The wait is almost over for St. John’s Bryce Hopkins. When the Red Storm opens its season in November, the 6-7 transfer from Providence will be turning the page on what will have been a 22-month period over two seasons where he was limited by injury to just three college games.

“It's going to be fun,” Hopkins said Wednesday at the team’s appearance in Manhattan at the adidas Brand Center Store. “I'm looking forward to it - just being out there, playing in Madison Square Garden and playing with a new group of guys. It's going to be amazing. I can't wait.”

His ‘new group of guys’ is a Red Storm team seen with Final Four potential after coach Rick Pitino brought back star Zuby Ejiofor from a squad that won the Big East regular season and tournament championships and added the nation’s top-rated group of transfers.

Ejiofor may be St. John’s acknowledged returning star, but he's not the only player on the Red Storm roster who has been voted to an All-Big East first team. Hopkins was one as a sophomore with the Friars in 2022-23 after transferring from Kentucky. That season he averaged 15.8 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists.

He looked to be on his way to an even better performance as a junior when his college career got badly derailed by injury. A torn ACL ended his season after 14 games. He tried to come back last year, but aggravated the injury and played just three games. With designs to play in the NBA, Hopkins made the jump to join Pitino and the Storm in March.

“I'm pretty much just looking at it as [joining] coach Pitino, playing for a . . . . legend in the college era, and I'm just looking for him to help me get to that next level,” Hopkins said. “That's pretty much how I was looking at it. . . . I know I have a lot of stuff to learn from him and he can give me some stuff to get to that next level.”

Hopkins also considered transferring to Georgetown to play for Ed Cooley, his first coach at Providence and the one who coaxed his move from Kentucky.

Cooley attended the NBA Draft in Brooklyn last month with first-round pick Thomas Sorber and was asked about Hopkins donning a Red Storm uniform and replied, “That one hurt.”

Pitino’s delight was communicated in a social media post where he wrote, “He epitomizes everything I love in a basketball player: Passionate, Hungry, and Driven. Can’t wait to work with him! Will become a great one for St John’s.”

Physically, Hopkins is finally right.

“I'm 100%,” he said. “I feel great going through the workouts, great going through practice. I feel really good right now.”

His game, he explained, will look more disciplined and mature.

“I'm more patient on the court now,” he said. “I'm not trying to press or force anything. I let the game come to me and I just try to make the right play every possession.”

And he said he has greater appreciation for this opportunity after missing all that time.

“That's one of the things I was looking at when I was out,” Hopkins said, “just not taking it for granted.”

He should not be taken for granted by Storm opponents in any way. Ejiofor said Hopkins’ play at summer workouts and practices has met or exceeded expectations .

“He can get downhill and is creating for others,” Ejiofor said.

“[He’s] a really big piece to what we're trying to build here at St John's,” Ejiofor added. “Obviously we know what he did his sophomore year, before the injuries, and the [feats] that he was able to accomplish. So we expect . . . less, just for him to come in and do exactly what he does.”

Where most transfers during Pitino’s first two seasons at St. John’s had to adjust to the rigors of his practices and his demand for attention to detail, Hopkins seems unfazed.

“My freshman year I played for coach [John] Calipari [at Kentucky], so I'm kind of used to it,” he said. “[I’m] older too, I . . . . know what coach wants from us and I know the level that he's pushing us and where his vision is for us and winning the national championship.”