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Vorel to Jen Cohen: "Is UW men’s basketball coach Mike Hopkins’ job in jeopardy?"
DerekJohnson
Administrator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 59,954
“Absolutely not. I believe in Mike. I’m supportive of Mike. I’m excited to be his partner and figure out how we’re going to reevaluate things after this year. We’re looking to still move forward with the basketball (facility) project. Sometimes these things are cyclical. Sometimes they’re really frustrating. There’s nobody that’s more upset with losing and where this program is right now than Mike Hopkins and me. So I’m confident that we’re going to come up with a plan at the end of the year and we’re going to get headed back in the right direction.”
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Jen has needs too
And when she had the chance to lay down some requirements regarding increasing the football program status via power hiring moves to make up for losing CP as a draw, she let the new coach hang himself regarding the replacement coaches instead of stepping up and insisting that game changing coaches would be hired and it has snow balled from there.
Putting it bluntly, we have now lost the three main reasons that kids wanted to come to UW [CP as HC, coach K with the defense, and Lake as the DB coach that will get your to the League] and as this has evolved it was her responsibility to make sure that additional firepower was hired and in operation to either prevent or offset the losses.
We are talking about a GM that obviously has no power within the institution, no foresight to anticipate outcomes and no guts to step up when it's required ~ so we are now watching over the death of the positive momentum that was previously built.
Now both previous positive cash flow producing programs are in the tank and its her fault ~ as the GM its her responsibility to watch over the cash flow potential of the revenue sports and she has utterly failed.
If cost is such an issue then just cut Mike now and pay a measly $1m to the dad of the next one-and-done 5 star to be our head coach for one year. Better odds with that than sticking with a proven loser.
We won a national championship in softball when I was there. My only reaction was that the hottest player on the team had classes w me.
“One, we’re doing what we were always supposed to be doing, which is serving our students. We want to win at everything and we’re so competitive, but at the end of the day the athletic department exists to develop students, and we’re doing a hell of a job at that.
“We’ve kept all of our sports. We have a model to allow for all of our sports to train. We have student-athletes that achieved unbelievable academic success in the fall. So as hard as it’s been to not be able to be with the kids or be with fans, every time I talk to a student-athlete I’m reminded that we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing, which is serving them.”
The other message that you hear is how well all of the teams are doing all the way down to the pride and joy of intermural sports
Not exactly the message that resonates with top teams in the country... imagine hearing this feel good narrative at Ohio state or Alabama, but this is exactly the narrative that academically oriented loser major sports AD’s resort to while they watch their program go pathetically to pieces
Lets be clear. They stunk. Clear lack of belief, production and cohesiveness on the court. It's Hop's job to raise mentality of these guys and it's clear they lacked a lot in this department.
That said, it was pretty much all these players first time playing together on a court. Must be tough to jump straight into your first games of the season against Colorado who seems like they've had the same roster since 2010 and Baylor, who was undefeated until last week, when none of your rotations have played a real basketball game together. The early stretch of games was not what they needed and set the tone for what was a season full of growing pains.
Remember, the teams that featured Crisp, Dickerson, Thybulle, Greene were freaking horrific until their junior and senior years.
I think Tsohonis, Bey, Stevenson, Battle, Bajema, Brooks is a solid little group who could take a big leap forward confidence wise as a unit next season.
They're gonna need to get a transfer big man to come in because Roberts and Sorn can't be it. Jackson Grant should come in a provide immediate offense in the post which is something they desperately missed.
They played much better basketball in the 2nd half of the season... won a few games and lost a couple games close against teams they had no business being competitive with.
They may not challenge for a NCAA tournament, but I expect them to be somewhere middle of the PAC and I think Hop can get this thing back on track.
An AD worth a damn would realize this and be able to foresee another bottom feeder next year as well and cut ties immediately after season. There is no sugar coating this, Mike Hopkins has neutered this program and no school halfway serious about basketball would let him stick around past this year