Can Lloyd Avoid the Pratfalls That UW's Hopkins Has Encountered?

The Pac-12 doesn't often hire assistant coaches to become head basketball coaches. Arizona and Washington are exceptions.

Tommy Lloyd, meet Mike Hopkins.

You want to be just like him — a former assistant coach who took over a Pac-12 basketball program as the head coach.

And you don't want to be anything like him — have your winning ways shut off suddenly as if you didn't pay the electricity bill.

After 20 seasons at unbelievably successful Gonzaga, Lloyd has been asked to lead high-expectations Arizona through a rare coaching change and lingering program malaise, and restock the roster.

Four years ago, Hopkins showed up as this coaching apprentice who was asked to take over a far less successful and not quite so demanding University of Washington job after spending 22 seasons as the No. 2 man at Syracuse.

Hopkins was schooled by Jim Boeheim, much like Lloyd has learned the game from Mark Few. One is a hall of fame coach, the other will be.

Lloyd and Hopkins are the only basketball coaches in the Pac-12 Conference who came to their current jobs after serving as assistants only.

Now doesn't every college basketball head coach have to be an assistant at some point, you ask?

Yes, but typically they're head coaches somewhere else before they step into the pressures of the Pac-12. There's a learning curve. Typically a short window of opportunity. 

Lloyd is the first assistant coach hired to lead Arizona as its full-time basketball coach in 48 years — though, in that time, three assistants served as interim leaders during Lute Olson absences. 

Fred Snowden, a Michigan assistant, took over Arizona in 1973, stayed 10 seasons and oversaw the Wildcats' move into the then Pac-10. He resigned after suffering through losing records in three of four seasons in the new conference.

In exactly 100 seasons, the UW has hired 12 basketball coaches, and three previously were assistant coaches who moved up: Art McLarney (1948-50), Mac Duckworth (1964-68) and Hopkins (2017-to date).

McLarney and Duckworth were promoted in-house, elevated after serving as Husky assistant coaches, while Hopkins again came directly from Syracuse. 

Replacing a forced-out coach in Hec Edmundson, McLarney compiled a winning record (53-36) and took the UW to the NCAA tournament in his first season in 1948, but he was fired because he couldn't overcome alcoholic issues. 

Duckworth stepped in for John Grayson and lasted just five seasons, four of them losing, and he was fired after putting together an uninspiring 53-74 record.

Hopkins owns an overall 68-60 ledger at the UW, 34-39 in conference play, again coming off a disastrous 5-21 season, the second-worst in school history. He likely has one more season to right a program now more distressed than when he took over after Lorenzo Romar turned in a 9-22 record in 2017 that was considered a firing offense.

How long will Arizona, certain to draw added NCAA punishment for its extended list of basketball misdeeds under Sean Miller, give Lloyd to get the program back on solid footing?

While Lloyd's reputation is that of an accomplished international recruiter, much like Hopkins was construed as a top-notch domestic talent scout at Syracuse, he'll have to learn on the job how to use his personnel and manage games.

How to be the boss.

Hopkins admittedly has gone through his trial-and-error moments, criticized for substitution patterns that appear chaotic and privately and publicly bashed by some of his guys for poor player development. 

While he was a winner in his first two years in Seattle, Hopkins has had his accomplishments greatly overshadowed by the big falloff. His coaching ability clearly is under a microscope now.

Will Lloyd be able to survive on his own or will he constantly be on the phone with Few looking for pointers?

Attempting to stop the bleeding, Hopkins just hired Wyking Jones as a Husky assistant coach. Here's hoping the UW doesn't feel the need to promote him to the top job at some point.

Jones is the last failed Pac-12 assistant-to-head-coach hire, fired in 2019 at California following 8-24 and 8-23 seasons.

It will be interesting to see whose seat is more uncomfortable — Hopkins' or Floyd's — when the UW and Arizona play next season.

Follow Dan Raley of Husky Maven on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @HuskyMaven

Find Husky Maven on Facebook by searching: HuskyMaven/Sports Illustrated