Mike Hopkins opportunity?

[shu 49]

Isn't this the perfect opportunity to bring Hop back after the way he was unceremoniously forced out despite the transition plan? I'm curious how everyone would feel about that. Most of us feel that Red will be back next year, but this is so interesting to me. How would everyone feel about Hop being brought back for 2025-26? I would freaking love it.

Love Hop as he is an awesome guy and great motivator but not a offensive guy as he runs the same o we have now. You need a great Pg for that offense and we dont have it. Now if he could get an offensive coach to take over O i would be fine.

 

[Hopkins16]

Hopkins was the perfect replacement for JB years ago, but JB screwed him over. Hop was great with recruits and could have closed on a lot of guys that we eventually missed on (he did get SU recruits Isaiah Stewart and Hamier Wright to join him at Washington, and Quade Green after he left UK).

After Red, we should go outside the family and get the best coach available. I don't think we need to totally clean house of our current assistants if they hold value in recruiting (Straughn?) or in other areas. I love the idea of keeping it in the family but it just hasn't worked out well for us so it is time to move on from that.

 

[shu 49]

Not too sure anyone is bragging on Bernie Fine as part of the coaching tree.

Bernie wss one of if not best bigman coach in country.

 

[jbsu44]

Bernie wss one of if not best bigman coach in country.

I was thinking the same thing, I was going to e-mail Mike Waters because there was a question about why we can't develop big men anymore in his column on Mikes Mailbox on Syracuse .com. It hasn't been the same since.

 

[Jake]

Love Hop, I would support him, but there’s no way he’d be seen as the answer.

If he had made the tourney last year and was trending toward the dance this year, he could have robbed the bank here next year.

But he didn’t prove he could get the job done and he stuck with the GD 2-3 zone when he told everyone here, that he was moving to M2M.

 

[SWC75]

We should have 100% hired Rick

I'd love to be where St. John's is now.

Providence vs. St. John's (Feb 1, 2025) Box Score - ESPN

Box score for the Providence Friars vs. St. John's Red Storm NCAAM game from February 1, 2025 on ESPN. Includes all points, rebounds and steals stats.

www.espn.com

 

[JeffCuse]

For the love of God, if we make a change we have got to get to a fresh start and a new name outside the program

 

[SWC75]

To answer your three questions:

1) Yes, I'd consider it after proper vetting. If he really wanted it, I'd consider it.
2) He has the ties, the name recognition, the accomplishments. He was the on court coach ("The General", a nickname he earned) for multiple NCAA championship contending teams. He broke the NCAA record for career assists. He knows the X's and O's. He knows how to motivate a team.
3) Carolina Blue. Enjoy the tundra.

In the days of the Sack Mac Pack, (football, when we were 0-4 in 1986), a lot of people wanted Floyd Little to come back and coach the team. The same points were made: he'd never been a coach an teenager recruits wouldn't know who he was. Fans think that if a player is one of our heroes, everybody must know who he is, like a child who thinks everybody watches the shows he or she watches and must know who all the characters are.

 

[LAorange44]

Spot on. That why our decline for the last decade has been so bad for #brand. Absent those funny bubble tourney runs, kids today don’t think about Syracuse because we suck. You need a coach who has visibility and has won games.

 

[5OutFred]

Thought this thread was started in jest. Appears not. Respectfully, this type of thinking is part of the reason the program is where it is.

It's collectively time for the program and fanbase to think bigger, or tread more water in irrelevancy.

 

[Millhouse]

Isn't this the perfect opportunity to bring Hop back after the way he was unceremoniously forced out despite the transition plan? I'm curious how everyone would feel about that. Most of us feel that Red will be back next year, but this is so interesting to me. How would everyone feel about Hop being brought back for 2025-26? I would freaking love it.

No

 

[Dave]

Isn't this the perfect opportunity to bring Hop back after the way he was unceremoniously forced out despite the transition plan? I'm curious how everyone would feel about that. Most of us feel that Red will be back next year, but this is so interesting to me. How would everyone feel about Hop being brought back for 2025-26? I would freaking love it.

Big nope.

 

[Dave]

Bernie wss one of if not best bigman coach in country.

He did well with big men

 

[Dmcnabbrules]

Give the Drake coach whatever he wants.

 

[Cuse2023]

Give the Drake coach whatever he wants.

That one isn't happening. The guy is extremely picky and isn't leaving the Midwest.

 

[M2MPrinciples]

McCollum is only taking a non-blueblood HM job as a stepping stone to one.

 

[DilemaCuse]

In Hop's case at UW, I think he showed he can coach, but didn't get enough talent out there. He recruited like a mother****er out here though. That seems to be vice versa w regard to Red. Hop would be back in his element recruiting here.

It's been more than a minute. hops east coast recruiting connections have probably dried up. He'd be starting all over.