As Husky Season Winds Down, 1 of 3 Things Will Happen
Mike Hopkins is forever positive when he talks about his University of Washington basketball team, no matter what the circumstances.
Such was the case when his 2019-20 team lost 13 of its final 17 outings.
Hopkins held firm to the belief his guys were never far from a turnaround.
The same thing happened a year ago, when the Huskies dropped 21 of 26 games over a pandemic-challenged season.
As loss after loss piled up, Hopkins insisted his players — answering to their mystifying marketing motto "Tougher Together" — were still unified in the face of all that adversity.
Of course, six guys immediately bolted for the door and into the transfer portal once all the losing ended a year ago, with a couple of them badmouthing Hopkins either publicly or privately on their way out.
On Saturday night in Los Angeles, the Huskies looked as woefully inept as in any outing over the past three seasons, losing to UCLA 76-50 after falling behind by as many as 37 points.
This embarrassing outcome came a week following a miserable 24-point loss to Arizona at home and a month after a 28-point beatdown by Oregon in Eugene.
Husky basketball is floundering badly.
Rougher Together.
Mike Hopkins advises Husky forward Langston Wilson.
Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
Hopkins, in his fifth season at the UW, likely is in big trouble now if he wasn't already.
He seems powerless to fix this mess for the long term.
He remains forever positive, but hamstrung to push the program forward.
His track record of recruiting high school talent is spotty at best.
The former Syracuse assistant coach has a team built around the high-scoring Terrell Brown Jr., who is likely down to six or seven games left with the Huskies.
He doesn't have another big point-producer waiting in the wings.
More importantly Hopkins has no big men who contribute much of anything to the cause, young or old.
He's in danger of totally turning off a Seattle fan base pining for a positive college basketball experience to rally around. This was evident by the big turnout that came out for the recent UW-Arizona game but began leaving with 10 minutes remaining when things went totally out of hand.
Of course, this is a program that has been forever neglected by the school throughout much of its modern-day existence, where football is and always will be the priority.
Husky basketball has enjoyed momentary brilliance in town with teams built around prolific NBA-bound guards in Brandon Roy, Isaiah Thomas and Matisse Thybulle. Yet typically it has stumbled around to the point that the previous five coaches before Hopkins were summarily fired.
Mike Hopkins makes a point to UCLA's Mick Cronin.
Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
With the exception of Isaiah Stewart and Jaden McDaniels, who weren't Huskies long, talented big men don't come to Montlake to play basketball.
Even with Lorenzo Romar as coach, sadly this was the case. It's always been suggested that promising post players won't consider the UW knowing they won't be coached up properly and advance their careers in Seattle. This stubbornly remains the case.
It seems incomprehensible that 6-foot-10 freshman Jackson Grant, a McDonald's All-American, is ill-equipped to play a meaningful role now 25 games into his first season with the Huskies.
The same could be said about swingmen newcomers Langston Wilson and Samuel Ariyibi, plus point guard Dominiq Penn, all young players recently brought in with scholarships in hand but having little to no impact this season.
A year ago, Hopkins went out and plucked four Division I transfers from the portal, all Seattle or Tacoma natives who provided a quaint storyline by coming home together. They've evolved into a break-even basketball team that beats opponents with similar firepower but loses badly to the good teams. Their coach didn't find them a big man.
Brown and injured point guard Daejon Davis soon will use up their eligibility. It's unclear whether swingmen Emmitt Matthews Jr. and PJ Fuller will use their season of eligibility remaining.
The Huskies have signed a small forward and point guard for next season, but have done nothing to address the absence of a paint presence.
Hopkins, as personable and likable as any Husky basketball coach, has looked noticeably drawn if not worn out in recent weeks. Part of that might have been his bout with COVID.
As the season comes down to its final three weeks, one of three things is going to happen involving this basketball coach at the UW:
1) Hopkins will return, hoping if not wishing for future success that looks fleeting at best.
2) He'll get fired with the UW athletic department noting there's been a general lack of progress for three seasons now — there's no way of hiding the fact he's lost 46 of his past 68 games.
3) Or Hopkins, having given it his best shot but now understanding that Husky basketball is and always will be a dead-end job, steps down on his own and leaves it for someone else to try and fix.
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