With Continuous Struggles at UW, Hopkins Loses Favor in Syracuse

Always the top choice to replace Jim Boeheim, the coach may no longer be that guy.

Mike Hopkins arrived in 2017 as the new University of Washington basketball coach and a fair question to ask was this: Will he be returning to Syracuse the moment Jim Boeheim retires?

Four years later, the answer seems clear, if it wasn't before.

No.

It appears consecutive floundering seasons in Seattle have done considerable damage to Hopkins' coaching reputation among his long-time supporters some 2,700 miles away in upstate New York.

Those in the Orange community have taken notice of the Huskies' last-place Pac-12 face-plant in 2020 and their current flirtation with a similar woeful end to this season, currently sitting 11th (4-17 overall, 3-13 league).

"Does Syracuse even want him back at this point?" pointedly asked Orange Fizz, a website that follows the school's athletic fortunes closely. 

Continuing on, the site concluded, "In the last two years, Washington is just 18-31 overall and 7-23 in the Pac-12. To add insult to injury, the Huskies are only 3-16 [now 4-17] this season. That's just not good enough."

Mike Hopkins as a Syracuse guard.  / Syracuse Athletics

Hopkins played for Boeheim as a shooting guard (1989-93).

He served as his loyal assistant coach and chief recruiter (1995-2017)

He filled in as a temporary Syracuse head coach (2015-16) when Boeheim drew a nine-game suspension, and he won four of nine games.

Hopkins officially was declared the coach-in-waiting by the school in 2015 to succeed Boeheim three years later, a scenario that didn't happen.

Now in his 45th season as the Orange coach, Boeheim shows no inclination to pack it in.

His son Buddy is a 6-foot-6 junior guard, long and lanky, sort of like another Hopkins, who averages 14-plus points for Syracuse. 

Which is probably a good thing for Hopkins, should he harbor any deep sentiment to being the guy for Syracuse someday.

Boeheim's insistence on coaching into oblivion could enable Hopkins, a two-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year recipient, some space to right things at Washington, or bounce back with the Huskies and go to Syracuse if summoned.

Of course, the third option, Hopkins getting cut loose by the UW, doesn't do anyone any favors coast to coast. 

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