Wtf?First time poster Just posted a bunch of shit and it somehow got deleted. Not sure if it was me Anyway....Hopkins sucksLadies coach sucksCohen sucksLocal talent could care less about the dawgs right now. I play with a large group of 40-50 players undercover outdoors right now and half are 16-22 year olds. None talk about the dawgs. It was never like that during the Romar Era. Even at the end kids talked about the dawgs.
https://twitter.com/jimbasnight/status/1348138744273006593https://twitter.com/jimbasnight/status/1348139346092728320 Jen is half-right with that. Sorry - Conroy has had more than enough tim and Dollar is just recycling Romar assistants. And Hop whiffed on Rose. The Boner would have been the correct hire there but he's sipping margaritas at Pepperdine. You think Conroy wants to run a 2-3 zone? No, no he doesn't. Local recruits aren't running from Conroy, they are running from Hop.
https://twitter.com/jimbasnight/status/1348138744273006593https://twitter.com/jimbasnight/status/1348139346092728320 Jen is half-right with that. Sorry - Conroy has had more than enough tim and Dollar is just recycling Romar assistants. And Hop whiffed on Rose. The Boner would have been the correct hire there but he's sipping margaritas at Pepperdine.
https://twitter.com/jimbasnight/status/1348138744273006593https://twitter.com/jimbasnight/status/1348139346092728320
Yeah. Hoop is my life man. Followed dawgs since the 80s. Family has had season tiks to Football since the 50s but I could care less about football. The amazing thing is that we don’t have a pro hoops team and for 4 years there has been very little talk among the kids I play with regarding the huskies. I’m not talking division 1 recruits. I am talking about the small college players...ones that should at least be fans of the huskies. Very few of them care and that wasn’t the case during most of the Romar Era. Who want to play in a duck fart zone that slows the game down. Syracuse is struggling in recruiting and has been for a decade now. Kids don’t want to play zone. All things equal most kids will choose a school that play man to man which forces a quicker pace of game. Hopkins lost this team mid last year. There was talks of a mass exodus at end of last year but it seems many were swayed to stay with promises of PT opportunities. Hopkins is nothing but a used car salesman who fooled the so called elite at UW.
Firing the assistants is a nice I'm showing you that I'm really mad and serious about fixing the problem ... but it's one step away from a complete dead person walking situation with the head coach plus you're not going to be able to hire any assistants worth a damn because they are all going to know that they are jumping on the sinking ship.Moreover, the thing that this year has completely insulated Jen from, and the thing that she's going to put her head in the sand about is the attrition of the season ticket base. I suspect that in a non-COVID environment she was going to lose probably in the range of 25% of season tickets. Next year, she's going to lose probably close to 50% if Hop is back because everybody with a pulse knows that he is pretty much damaged goods at this point combined with people that are going to have NHL season tickets and aren't going to give a shit about going to watch Hop lose by 15. The one thing that I marginally disagree with is that McDaniels was made an example of last year That's perception. The reality is that his body language was largely terrible and ranks right up there with Tony Wroten for me as least likable Huskies.Jen won't pull the plug though because not only is Hop her hire, but Wynn is also her hire, and the programs are basically the definition of dreck at this point.
Firing the assistants is a nice I'm showing you that I'm really mad and serious about fixing the problem ... but it's one step away from a complete dead person walking situation with the head coach plus you're not going to be able to hire any assistants worth a damn because they are all going to know that they are jumping on the sinking ship.Moreover, the thing that this year has completely insulated Jen from, and the thing that she's going to put her head in the sand about is the attrition of the season ticket base. I suspect that in a non-COVID environment she was going to lose probably in the range of 25% of season tickets. Next year, she's going to lose probably close to 50% if Hop is back because everybody with a pulse knows that he is pretty much damaged goods at this point combined with people that are going to have NHL season tickets and aren't going to give a shit about going to watch Hop lose by 15. The one thing that I marginally disagree with is that McDaniels was made an example of last year That's perception. The reality is that his body language was largely terrible and ranks right up there with Tony Wroten for me as least likable Huskies.Jen won't pull the plug though because not only is Hop her hire, but Wynn is also her hire, and the programs are basically the definition of dreck at this point. That so called perception is a reality to those within Rotary AAU and the Seattle basketball community. People, players, recruits talk and that's the word on the street courts. Which is why Mike Hopkins won't be getting any more recruits from the Rotary AAU basketball program word to Nolan Hickman (Kentucky), Paolo Banchero (Duke) and Shane Nowell (Arizona).I saw nothing wrong with Jaden's body language last season. Even when he was benched he enthusiastically cheered on his teammates from the bench which was visible to anyone that followed Husky basketball last season. If by body language you may mean that Jaden didn't run around the court smiling and laughing well he's not a circus clown. Jaden has a relatively moderate subdued demeanor on the court similar to that of Kawhi Leonard.I actually like what both Tony Wroten Jr and Jaden McDaniels did by choosing the UW over other offers and playing for the UW. I will always support local kids that choose to stay home and play for the UW over other University offers no matter what may happen on the court for better or for worse.
Firing the assistants is a nice I'm showing you that I'm really mad and serious about fixing the problem ... but it's one step away from a complete dead person walking situation with the head coach plus you're not going to be able to hire any assistants worth a damn because they are all going to know that they are jumping on the sinking ship.Moreover, the thing that this year has completely insulated Jen from, and the thing that she's going to put her head in the sand about is the attrition of the season ticket base. I suspect that in a non-COVID environment she was going to lose probably in the range of 25% of season tickets. Next year, she's going to lose probably close to 50% if Hop is back because everybody with a pulse knows that he is pretty much damaged goods at this point combined with people that are going to have NHL season tickets and aren't going to give a shit about going to watch Hop lose by 15. The one thing that I marginally disagree with is that McDaniels was made an example of last year That's perception. The reality is that his body language was largely terrible and ranks right up there with Tony Wroten for me as least likable Huskies.Jen won't pull the plug though because not only is Hop her hire, but Wynn is also her hire, and the programs are basically the definition of dreck at this point. That so called perception is a reality to those within Rotary AAU and the Seattle basketball community. People, players, recruits talk and that's the word on the street courts. Which is why Mike Hopkins won't be getting any more recruits from the Rotary AAU basketball program word to Nolan Hickman (Kentucky), Paolo Banchero (Duke) and Shane Nowell (Arizona).I saw nothing wrong with Jaden's body language last season. Even when he was benched he enthusiastically cheered on his teammates from the bench which was visible to anyone that followed Husky basketball last season. If by body language you may mean that Jaden didn't run around the court smiling and laughing well he's not a circus clown. Jaden has a relatively moderate subdued demeanor on the court similar to that of Kawhi Leonard.I actually like what both Tony Wroten Jr and Jaden McDaniels did by choosing the UW over other offers and playing for the UW. I will always support local kids that choose to stay home and play for the UW over other University offers no matter what may happen on the court for better or for worse. 1) Perception is often reality and once you’ve lost that with a core group it’s borderline impossible to get that back2) Not trying to be an ass, but the AAU community in Seattle has rubbed me wrong for a long time ... there’s an individual selfishness about everybody wanting to get theirs that just doesn’t jive with how I see things3) Your insinuation of what I consider positive body language is laughable and borderline insulting. My comments regarding Jaden is how often when things weren’t going well for himself he often dropped his head and sulked. Too often he made selfish decisions leading to technicals. 4) I’ve never once made comments not being appreciative or respective of Jaden choosing UW. Everybody has their reasons for things and can understand reasons for leaving early. That said, my opinion is anybody telling him he was ready for the NBA was blowing smoke up his ass. I hope for the best for his NBA career but I don’t have high expectations ... particularly with the situation he’s landed in. 5) For me, I will always call them as I see them and I’m not about blowing smoke up people’s ass. If you aren’t ready you aren’t ready. The truth is hard and not everybody always wants to hear it.
I am not a basketball guy--not even an IMA legend, so can somebody help me out with this:How does a coach go from winning the conference and winning conference coach of the year twice in a row to being the shittiest basketball coach ever to walk the earth? He had Thybulle and Nowell on those two teams, so are those two just THAT good? A couple of years ago, Hopkins seemed like the greatest hire ever to me as somebody who has no idea what I'm looking at: Made the team fun to watch those first two years, won a lot of games, beat Kansas, damn near beat Gonzaga, got two top-5 players to commit in the same class. What kind of smoke and mirrors were in place preventing me from seeing that it was a sinking ship?As for McDaniels, to my untrained eye at least, he just wasn't that good. I don't know anything about scapegoating, but his performance on the court wasn't something that would support some kind of conspiracy theory against him. I just looked at his stats from last season, and they ranked each statistic against every player in the conference. He was decently high with rebounds, but the only other statistical category in which he ranked higher than 20th in conference (20th in points per minute) was in ejections, and he was first in conference in that category. As for that being some kind of referee conspiracy, he also committed a shitload of fouls, so there's a pattern there. My memory of him in the times I watched the team before my eyes would start to bleed was that very rarely he would do something spectacular and the commentators would jizz into their mikes, but otherwise he was selfish with the ball and (possibly therefore) was a turnover machine. Not the greatest shooter, not the greatest ball handler, not the greatest defender. Why is it so tragic that a player like that was benched?Lot of Romar ball gargling going on around here all of a sudden. Maybe that's just Sark > Ty or maybe Basnight signed up?
Firing the assistants is a nice I'm showing you that I'm really mad and serious about fixing the problem ... but it's one step away from a complete dead person walking situation with the head coach plus you're not going to be able to hire any assistants worth a damn because they are all going to know that they are jumping on the sinking ship.Moreover, the thing that this year has completely insulated Jen from, and the thing that she's going to put her head in the sand about is the attrition of the season ticket base. I suspect that in a non-COVID environment she was going to lose probably in the range of 25% of season tickets. Next year, she's going to lose probably close to 50% if Hop is back because everybody with a pulse knows that he is pretty much damaged goods at this point combined with people that are going to have NHL season tickets and aren't going to give a shit about going to watch Hop lose by 15. The one thing that I marginally disagree with is that McDaniels was made an example of last year That's perception. The reality is that his body language was largely terrible and ranks right up there with Tony Wroten for me as least likable Huskies.Jen won't pull the plug though because not only is Hop her hire, but Wynn is also her hire, and the programs are basically the definition of dreck at this point. That so called perception is a reality to those within Rotary AAU and the Seattle basketball community. People, players, recruits talk and that's the word on the street courts. Which is why Mike Hopkins won't be getting any more recruits from the Rotary AAU basketball program word to Nolan Hickman (Kentucky), Paolo Banchero (Duke) and Shane Nowell (Arizona).I saw nothing wrong with Jaden's body language last season. Even when he was benched he enthusiastically cheered on his teammates from the bench which was visible to anyone that followed Husky basketball last season. If by body language you may mean that Jaden didn't run around the court smiling and laughing well he's not a circus clown. Jaden has a relatively moderate subdued demeanor on the court similar to that of Kawhi Leonard.I actually like what both Tony Wroten Jr and Jaden McDaniels did by choosing the UW over other offers and playing for the UW. I will always support local kids that choose to stay home and play for the UW over other University offers no matter what may happen on the court for better or for worse. 1) Perception is often reality and once you’ve lost that with a core group it’s borderline impossible to get that back2) Not trying to be an ass, but the AAU community in Seattle has rubbed me wrong for a long time ... there’s an individual selfishness about everybody wanting to get theirs that just doesn’t jive with how I see things3) Your insinuation of what I consider positive body language is laughable and borderline insulting. My comments regarding Jaden is how often when things weren’t going well for himself he often dropped his head and sulked. Too often he made selfish decisions leading to technicals. 4) I’ve never once made comments not being appreciative or respective of Jaden choosing UW. Everybody has their reasons for things and can understand reasons for leaving early. That said, my opinion is anybody telling him he was ready for the NBA was blowing smoke up his ass. I hope for the best for his NBA career but I don’t have high expectations ... particularly with the situation he’s landed in. 5) For me, I will always call them as I see them and I’m not about blowing smoke up people’s ass. If you aren’t ready you aren’t ready. The truth is hard and not everybody always wants to hear it. Most instances of truth are mostly based in one's perception as what may seem true to one person may not seem true to another.America's Capitalistic based society is all about everyone wanting to get theirs...and? I seen every player on the UW's team get upset during last season and this season at different points even the coaches. If that is sulking so be it. Selfish decisions led to technicals? Many of Jaden's technicals could be easily argued as refs singling him out. The only legit technical in my mind was the one for throwing the ball back at the UCLA player while he was sitting on the bench. The other technicals against Arizona, Montana, Utah, Hawaii, and I can't recall the other technical off the top, were all subjected to referee discretion.Jaden was more than ready for the NBA and has proven as much in his limited minutes as a rookie for Minnesota. The NBA's wide open game is better suited for his all around skill set on both ends of the court. His NBA future is very bright despite where he landed and barring injuries. And just from my reading the various Minnesota Timberwolves fan forums like Canishoopus the T'Wolves fans are very excited about his NBA future as well. They really like what they have seen from Jaden in limited minutes and some even want him thrown into the regular rotation right now.Opinions are like a$$holes, everyone has one. The only opinion that matters in most cases like Jaden's is his own. And he thought that he was ready to make the jump to the NBA. He was a first round draft pick and will earn more than $10 million dollars from his four year rookie contract before taxes.
I am not a basketball guy--not even an IMA legend, so can somebody help me out with this:How does a coach go from winning the conference and winning conference coach of the year twice in a row to being the shittiest basketball coach ever to walk the earth? He had Thybulle and Nowell on those two teams, so are those two just THAT good? A couple of years ago, Hopkins seemed like the greatest hire ever to me as somebody who has no idea what I'm looking at: Made the team fun to watch those first two years, won a lot of games, beat Kansas, damn near beat Gonzaga, got two top-5 players to commit in the same class. What kind of smoke and mirrors were in place preventing me from seeing that it was a sinking ship?As for McDaniels, to my untrained eye at least, he just wasn't that good. I don't know anything about scapegoating, but his performance on the court wasn't something that would support some kind of conspiracy theory against him. I just looked at his stats from last season, and they ranked each statistic against every player in the conference. He was decently high with rebounds, but the only other statistical category in which he ranked higher than 20th in conference (20th in points per minute) was in ejections, and he was first in conference in that category. As for that being some kind of referee conspiracy, he also committed a shitload of fouls, so there's a pattern there. My memory of him in the times I watched the team before my eyes would start to bleed was that very rarely he would do something spectacular and the commentators would jizz into their mikes, but otherwise he was selfish with the ball and (possibly therefore) was a turnover machine. Not the greatest shooter, not the greatest ball handler, not the greatest defender. Why is it so tragic that a player like that was benched?Lot of Romar ball gargling going on around here all of a sudden. Maybe that's just Sark > Ty or maybe Basnight signed up? Perhaps, LoRo just recruited more talented players than Mike Hopkins has to Montlake coupled with being a better head coach. Mike Hopkins did get what was left of arguably LoRo's best UW recruiting class (Chriss, Murray, Green, Crisp, Dickerson, Thybulle) right as they were maturing into Juniors then Seniors for his first two seasons coaching at the UW. Plus, they all had a chip on their collective shoulders to prove that they weren't the reason that LoRo was fired from his job as stated in various interviews that I read/viewed. What we do know is that as soon as LoRo's recruits that he counseled not to transfer after his firing left Montlake Mike Hopkins' coaching acumen has been exposed along with his lack of experience of not being able to properly manage a basketball program from recruiting a roster conducive to his style of play and monitoring that roster off of the court (academic suspension, sexual assault allegations). Mike Hopkins seemingly only knows one way to coach, especially on defense, but what is to be expected from a person that spent 22 years as an assistant coach at '2-3 zone defense' Syracuse. Now, four season after being hired Mike Hopkins finds himself in the very position that caused some to want LoRo fired- one and done players leaving the program combined with a young fairly inexperienced roster. Even though LoRo had his roster situation moving forward balanced out with experienced upperclassmen to absorb any potential one and done recruits in the future of the basketball program before his was suddenly fired.The UW (Jen Cohen) did hire Mike Hopkins from a dirty NCAA sanctioned program in Syracuse (2000-2012) https://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2015/3/9/8166543/syracuse-ncaa-scandal-explained-jim-boeheim . Where Mike Hopkins feigned ignorance to NCAA investigators when questioned concerning the particulars even though in his own words he was very involved with the players both on and off of the court. I believe it (academic fraud, failure to enforce drug testing-reporting policy, improper benefits) was described as a loss of institutional control by NCAA investigators in their summary. Jaden was second on the UW in assists as well as almost every other team statistical category. Jaden's offensive efficiency took a bit of a nosedive once Quade Green was lost for the season. If you care to take the time to look at his stat pre and post Green you might just see that for yourself. Don't forget that the refs call the fouls. And PAC-12 refs have been proven as being biased before word to Ed Rush. Perhaps, some of his turnovers came from trying to make passes to, plays for, his teammates as well? You think?Revisionist history from you right here as Jaden was a very gifted ball handler for being 6'10. Mike Hopkins even used him to bring the ball up against full court pressure at times. Also, Mike Hopkins used Jaden to defend point guards full court while they brought the ball up court at times last season. As well as, Jaden got a lot of deflections from his position in the 2-3 zone and even played at the guard position in the 2-3 zone last season showing his defensive versatility. Jaden was a very good shot blocker straight on, chase down and from the weak side. Was he perfect? No. But many Freshman struggle a bit adapting to the NCAA game. Don't forget Jaden ended the regular season as the PAC-12 Freshman of the Week after leading the UW to two road victories against the Arizona teams. He should have been named as the PAC-12 Player of the Week as well.Furthermore, LoRo was promised by Jen Cohen the opportunity to coach out his final season and highly rated incoming recruiting class then have his coaching job evaluated after the season. But he was blindsided by an abrupt firing, led by some wealthy-influential Tyee Club members, that left him in a daze walking around Alaska Airlines Arena as seen in an impromptu interview with KING5 News just after the fact. Those very same Tyee Club members seemingly had a plan in place to bring Mike Hopkins and Syracuse West to Montlake to replace the experienced LoRo with an inexperienced head coach in Mike Hopkins. Thus, a true coaching search was never conducted.Jen Cohen flew to NYC two days after firing LoRo to interview, then hire Mike Hopkins as the new UW men's basketball head coach https://www.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2017/03/timeline_of_mike_hopkins_hiring_washington_acted_swiftly_to_pluck_sus_coach_in_w.html .Jen Cohen was reportedly very impressed with Mike Hopkins' pre interview push ups. Lay down with an inexperienced coach from a dirty NCAA sanction program and wake up four seasons later with a basketball program in total unadulterated despair. From first to worst in one season...the only program to accomplish that feat in PAC-10/12 men's basketball history. And with the very real potential of back to back worst PAC-12 seasons it's not looking any better for the near future of the basketball program especially when looking at the lack of incoming HS recruits committing to the UW for 2020 & 2021.
I know multiple Tyee members including my Mom and Dad who won’t give one more penny to the Basketball program at UW as long as Hop is still coach. They donated enough to get their name on a stupid tunnel at the football stadium and now strictly support the softball and football team. They are far from alone in this matter among the Tyee members. The issue with rich people like my parents and other tyee members is they don’t like to admit when they are wrong. Power and money breed ego and stubbornness. The feeling at this moment is he gets one more year. This might chanhe if we end up going 2-20 though
I know multiple Tyee members including my Mom and Dad who won’t give one more penny to the Basketball program at UW as long as Hop is still coach. They donated enough to get their name on a stupid tunnel at the football stadium and now strictly support the softball and football team. They are far from alone in this matter among the Tyee members. The issue with rich people like my parents and other tyee members is they don’t like to admit when they are wrong. Power and money breed ego and stubbornness. The feeling at this moment is he gets one more year. This might chanhe if we end up going 2-20 though The women's program being in a comparable state of dreck can't be ignored either ...I'm not sure that I see Jen making 2 moves in the same year ...Wynn's the easier of the 2 to buyout from a hold your nose and buy it out ... and she's got her fair share of issues in that program as well.I could see Jen not realizing how bad the situation with Hop really is and kind of getting caught with her pants down when she realizes the bottom is completely gone with Hop next year.
Jaden was second on the UW in assists as well as almost every other team statistical category. Jaden's offensive efficiency took a bit of a nosedive once Quade Green was lost for the season. If you care to take the time to look at his stat pre and post Green you might just see that for yourself. Don't forget that the refs call the fouls. And PAC-12 refs have been proven as being biased before word to Ed Rush. Perhaps, some of his turnovers came from trying to make passes to, plays for, his teammates as well? You think?Revisionist history from you right here as Jaden was a very gifted ball handler for being 6'10. Mike Hopkins even used him to bring the ball up against full court pressure at times. Also, Mike Hopkins used Jaden to defend point guards full court while they brought the ball up court at times last season. As well as, Jaden got a lot of deflections from his position in the 2-3 zone and even played at the guard position in the 2-3 zone last season showing his defensive versatility. Jaden was a very good shot blocker straight on, chase down and from the weak side. Was he perfect? No. But many Freshman struggle a bit adapting to the NCAA game. Don't forget Jaden ended the regular season as the PAC-12 Freshman of the Week after leading the UW to two road victories against the Arizona teams. He should have been named as the PAC-12 Player of the Week as well.
Jaden was second on the UW in assists as well as almost every other team statistical category. Jaden's offensive efficiency took a bit of a nosedive once Quade Green was lost for the season. If you care to take the time to look at his stat pre and post Green you might just see that for yourself. Don't forget that the refs call the fouls. And PAC-12 refs have been proven as being biased before word to Ed Rush. Perhaps, some of his turnovers came from trying to make passes to, plays for, his teammates as well? You think?Revisionist history from you right here as Jaden was a very gifted ball handler for being 6'10. Mike Hopkins even used him to bring the ball up against full court pressure at times. Also, Mike Hopkins used Jaden to defend point guards full court while they brought the ball up court at times last season. As well as, Jaden got a lot of deflections from his position in the 2-3 zone and even played at the guard position in the 2-3 zone last season showing his defensive versatility. Jaden was a very good shot blocker straight on, chase down and from the weak side. Was he perfect? No. But many Freshman struggle a bit adapting to the NCAA game. Don't forget Jaden ended the regular season as the PAC-12 Freshman of the Week after leading the UW to two road victories against the Arizona teams. He should have been named as the PAC-12 Player of the Week as well. Basnight? Mrs. McDaniels?Look, I stated right off the top that I'm just a dumb fan when it comes to basketball. Played a ton of VERY low level pick-up ball decades ago (mostly just me and my brother going at it in the driveway), but never anything organized. I'm the first to admit I don't have a very nuanced opinion, just basic shit that any idiot can observe. Basic shit such as:1.) I wanted to stab my eyes out every time I had the "pleasure" of watching a LoRo-coached inbounds play. And let's not pretend his offense was some kind of brilliant thing, either. Better than Hopkins, sure, but Sark>Ty.2.) I didn't enjoy seeing LoRo do shady and pathetic shit like bringing a crappy assistant onto the payroll in order to secure the services of his sons on the team.3.) I could not figure out how a team could go 2-16 in conference with one of the best college basketball players I've ever watched at point (Fultz lived up to his billing). Hopkins comes in, takes a 2-16 team minus the first overall draft pick but with the addition of a pair of 4-star freshmen guards, and goes 10-8 and beats Kansas, winning conference coach of the year.It's that last point that has me confused and motivated me to post in this thread. On the surface, that sounds like a pretty damned good coaching job by Hop, but now it's all gone to shit and I didn't get why.Again, I don't understand the rosy picture being painted of the later LoRo years. Better than current Hopkins? Well fuck yeah, no shit! Anything's better than winless. But it's not like Romar's teams weren't also painful to watch. Looked like completely undisciplined, uncoached ratball. I still have no problem with firing Romar and only regret (with the benefit of hindsight) what we got in return. I'm not some Hopkins supperer--far from it: He should be shitcanned immediately for the nosedive we're seeing. And you make a good point about the off-court failures, which just adds to my feeling that he should be shitcanned. But Hopkins spectacularly flaming out doesn't suddenly make Romar amazing. It's possible for them to both suck.As for McDaniels, sure seems like it's you who's interested in revisionist history. I was here in many of the game threads to read the collective disappointment at his performance. Hell, BTP's butthole is still a mile wide with how badly he got his shit pushed in on this forum over his prediction of McDaniels being Kevin Durant 2.0 and the team making the Final Four. Being second on the team in assists isn't that impressive when the team is 5-13. And I remember his amazing ball-handling skills for somebody 6'10", but I also remember him losing the ball a lot while trying to use them, hence the hate in the game threads. Whatever; I wasn't trying to trash the guy and I wish him well in the NBA, just saying that his benching never seemed undeserved to me at the time. From the outside looking in, the team wasn't playing well together, and he sure looked like a catalyst for that breakdown, but that's ignorant fan on the outside looking in stuff. To that end, there was a post in the Wam about the team being pissed that Hopkins called out the whole team for fouling too much in an effort to avoid singling out McDaniels (same post that mentioned the Timmins jersey fiasco). That sounds the opposite of throwing McDaniels under the bus.Whatever. Anti-McDaniels conspiracy or not, Hopkins sucks, has lost the team, can't recruit, and he needs to go. Doesn't make me miss Romar. Or All-American/Final-Four/Kevin-Durant-2.0 McDaniels.
I am not a basketball guy--not even an IMA legend, so can somebody help me out with this:How does a coach go from winning the conference and winning conference coach of the year twice in a row to being the shittiest basketball coach ever to walk the earth? He had Thybulle and Nowell on those two teams, so are those two just THAT good? A couple of years ago, Hopkins seemed like the greatest hire ever to me as somebody who has no idea what I'm looking at: Made the team fun to watch those first two years, won a lot of games, beat Kansas, damn near beat Gonzaga, got two top-5 players to commit in the same class. What kind of smoke and mirrors were in place preventing me from seeing that it was a sinking ship?As for McDaniels, to my untrained eye at least, he just wasn't that good. I don't know anything about scapegoating, but his performance on the court wasn't something that would support some kind of conspiracy theory against him. I just looked at his stats from last season, and they ranked each statistic against every player in the conference. He was decently high with rebounds, but the only other statistical category in which he ranked higher than 20th in conference (20th in points per minute) was in ejections, and he was first in conference in that category. As for that being some kind of referee conspiracy, he also committed a shitload of fouls, so there's a pattern there. My memory of him in the times I watched the team before my eyes would start to bleed was that very rarely he would do something spectacular and the commentators would jizz into their mikes, but otherwise he was selfish with the ball and (possibly therefore) was a turnover machine. Not the greatest shooter, not the greatest ball handler, not the greatest defender. Why is it so tragic that a player like that was benched?Lot of Romar ball gargling going on around here all of a sudden. Maybe that's just Sark > Ty or maybe Basnight signed up? Perhaps, LoRo just recruited more talented players than Mike Hopkins has to Montlake coupled with being a better head coach. Mike Hopkins did get what was left of arguably LoRo's best UW recruiting class (Chriss, Murray, Green, Crisp, Dickerson, Thybulle) right as they were maturing into Juniors then Seniors for his first two seasons coaching at the UW. Plus, they all had a chip on their collective shoulders to prove that they weren't the reason that LoRo was fired from his job as stated in various interviews that I read/viewed. What we do know is that as soon as LoRo's recruits that he counseled not to transfer after his firing left Montlake Mike Hopkins' coaching acumen has been exposed along with his lack of experience of not being able to properly manage a basketball program from recruiting a roster conducive to his style of play and monitoring that roster off of the court (academic suspension, sexual assault allegations). Mike Hopkins seemingly only knows one way to coach, especially on defense, but what is to be expected from a person that spent 22 years as an assistant coach at '2-3 zone defense' Syracuse. Now, four season after being hired Mike Hopkins finds himself in the very position that caused some to want LoRo fired- one and done players leaving the program combined with a young fairly inexperienced roster. Even though LoRo had his roster situation moving forward balanced out with experienced upperclassmen to absorb any potential one and done recruits in the future of the basketball program before his was suddenly fired.The UW (Jen Cohen) did hire Mike Hopkins from a dirty NCAA sanctioned program in Syracuse (2000-2012) https://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2015/3/9/8166543/syracuse-ncaa-scandal-explained-jim-boeheim . Where Mike Hopkins feigned ignorance to NCAA investigators when questioned concerning the particulars even though in his own words he was very involved with the players both on and off of the court. I believe it (academic fraud, failure to enforce drug testing-reporting policy, improper benefits) was described as a loss of institutional control by NCAA investigators in their summary. Jaden was second on the UW in assists as well as almost every other team statistical category. Jaden's offensive efficiency took a bit of a nosedive once Quade Green was lost for the season. If you care to take the time to look at his stat pre and post Green you might just see that for yourself. Don't forget that the refs call the fouls. And PAC-12 refs have been proven as being biased before word to Ed Rush. Perhaps, some of his turnovers came from trying to make passes to, plays for, his teammates as well? You think?Revisionist history from you right here as Jaden was a very gifted ball handler for being 6'10. Mike Hopkins even used him to bring the ball up against full court pressure at times. Also, Mike Hopkins used Jaden to defend point guards full court while they brought the ball up court at times last season. As well as, Jaden got a lot of deflections from his position in the 2-3 zone and even played at the guard position in the 2-3 zone last season showing his defensive versatility. Jaden was a very good shot blocker straight on, chase down and from the weak side. Was he perfect? No. But many Freshman struggle a bit adapting to the NCAA game. Don't forget Jaden ended the regular season as the PAC-12 Freshman of the Week after leading the UW to two road victories against the Arizona teams. He should have been named as the PAC-12 Player of the Week as well.Furthermore, LoRo was promised by Jen Cohen the opportunity to coach out his final season and highly rated incoming recruiting class then have his coaching job evaluated after the season. But he was blindsided by an abrupt firing, led by some wealthy-influential Tyee Club members, that left him in a daze walking around Alaska Airlines Arena as seen in an impromptu interview with KING5 News just after the fact. Those very same Tyee Club members seemingly had a plan in place to bring Mike Hopkins and Syracuse West to Montlake to replace the experienced LoRo with an inexperienced head coach in Mike Hopkins. Thus, a true coaching search was never conducted.Jen Cohen flew to NYC two days after firing LoRo to interview, then hire Mike Hopkins as the new UW men's basketball head coach https://www.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2017/03/timeline_of_mike_hopkins_hiring_washington_acted_swiftly_to_pluck_sus_coach_in_w.html .Jen Cohen was reportedly very impressed with Mike Hopkins' pre interview push ups. Lay down with an inexperienced coach from a dirty NCAA sanction program and wake up four seasons later with a basketball program in total unadulterated despair. From first to worst in one season...the only program to accomplish that feat in PAC-10/12 men's basketball history. And with the very real potential of back to back worst PAC-12 seasons it's not looking any better for the near future of the basketball program especially when looking at the lack of incoming HS recruits committing to the UW for 2020 & 2021. Agree that Hop inherited significant talent from LoRo and to Hop's credit was able to get them in a position to be successful. You make 2 very interesting and relevant points that should be factored in regarding young players maturing into upper class players (very true that you tend to see jumps as players mature) and players having a chip on the shoulder with motivation to prove that they weren't the reason for a coach being fired. Motivation is always good to have on your side.The last 18 months have really exposed a number of issues with Hop. The academic issue of Quade are really strange when you think about it. There's really no excuse for that taking place with the resources that UW has in the academic area. While there's definitely some egg on Hop for that, there's got to be a ton of accountability put on Quade for not doing his work. Both deserve some significant eye raising. The Naz situation really raises a lot of eyebrows from me. I'll admit that I haven't gone too far down the timeline of who knew what and when but it definitely feels as if there was some burying of the news until you couldn't bury it anymore. In contrast, if you think about how Pete would have handled that situation with the football program you'd expect that any claim with merit would have been met with some kind of removal from the team pending the investigation/outcome. Generally speaking, the surest way to get fired at UW isn't because you're a shitty coach but because you have institutional control issues that will make the University of Washington look bad. Only thing that I can think of is that you're not hearing a lot about this stuff because it's being leveraged as part of the reasoning for firing Hop after this year and doing so with some form of cause to reduce the buyout. This stuff is normally raw meat for the Seattle Times to make the UW look bad.Quade's suspension torpedoed the team. I will contend that at worst with Quade that UW was a .500 conference team last year. The end result was playing players that weren't capable of playing at the P12 level and asking players to do things that they weren't capable of doing. I've said it elsewhere so I'm not going to belabor but I don't think Jaden per se was singled out by refs. I do think that as he got a reputation for doing stupid shit that led to T's, it put a target on him for officials to look out for. But by and large, I didn't see a lot where I thought that the calls weren't earned or were unfair. Your last part about Freshman needing time to adapt to the college game is definitely true. I think what you really saw from Jaden last year was that he was really a 2-3 year college player instead of a 1 and done. The pressure he put on himself to live up to what I believe to be a predetermined expectation of being a 1 and done led to a lot of his struggles and compounding effect as things went south. I'm not really going to opine on whether or not Cohen promised LoRo anything other than to say that LoRo missed the NCAA Tournament 6 straight years and had a record at or below .500 in the PAC 12 for 5 straight years. Moreover, as an outside observer, it was very clear that he was feeling the heat and started making staffing, etc. decisions to increase recruiting results that in the past that he had been very vocal about calling out as unethical at best. That more than anything led me into being firmly in the enough was enough category. As for the decisions to hire Hopkins, I think this is a trend that Jen has in that she's more about making a quick hire than going through a search. It's a dangerous game that can have really negative outcomes. You've mentioned previously Hop's zone and kids not wanting to play that. There's probably some truth to it although the reality is that even in the NBA there's a lot of zone concepts mixed into a man scheme so everything is ultimately a blend. The bigger reality is that the pure zone that Hop and Syracuse play is a terrible match for today's skill set as kids have grown up watching guys like Steph shoot and that skill set is much better than it used to be. To combat that, Hop's zone has extended out and around the 3 point line which effectively opens up everything in the 2 point area. The zone still works great against teams that can't pass or shoot at a decent level ... but against anybody that can do that, they tear UW up. Offensively, Hop's messed up because at the core of his defensive philosophy often comes to recruiting players that fit the defense first and the end result is just not enough guys that have the required offensive skill set to succeed in the way the game is played today. If you have a good passing/shooting team surrounding Stewart last year, you'd be almost impossible to beat because few if any could defend him on the interior 1 on 1. Instead, the lack of shooters made it too easy to sag and collapse.Jen's got a lot of work to do to unbury this situation and how much the Tyee boosters are willing to pony up to rectify the mistake is huge. My guess is that neither really want to admit their mistake and will go another year unless the scandal issues force the hand of upper campus to come in and take control.
This is way too much text for a coach who fucking sucks
The cost to buyout hop is nothing compared to the lost revenue keeping this circus around. Jen should be fighting for her job, it was a colossal fuck up hiring then extending Hop and everybody in the room knows it. Flash those Booooobs or whatever it takes to get the buyout money.
I am not a basketball guy--not even an IMA legend, so can somebody help me out with this:How does a coach go from winning the conference and winning conference coach of the year twice in a row to being the shittiest basketball coach ever to walk the earth? He had Thybulle and Nowell on those two teams, so are those two just THAT good? A couple of years ago, Hopkins seemed like the greatest hire ever to me as somebody who has no idea what I'm looking at: Made the team fun to watch those first two years, won a lot of games, beat Kansas, damn near beat Gonzaga, got two top-5 players to commit in the same class. What kind of smoke and mirrors were in place preventing me from seeing that it was a sinking ship?As for McDaniels, to my untrained eye at least, he just wasn't that good. I don't know anything about scapegoating, but his performance on the court wasn't something that would support some kind of conspiracy theory against him. I just looked at his stats from last season, and they ranked each statistic against every player in the conference. He was decently high with rebounds, but the only other statistical category in which he ranked higher than 20th in conference (20th in points per minute) was in ejections, and he was first in conference in that category. As for that being some kind of referee conspiracy, he also committed a shitload of fouls, so there's a pattern there. My memory of him in the times I watched the team before my eyes would start to bleed was that very rarely he would do something spectacular and the commentators would jizz into their mikes, but otherwise he was selfish with the ball and (possibly therefore) was a turnover machine. Not the greatest shooter, not the greatest ball handler, not the greatest defender. Why is it so tragic that a player like that was benched?Lot of Romar ball gargling going on around here all of a sudden. Maybe that's just Sark > Ty or maybe Basnight signed up? Perhaps, LoRo just recruited more talented players than Mike Hopkins has to Montlake coupled with being a better head coach. Mike Hopkins did get what was left of arguably LoRo's best UW recruiting class (Chriss, Murray, Green, Crisp, Dickerson, Thybulle) right as they were maturing into Juniors then Seniors for his first two seasons coaching at the UW. Plus, they all had a chip on their collective shoulders to prove that they weren't the reason that LoRo was fired from his job as stated in various interviews that I read/viewed. What we do know is that as soon as LoRo's recruits that he counseled not to transfer after his firing left Montlake Mike Hopkins' coaching acumen has been exposed along with his lack of experience of not being able to properly manage a basketball program from recruiting a roster conducive to his style of play and monitoring that roster off of the court (academic suspension, sexual assault allegations). Mike Hopkins seemingly only knows one way to coach, especially on defense, but what is to be expected from a person that spent 22 years as an assistant coach at '2-3 zone defense' Syracuse. Now, four season after being hired Mike Hopkins finds himself in the very position that caused some to want LoRo fired- one and done players leaving the program combined with a young fairly inexperienced roster. Even though LoRo had his roster situation moving forward balanced out with experienced upperclassmen to absorb any potential one and done recruits in the future of the basketball program before his was suddenly fired.The UW (Jen Cohen) did hire Mike Hopkins from a dirty NCAA sanctioned program in Syracuse (2000-2012) https://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2015/3/9/8166543/syracuse-ncaa-scandal-explained-jim-boeheim . Where Mike Hopkins feigned ignorance to NCAA investigators when questioned concerning the particulars even though in his own words he was very involved with the players both on and off of the court. I believe it (academic fraud, failure to enforce drug testing-reporting policy, improper benefits) was described as a loss of institutional control by NCAA investigators in their summary. Jaden was second on the UW in assists as well as almost every other team statistical category. Jaden's offensive efficiency took a bit of a nosedive once Quade Green was lost for the season. If you care to take the time to look at his stat pre and post Green you might just see that for yourself. Don't forget that the refs call the fouls. And PAC-12 refs have been proven as being biased before word to Ed Rush. Perhaps, some of his turnovers came from trying to make passes to, plays for, his teammates as well? You think?Revisionist history from you right here as Jaden was a very gifted ball handler for being 6'10. Mike Hopkins even used him to bring the ball up against full court pressure at times. Also, Mike Hopkins used Jaden to defend point guards full court while they brought the ball up court at times last season. As well as, Jaden got a lot of deflections from his position in the 2-3 zone and even played at the guard position in the 2-3 zone last season showing his defensive versatility. Jaden was a very good shot blocker straight on, chase down and from the weak side. Was he perfect? No. But many Freshman struggle a bit adapting to the NCAA game. Don't forget Jaden ended the regular season as the PAC-12 Freshman of the Week after leading the UW to two road victories against the Arizona teams. He should have been named as the PAC-12 Player of the Week as well.Furthermore, LoRo was promised by Jen Cohen the opportunity to coach out his final season and highly rated incoming recruiting class then have his coaching job evaluated after the season. But he was blindsided by an abrupt firing, led by some wealthy-influential Tyee Club members, that left him in a daze walking around Alaska Airlines Arena as seen in an impromptu interview with KING5 News just after the fact. Those very same Tyee Club members seemingly had a plan in place to bring Mike Hopkins and Syracuse West to Montlake to replace the experienced LoRo with an inexperienced head coach in Mike Hopkins. Thus, a true coaching search was never conducted.Jen Cohen flew to NYC two days after firing LoRo to interview, then hire Mike Hopkins as the new UW men's basketball head coach https://www.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2017/03/timeline_of_mike_hopkins_hiring_washington_acted_swiftly_to_pluck_sus_coach_in_w.html .Jen Cohen was reportedly very impressed with Mike Hopkins' pre interview push ups. Lay down with an inexperienced coach from a dirty NCAA sanction program and wake up four seasons later with a basketball program in total unadulterated despair. From first to worst in one season...the only program to accomplish that feat in PAC-10/12 men's basketball history. And with the very real potential of back to back worst PAC-12 seasons it's not looking any better for the near future of the basketball program especially when looking at the lack of incoming HS recruits committing to the UW for 2020 & 2021. Agree that Hop inherited significant talent from LoRo and to Hop's credit was able to get them in a position to be successful. You make 2 very interesting and relevant points that should be factored in regarding young players maturing into upper class players (very true that you tend to see jumps as players mature) and players having a chip on the shoulder with motivation to prove that they weren't the reason for a coach being fired. Motivation is always good to have on your side.The last 18 months have really exposed a number of issues with Hop. The academic issue of Quade are really strange when you think about it. There's really no excuse for that taking place with the resources that UW has in the academic area. While there's definitely some egg on Hop for that, there's got to be a ton of accountability put on Quade for not doing his work. Both deserve some significant eye raising. The Naz situation really raises a lot of eyebrows from me. I'll admit that I haven't gone too far down the timeline of who knew what and when but it definitely feels as if there was some burying of the news until you couldn't bury it anymore. In contrast, if you think about how Pete would have handled that situation with the football program you'd expect that any claim with merit would have been met with some kind of removal from the team pending the investigation/outcome. Generally speaking, the surest way to get fired at UW isn't because you're a shitty coach but because you have institutional control issues that will make the University of Washington look bad. Only thing that I can think of is that you're not hearing a lot about this stuff because it's being leveraged as part of the reasoning for firing Hop after this year and doing so with some form of cause to reduce the buyout. This stuff is normally raw meat for the Seattle Times to make the UW look bad.Quade's suspension torpedoed the team. I will contend that at worst with Quade that UW was a .500 conference team last year. The end result was playing players that weren't capable of playing at the P12 level and asking players to do things that they weren't capable of doing. I've said it elsewhere so I'm not going to belabor but I don't think Jaden per se was singled out by refs. I do think that as he got a reputation for doing stupid shit that led to T's, it put a target on him for officials to look out for. But by and large, I didn't see a lot where I thought that the calls weren't earned or were unfair. Your last part about Freshman needing time to adapt to the college game is definitely true. I think what you really saw from Jaden last year was that he was really a 2-3 year college player instead of a 1 and done. The pressure he put on himself to live up to what I believe to be a predetermined expectation of being a 1 and done led to a lot of his struggles and compounding effect as things went south. I'm not really going to opine on whether or not Cohen promised LoRo anything other than to say that LoRo missed the NCAA Tournament 6 straight years and had a record at or below .500 in the PAC 12 for 5 straight years. Moreover, as an outside observer, it was very clear that he was feeling the heat and started making staffing, etc. decisions to increase recruiting results that in the past that he had been very vocal about calling out as unethical at best. That more than anything led me into being firmly in the enough was enough category. As for the decisions to hire Hopkins, I think this is a trend that Jen has in that she's more about making a quick hire than going through a search. It's a dangerous game that can have really negative outcomes. You've mentioned previously Hop's zone and kids not wanting to play that. There's probably some truth to it although the reality is that even in the NBA there's a lot of zone concepts mixed into a man scheme so everything is ultimately a blend. The bigger reality is that the pure zone that Hop and Syracuse play is a terrible match for today's skill set as kids have grown up watching guys like Steph shoot and that skill set is much better than it used to be. To combat that, Hop's zone has extended out and around the 3 point line which effectively opens up everything in the 2 point area. The zone still works great against teams that can't pass or shoot at a decent level ... but against anybody that can do that, they tear UW up. Offensively, Hop's messed up because at the core of his defensive philosophy often comes to recruiting players that fit the defense first and the end result is just not enough guys that have the required offensive skill set to succeed in the way the game is played today. If you have a good passing/shooting team surrounding Stewart last year, you'd be almost impossible to beat because few if any could defend him on the interior 1 on 1. Instead, the lack of shooters made it too easy to sag and collapse.Jen's got a lot of work to do to unbury this situation and how much the Tyee boosters are willing to pony up to rectify the mistake is huge. My guess is that neither really want to admit their mistake and will go another year unless the scandal issues force the hand of upper campus to come in and take control. Mike Hopkins knew of Quade's academic situation weeks in advance of Green being suspended and did almost nothing to manage that situation except to burn Marcus Tsohonis' redshirt season. Quade had no issues doing the school work while waiting to become eligible after transferring into the UW from Kentucky. Perhaps all the practices, games, travel left him a bit overwhelmed and he couldn't, didn't get the proper help that he needed. For those who may not know Quade was born 80% deaf, didn't speak for the first few years of his life, had a stuttering problem as a kid, has auditory hearing implants in both ears, and overcame a learning disability as a kid. Quade is doing just fine this season staying eligible so he must be getting the help that he needed last season this season. That being said Quade could have easily dropped out of school but instead faced and overcame his academic issues which speaks volumes to his character. Jen Cohen did promise LoRo that he would have the upcoming season to coach out then his job status would be evaluated after the completion of the season. Jen Cohen signed off on the Michael Porter Sr hire as well. My best guess is that some wealthy influential Tyee Club boosters didn't want LoRo to have that potential chance to succeed which would mean that he would be around longer so they persuaded Jen Cohen to fire (buyout) LoRo and then hire Mike Hopkins two days after the fact. The UW MBB program is dying under Mike Hopkins' leadership. Even in LoRo's worst seasons top HS recruits still wanted to play for the program and that should speak volumes in comparing the two coaches before and after the fact. LoRo was all class and had life long connections throughout the American basketball community. Many parents trusted LoRo enough to send their sons to play for him at the UW despite the UW's less than stellar seasons. Mike Hopkins not so much.
