Mike Hopkins to the Phoenix Suns

[Gotothehole]

We can go fund that move right now

 

[Jake]

Quade was such a disappointment in so many ways. Hope he doesn’t implode.

Think about it. That kid ’d three programs...and essentially ’d Hop twice. That’s hard to do.

 

[moqui]

Think about it. That kid ’d three programs...and essentially ’d Hop twice. That’s hard to do.

that's what she said

 

[Cuse1055]

When Hop first left to go to UW I thought that was it and he was never going to come back to coach. The success he initially experienced on the court as well in recruiting solidified my belief that he was never coming back because he had now built his own legacy at his own program. However, I’m now starting to believe that one way or another he will come back “home”, especially since Boeheim seems to have at least 2-3 more years. As others have mentioned, he is the perfect fit for our program. He loves our program and city, knows our legacy and history, and has all of the recruiting connections to dominate the Northeast. Side note: I’d love to see him school Spaz Hurley on the recruiting trail.

 

[CousCuse]

This Huskie fans bashing of Hop is nothing compared to what Syracuse fans would do when and if he gets the Orange head coaching job and has a bad season.

 

[nyucuse]

Yeah??? So what? I hope you guys get rid of him. He is always welcome back here. I will tell you this. He will not be out of work long. As for you guys, you will be looking for a coach again in another 3 years. Oh, and if your argument is that Hop can't coach, then you know nothing about college hoops.

Dash, appreciate your posts and you are generally very measured. But I disagree here. While I think it is certainly premature for UW to put Hop on the hot seat, I just do not see a situation and where in 2-5 years Hop has been a bust at UW but SU welcomes him back with open arms, and the fans are happy. The fanbase would go apoplectic. Would we love have him as an assistant, absolutely. Now if he turns it around and does great over the next few seasons, yes that would be fantastic to welcome him back. But otherwise, I just don't understand it.

The fans would be clamoring for a very strong mid-major hire, or a step up hire from a lower level P5 program where the coach has performed well. Think Holtmann, Mack, Tony Bennett. Now if Hop is a Tony Bennett, that is a massive win for us. But if he does not win 20+ games for a few seasons, we should and will demand a coach who has proven to be successful.

 

[dasher]

Dash, appreciate your posts and you are generally very measured. But I disagree here. While I think it is certainly premature for UW to put Hop on the hot seat, I just do not see a situation and where in 2-5 years Hop has been a bust at UW but SU welcomes him back with open arms, and the fans are happy. The fanbase would go apoplectic. Would we love have him as an assistant, absolutely. Now if he turns it around and does great over the next few seasons, yes that would be fantastic to welcome him back. But otherwise, I just don't understand it.

The fans would be clamoring for a very strong mid-major hire, or a step up hire from a lower level P5 program where the coach has performed well. Think Holtmann, Mack, Tony Bennett. Now if Hop is a Tony Bennett, that is a massive win for us. But if he does not win 20+ games for a few seasons, we should and will demand a coach who has proven to be successful.

Thanks but if you read my post again, I didn't mention that he would be welcome back as a head coach. I just said he would be welcomed back here.

 

[Trueblue25]

I think of our season with Donte Greene

 

[nyucuse]

Thanks but if you read my post again, I didn't mention that he would be welcome back as a head coach. I just said he would be welcomed back here.

100% agree we would love to have him as the top assistant. But I can't imagine his aspirations would not be higher than that.

 

[dasher]

100% agree we would love to have him as the top assistant. But I can't imagine his aspirations would not be higher than that.

I'm sure they are. But all I said was that we would love to take him back. I will also add that if he is on a hot seat after just 3 years, two of which he earned coach of the year awards, he might be more inclined to leave.

 

[orangecuse]

This Huskie fans bashing of Hop is nothing compared to what Syracuse fans would do when and if he gets the Orange head coaching job and has a bad season.

Perhaps. However, it may just come down to fans expectations moving forward. Just as some here have spoken their peace relative to how looney tunes UW would be to get rid of Hop compared to their hoops history, respective recent success, current events, etc., ours has been much more rich.

Therefore, it depends if SU fans moving forward still expect us to be near the top of our respective conference year in and year out like the 'ol Big East days and high tourney seeds. Or, as we have been since our ACC inception, a general ho hum, middle of the pack, epitome of mediocrity consistent bubble type. If SU fans are more accepting of the later, and what we've become these past several years of the JB regime, our new normal so to speak, then perhaps Hop doesn't get so much flak if he can simply maintain the status quo, embedded with an improbable deep tourney run every so many years?

 

[CuseRunner]

I think of our season with Donte Greene

We were decimated by injuries that season 2007-2008. Rautins before season, Devo early in the season. If not for those injuries we make the tournament and possibly win least a couple games. That team was super talented if healthy.

 

[Cuse1055]

We were decimated by injuries that season 2007-2008. Rautins before season, Devo early in the season. If not for those injuries we make the tournament and possibly win least a couple games. That team was super talented if healthy.

Great points. We lost our 2 best outside threats. That’s also part of the reason Donte’ played the perimeter more than we would have liked: without Andy and Devo, Donte’ was our best 3 point threat left.

 

[HuskyHooper]

I'm trying to evaluate Hop as fairly as I can. What he did in his first two years was amazing. There is no denying that. But to be fair, he took over a team that had a lot of talent thanks to Romar.

Hop can coach, he has already proved that. The question is, can he build a program. Can he recruit, develop players and win games? That is yet to be determined. I think he can win games, but I'm questioning his ability to recruit and develop players. A big cause for concern is what has happened with Quade Green and Naz Carter. Losing two players to violations is inexcusable, especially losing a guy to academics. From what I've heard, it's on the coaches to make sure their players get the right grades to play.

Hop has gone an interesting route this past year. We have no one signed for this years class, but he was able to get a lot of transfers. Stevenson from Wichita. Brooks from USC. Bajema from Michigan. He has also seen a couple players transfer out, but that was expected.

If Hop bottoms out again this year, he probably doesn't get fired, but the opportunity will be there as he only has one recruit signed past this season.

 

[Wrinkle]

Hop is our guy, and must be the next coach of the Orange. Plain and simple

 

[HuskyHooper]

Hop is our guy, and must be the next coach of the Orange. Plain and simple

I think he would do well if he went back east. I just don't know what kind of recruiting ties he has out here. He is yet to show he can hold his own out here as a recruiter. I know he is highly respected back east. He got McDaniels, but that was all Conroy who pulled him in. His east coast ties are starting to dry up as he has been out here for a while now. Just feels like Hop is spread out too much as a recruiter. Feels like he has one foot still in NY and the other in Seattle.

 

[pfister1]

The fans would be clamoring for a very strong mid-major hire, or a step up hire from a lower level P5 program where the coach has performed well. Think Holtmann, Mack, Tony Bennett. Now if Hop is a Tony Bennett, that is a massive win for us. But if he does not win 20+ games for a few seasons, we should and will demand a coach who has proven to be successful.

This is completely UNREALISTIC thinking.

SU is not a step up move for the guys you named.

Holtmann at Ohio State
Chris Mack at Louisville
Tony Bennett at Virginia

A move to SU is at best a lateral move in each case, and credible arguments can be made that it is a step down for each guy. It is not clear to me that SU would or could win a bidding war for the services of any of them nor that a lateral move at a similar pay structure is going to lure any of them away from their current situations.

A more realistic "lower level P5" transfer would be Nate Oates from Alabama. Putting aside compensation, I think SU's has a leg up on Bama. Of course the money that they are rolling in .... can quickly close the gap on just about every front except history and I'm not sure history holds as much cache as it used to.

 

[TampaLaker]

This is completely UNREALISTIC thinking.

SU is not a step up move for the guys you named.

Holtmann at Ohio State
Chris Mack at Louisville
Tony Bennett at Virginia

A move to SU is at best a lateral move in each case, and credible arguments can be made that it is a step down for each guy. It is not clear to me that SU would or could win a bidding war for the services of any of them nor that a lateral move at a similar pay structure is going to lure any of them away from their current situations.

A more realistic "lower level P5" transfer would be Nate Oates from Alabama. Putting aside compensation, I think SU's has a leg up on Bama. Of course the money that they are rolling in ... can quickly close the gap on just about every front except history and I'm not sure history holds as much cache as it used to.

Read nyu's post again... he is not saying SU should get any of those three, but someone LIKE those three. I think he would agree that Nate Oates would be a good choice.

 

[pfister1]

Read nyu's post again... he is not saying SU should get any of those three, but someone LIKE those three. I think he would agree that Nate Oates would be a good choice.

If he means guys like those 3 before they jumped to their current jobs then I agree.

 

[nyucuse]

This is completely UNREALISTIC thinking.

SU is not a step up move for the guys you named.

Holtmann at Ohio State
Chris Mack at Louisville
Tony Bennett at Virginia

A move to SU is at best a lateral move in each case, and credible arguments can be made that it is a step down for each guy. It is not clear to me that SU would or could win a bidding war for the services of any of them nor that a lateral move at a similar pay structure is going to lure any of them away from their current situations.

A more realistic "lower level P5" transfer would be Nate Oates from Alabama. Putting aside compensation, I think SU's has a leg up on Bama. Of course the money that they are rolling in ... can quickly close the gap on just about every front except history and I'm not sure history holds as much cache as it used to.

Read my post again. I am saying we should be doing what Ohio St, UL, Virginia have done in recent years, i.e. pull a highly successful coach from a Butler, Xavier, Wash St type program. Not these specific guys from where they are now.

The program absolutely can get someone with a profile like that and that likely provides the greatest opportunity for continued success. Oates is definitely a consideration, assuming he doesn't blow up too much at Bama, which he might as his recruiting has been excellent. They have the pockets to keep him or the competition may very well become Duke, UNC, etc in a couple years.

 

[longtimefan]

Our problem has been we used to have a top of the league starting 5 and then we had a bench with talent that could play but didn’t play because JB prefers to play his best players more minutes.

Players didn’t have to be finished products as freshman to get PT.
The quality of our starting 5 isn’t as strong as the top ACC teams and when it isn’t as talented we have less margin for error to win.
We have done solidly against Duke but UVA and UNC have owned us the last 5 years.

If players don’t see playing time they aren’t going to sit on the bench when they can PT elsewhere.

We used to have 1 top 25-50 recruit every year and multiple top 100 recruits.
See the 2015 class.

Since 2015 our classes haven’t been stocked.
Now that sanctions are gone our recruiting should be better.

Generally true. But we did beat both--on the road--last season.

Plus, there was that Elite 8 comeback vs. the Cavs.

 

[Eagles20]

I'm trying to evaluate Hop as fairly as I can. What he did in his first two years was amazing. There is no denying that. But to be fair, he took over a team that had a lot of talent thanks to Romar.

Hop can coach, he has already proved that. The question is, can he build a program. Can he recruit, develop players and win games? That is yet to be determined. I think he can win games, but I'm questioning his ability to recruit and develop players. A big cause for concern is what has happened with Quade Green and Naz Carter. Losing two players to violations is inexcusable, especially losing a guy to academics. From what I've heard, it's on the coaches to make sure their players get the right grades to play.

Hop has gone an interesting route this past year. We have no one signed for this years class, but he was able to get a lot of transfers. Stevenson from Wichita. Brooks from USC. Bajema from Michigan. He has also seen a couple players transfer out, but that was expected.

If Hop bottoms out again this year, he probably doesn't get fired, but the opportunity will be there as he only has one recruit signed past this season.

yes athletic departments have resources to direct student athletes to for help with school work. They also will stay on the athletes- mandatory study halls etc. Just like anything their is only so much you can do- the individual still had to be willing to put in the time to stay eligible in the classroom.

 

[cuseinseattle]

Why do you sound so angry? I’m not even saying Hop should or will be fired. I just said the seat is hot.

Hop is a top notch defensive coach. His offense could be better, but you don’t need great offense when you have a great defense. His issue right now is he has no recruits incoming.

You do realize if you guys had Hop, and the talent he had last season, and he finished in last place, most of this forum would be calling for his firing. You guys don’t know the recruiting profile in Seattle, but to say he fell on his face in the 2020 and 2021 class would be putting it nicely.

Who is saying this? Morons posting on dawgman? I have multiple friends who are high school coaches, one has won a state title and has sent kids to the PAC 12. No one is saying this. People are disappointed after last season but like Hop. No one is concerned with his ability to recruit.

 

[CousCuse]

Who is saying this? Morons posting on dawgman? I have multiple friends who are high school coaches, one has won a state title and has sent kids to the PAC 12. No one is saying this. People are disappointed after last season but like Hop. No one is concerned with his ability to recruit.

Dawgman, I've got to check this out.

 

[HuskyHooper]

Who is saying this? Morons posting on dawgman? I have multiple friends who are high school coaches, one has won a state title and has sent kids to the PAC 12. No one is saying this. People are disappointed after last season but like Hop. No one is concerned with his ability to recruit.

No one is concerned with his ability to recruit?

Banchero was likely going to UW until he saw what happened last season. His parents are both big time UW alumnus, and both are very close with the UW AD. Up until a few months ago, it was either UW or going pro.

Hickman, Watson and Nowell were misses. Hop recruited them all heavily, none chose UW. Nowell is concerning as he is from the city and his brother went to UW. Hickman was projected to go to UW up until the very end. Somewhere Hop or the program lost them.

We have Jackson Grant signed. That’s it. Not exactly promising. 2021 class was suppose to the big year recruiting class for UW, especially with the lack of in state talent for the 2020 class. It was a big miss. The idea was Hop didn’t sign anyone in 2020 to go all in 2021. We have one recruit for this year and next.