (Quade and Baker xfer)
Hagans, IQ, Herro, Quade, Baker
'19-'20 (Juzang xfer)
Hagans, IQ, Maxey, Juzang
'22-'22 (Allen xfer)
Wheeler, TyTy, Grady, Mintz, Allen
IMHO I don't blame Cal for Matthews, Juzang, Quade and Baker. Juzang got plenty of run as a freshman and who was he going to play over tbh? Matthews didn't get as much run but again, who was he playing over? Baker, mostly stemmed from EE game. Quade obviously had his chance. Allen, I blame Cal during '19-'20, but not for last year; he had his chance.
Now with the 4 spot that is just over recruiting and trying to force guys into spots they are uncomfortable with....totally on Cal. You could argue Hopkins was out of shape and behind 8 ball with early injury but we saw him play well towards EOY last year.
Part of the issue the past two years is Oscar is so dominant at the 5 none of these guys can get much run there even if that is their natural position (Ware, Ugonna) or if you'd be inclined to run them at the spot (Collins). He basically has 40 minutes for 4 guys, hence the reason he has tried to run guys like Hopkins and Livingston at the 3, even though they've looked out of sorts there mostly.