Hopkins Hears the Syracuse Question Once More
University of Washington basketball coach Mike Hopkins regularly holds a virtual Monday media session that often involves only Seattle-Tacoma journalists, but every once in a while someone else joins in.
Such was the case on Monday when a Syracuse University student reporter took part and quizzed Hopkins about the long-term relationship between the Orange's Jim Boeheim and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski.
The veteran coaches are scheduled to meet one last time on Saturday night when their teams meet at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse before Krzyzewski walks away from the game and retires.
For that matter, Boeheim could step down at any time as he approaches the end of his fifth decade as coach.
The reporter knew that Hopkins played for Syracuse in that first matchup for the college basketball legends in 1989 and asked for his memories.
"Boeheim's time is obviously coming in the next few years," he said, pressing Hopkins some about his future. "Is returning to Syracuse something you thought about or something you'd be interested in?"
Hopkins didn't say no.
He didn't say yes either.
Instead the fifth-year Husky coach basketball sort of hedged on his response, talking only about trying to right his program while not directly addressing Syracuse, where he spent a quarter of a century coaching.
"I think every day about getting our program, the University of Washington, back to where we were two years ago," Hopkins said. "Syracuse built me. Gave me the opportunity to do it here. [I'm] just so excited to get this place back to where it deserves to be and we work daily on trying to get that. That's my focus day in and day out."
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