Following Opening Win, Hopkins Keeps Things Loose in Las Vegas

At a late hour in Las Vegas, the news conference following the University of Washington's 82-70 opening-round victory over Utah at the Pac-12 tournament on Wednesday night was dragging along and best described as sleepy at best.

Mike Hopkins had seen — or heard — enough. It was time to get the party started, not finished.

Without warning, the fifth-year Husky basketball coach, as he is wont to do, took it upon himself to get everyone's attention.

"Go Dawgs! Let's go, wake up, it's 11 o'clock at night!" Hopkins bellowed, slapping the table in front of him four times and drawing snickers. "We're in Vegas, baby!"

The Husky players accompanying him, guards Terrell Brown Jr. and Jamal Bey, tried to hide grins. They looked at him as if he were their crazy uncle. Yet they'd seen this sort of playful outburst before.

Everyone in the room was momentarily stunned before it was back to traditional questions and answers for a few more minutes.

Hopkins leaned back and adjusted his tie, though clearly he was still feeling an adrenalin rush from the impromptu moment.

He was next asked why he used just a seven-player rotation against Utah.

"Him and they're really good," the coach said, pointing at Brown. "They're really effing [sic] good. They've got a really good chemistry. Sometimes coaches, get out of the way."

On Thursday night at T-Mobile Arena, Hopkins and the sixth-seeded Huskies (17-14) will go back to work against third-seeded USC (25-6), a team it lost to 79-69 on Feb. 17 in Los Angeles, in the tourney quarterfinals.

If his team wins again, or even if it doesn't, the coach always brings the strong possibility of making you laugh.

Appreciate him as a coach or not, but Hopkins is hard not to like. He keeps things interesting, a little off kilter, fun at all times.

Listen to the video atop this story to catch the coach's full theatrics from Vegas.

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