Vorel to Jen Cohen: "Is UW men’s basketball coach Mike Hopkins’ job in jeopardy?"

Not every team can have an Altman

As far as the Cuog coach is concerned, following year 2, everyone here was fully on board with Hop and would have said the future is bright. Difference is Hop won a tourney game in his second year... Cuog finished 3rd to last and some are jealous? Jfc...

If we’re looking at their record as anything more than the typical little brother shit where they play up to their opponent because they’re all players who feel that they’ve been dissed then idk what to tell you.

FremontTroll said:

BroadcastingDawg said:

FremontTroll said:

BroadcastingDawg said:

DerekJohnson said:

“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.”

Unpopular opinion. And I'm ready for the fuck offs or whatever they are. But I really like Hop.

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.

BroadcastingDawg said:

DerekJohnson said:

“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.”

Unpopular opinion. And I'm ready for the fuck offs or whatever they are. But I really like Hop.

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.

Wait so if they get a transfer big and Hop’s one recruit is good they might finish middle of the conference if everything breaks right but still miss the tournament?

And that’s your pitch for keeping Hop?

I think anyone was kidding themselves thinking that a coach going through his first run with a program wouldn't have ups and downs. Short of hiring Mark Few, who do you think we can bring in here that's going to make this program a perennial tourney contender? I don't see it.

A lot of Husky fans were hoping the program would hire Archie Miller from Dayton a few years back... Indiana is 12-13 and near the bottom of their conference... he's on the verge of getting canned after mostly middling seasons since he's been hired. Same thing w. Shaka Smart... a lot of fans wanted him here, and even with elite talent pumping in every year at Texas... they've largely been just above mediocre. He's in year 6 at Texas, and to his credit, they're having the best year they've had under him... but he had an 11-22 season where the team finished 4-12 in conference in 2016-17.

I think Hop should get one more year to see if the team makes a turn in a positive direction... and it seems that's what he's going to get.

Yes, most coaches fail. Hence why it is important to cut bait as soon as you know the current coach isn’t getting it done so you can maximize the number of times you get to “roll the dice” on a new hire and hope to hit the point.


Hop clearly is gonna get another year because we are not cutthroat like we need to be.

But the thing is you aren’t even forecasting a turnaround even if everything breaks right (and everything never goes right.) Middle of the conference isn’t acceptable. If that’s the ceiling we need to move on now.

In a vacuum I agree with you

But when factoring in the cost of buyouts those rolls of the dice get expensive

Looking at lists for coaches on the hot seat and seeing what their buyouts look like really screams how fucked up Jen was with the terms she gave Hop ... the security is way above market rates

Tequilla said:

I don’t see any way that Hop gets fired with the buyout that he has

I would expect though that there’s some turnover in the assistants though ... that’s an easy optical change

They do have some players on the roster that can be part of the rotation going forward and have generally played better the 2nd half of the year ... watching a team just rank to the finish line would be very concerning

I expect that there will be continued roster turnover and Hop clearly seems keen on using transfers as a supplement to recruiting

The shocking part is their failure to recruit and develop quality big men...

BPJ and Nate Roberts were clearly shelved in favor of Dickerson's senior year and Stewart's freshman year... Roberts stuck around but his game is appalling... I don't know what he did on campus the first 2 years at UW... cause I find it hard to believe that even playing at the IMA you couldn't work on some simple post moves, in which he has none. That is an indictment on Hop and his coaching staff... how they could fail this hard to develop the kid at all is just... oof. But it's also an indictment on him... how can you sit around for 2 years and get worse at basketball?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOtjpseXC9o

Is it the muscle he put on? He had to have put on 50 lbs of muscle at UW. I mean take a look at the video above and tell me if you see the same player. I have never once seen Roberts attempt a 5 foot jumper like in this vid... he actually took a shot from just inside the arc and nailed it too...

I don't get it.

Miley_Cyrus said:

Jesus Christ, there are so many things wrong with this thread it’s hard to know where to begin.

As far as who we can bring in that’s better, here’s where I’d start:

-Mark Pope. Has BYU looking good and is from here.
-Leon Rice. Boise has been toward the top of the mountain west all year and he’s built a solid program there.
-Travis Decuire. Not sure he’d be at the top of the list but worth including here
-Tommy Lloyd. This one’s a longshot but you gotta at least shoot your shot.
-The field. Lots of good coaches at smaller programs. Just start with the programs in first place in their conferences and see who you can find that’d be a good fit and has some sustained success.

It will be interesting to see what Pope does when he finally uses his recruits... his first year at BYU his top 3 scorers were all seniors... 2 of them 25 years old. His 2nd year at BYU his top 3 scorers are all senior transfers from AZ, Purdue, and UVU. Not really sure this is sustainable... Plus he's got like 6x juniors who are like 24 year old coming back next year. It's a weird program to gauge success from. Also BYU had great teams before he got there: 19-13, 21-10, 22-11, 23-10, 25-9, 23-11, 21-11, 25-8, 30-4 the previous 9 years before Pope got there... so it's not like he had a dumpster fire to turn around.

Since Rice has been the head coach at Boise State they are 2-29 against ranked opponents. Against traditional power opponents not in their own conference (including SMU, Creighton, Houston), they are 11-25. Nevada and SDSU are the traditional powers of their conference the last number of years... over their last 22 games, Boise is 4-18 against them. Long story short, they beat up on the shitty opponents of their conference and get exposed whenever they play someone good.

I'm pretty sure UW would get roasted into oblivion if they hired Decuire... Montana is 12-12 with a 7-9 conference record in 2021 and they lost to Montana Tech in 2019... Montana has a tech school, who knew? As sad as it is that they upset UW this year, it would be an absolutely embarrassing hire and step down.

If you can bring in Lloyd, fantastic. He's an Eastern Washington boy though, not sure Seattle is his jam.

FremontTroll said:

Wait, Pope is allowed to recruit in addition to bringing in transfers? Somebody tell Hop.

To be fair, he hasn't really recruited much of anything. He's only got 3 players in 2 years...

Miley_Cyrus said:

Jesus Christ, there are so many things wrong with this thread it’s hard to know where to begin.

As far as who we can bring in that’s better, here’s where I’d start:

-Mark Pope. Has BYU looking good and is from here.
-Leon Rice. Boise has been toward the top of the mountain west all year and he’s built a solid program there.
-Travis Decuire. Not sure he’d be at the top of the list but worth including here
-Tommy Lloyd. This one’s a longshot but you gotta at least shoot your shot.
-The field. Lots of good coaches at smaller programs. Just start with the programs in first place in their conferences and see who you can find that’d be a good fit and has some sustained success.

Shit, at this point I’d try Whoopi Goldberg. She turned the Knicks around.

Pope going back home would be kind of weird. How do you tell a kid to stay at UW and out of the portal when you're Mark Pope?

That said he seems to be a good coach and obviously has ties to the area. Makes sense for sure. Just weird to think about.

I heard Coach Hop will be back next year and he’s cleaning house. A large portion of the returning players have been encouraged to transfer out and some JUCO players will be coming in. Expect some changes on the coaching staff as well.

greenblood said:

picalogestabo said:

I heard Coach Hop will be back next year and he’s cleaning house. A large portion of the returning players have been encouraged to transfer out and some JUCO players will be coming in. Expect some changes on the coaching staff as well.

Bringing in a bunch of JUCO transfers when you are known to be a below average coach. How can this go wrong?

Hopkins is done

Next year won't be much if any better

We all know not firing him now is just delaying the inevitable. Poor leadership and poor decision making allow this too happens.

1to392831weretaken said:

FINE, I'll do it. If you guys are going to bitch this much, I guess I have no choice but to step up. I'm going to need some assistants. Who's in?

The throbber knows more about coaching basketball that 99% of the people out there. So, sure.

But He don't do assistant gigs. Fuck that. Head guy and the rest of you can ride my coattails. @swaye is in charge of recruiting and Starbucks cups.

Hire BRoy and ask questions later

Isn't Hopkins' buyout $11 or $13 million until after the 2021 season? Seems like hitting the JC / transfer portal hard and changing a couple of assistants would be more likely than big hitter wallets stepping forward to help with the buy-out.

No thread to congratulate Hop and the boys on fighting to cover the spread against 8th place Utah?

I think that’s a moral victory they will really be able to build on this off-season.

Given that this UW team played worse than the pre Hop UW team, I have a question. If the Husky basketball team finishes 6th in the Pac 12 next year, does Hop win his 3rd Pac12 coach of the year award?