Washington Huskies basketball summer update
Now that the 2021-22 school year is over, we take an early summer look at the Washington Huskies basketball team.
Washington Huskies men’s basketball now goes into its sixth season with Mike Hopkins as head coach. The program started out well under Hopkins as he earned Pac-12 coach of the year in his first two seasons at Washington.
In Hopkins’ second season, the Huskies won the Pac-12 title and went to the NCAA tournament after missing out for eight years under coach Lorenzo Romar. The success Hopkins had was mostly with players recruited to Washington by Romar. Those successful seasons were followed up with 15-17 and 5-21, which wasn’t due to a lack of talent.
His overall record at Washington is 84-75, including 45-49 in the Pac-12. Except for last year’s 17-15 record and fifth-place conference finish, the Washington Huskies struggled with Hopkins’ recruits.
Hot Seat?
The school is now halfway through the six-year contract extension they signed Hopkins to in March 2019. If the Huskies have a losing season in 2022-23, will Washington Athletic Director Jen Cohen fire Hopkins with two years remaining on his contract? Terminating both the football coach and basketball coach in just over one year will tarnish Cohen’s reputation at Washington.
Should that happen, Cohen could go with former Husky great and assistant head coach Will Conroy, who coached a couple of games last season when Hopkins was out with Covid-19. Having a coach that knows the university, as well as in-state players, would be the choice to go with.
Remember Mark Few was an assistant at Gonzaga for ten years before making them the powerhouse they are today. The Huskies don’t necessarily need to have the same success but having a team that competes for the Pac-12 title more times than not is realistic.
mike hopkins' offense is a crime against basketball washington please fire this man
— max rodriguez (@njmaxrod) March 11, 2022