A Hopkins Moment to Shock You Awake

The fun-loving UW basketball coach puts on another performance.

We had Mike Hopkins for 10 minutes of questions following his University of Washington basketball team's season-opening win.

The sixth-year Husky coach was his usual effervescent self after directing his new collection of players to a 69-52 victory over Weber State.

While the players before him in the interview room spoke so softly you could barely hear them, Hopkins belted out answers in a raised voice.

He was alternately friendly, funny, insightful, a faith healer.

Hopkins referenced Tom Cruise, in the first Top Gun movie, differentiating it from the second, to describe one of his players.

He told a self-deprecating story about himself and how he used to run the floor and foul everyone as a Syracuse player to make a point.

The thing about Hopkins, though, is he never lets you relax when you're around him. Never lets you nod off in one of these give-and-take sessions, that so many other coaches deliver in coach-speak and abject formality.

Not Hopkins.

Just when you think you've been totally entertained by this man, he takes it up a notch.

Consider what happened when Monday's presser came to an end.

He looked out at his audience and suddenly bellowed out, "Go Dawgs! Let's go! Big Year!" slams the table and leaves the room.

That description does not do this moment justice. Watch the one-minute video to the end and prepare to be jolted alive. 

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