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DONE DEAL: Mike Hopkins, a former Orange assistant coach, is joining the Phoenix Suns in Syracuse men’s basketball.
Hopkins recently concluded a seven-year tenure as the Washington Huskies’ head coach.
In his nearly 30-year coaching career, former Syracuse Orange men’s basketball assistant Mike Hopkins will be coaching on the sidelines in the NBA for the first time.
The Phoenix Suns have signed Hopkins to a new contract as an assistant coach, as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Pete Thamel first revealed on Tuesday morning. With NBA players Kevin Durant and Devin Booker on the roster, the Phoenix squad struggled last season; new Suns coach Mike Budenholzer, who was just hired to help stabilize the team, will be Hopkins’ immediate boss.
He joined Washington in 2017 after working for over 20 years as an assistant under former Syracuse men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim. Hopkins also previously played for four years (1990 to 1993) under Boeheim, where he averaged 5.7 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game in 111 career games with the Orange.
Washington announced in the midst of the 2023–24 season that Hopkins will not be returning to the position of head coach. In Hopkins’ final season as head coach, the Huskies finished 17-15 overall and 9-11 against the Pac-12.
Hopkins took the Huskies, who had finished 9-22 overall the year before he took over, and led them to a 21-win season in his first season as coach at Washington.
Hopkins’ second year saw the Huskies finish 27-9 overall and make it to the NCAA Tournament’s second round. Washington also won the Pac-12 regular season championship that year, which was a first for the Huskies since 2011–12.
However, Hopkins’ finest Washington season was that of 2018–19. In his final five years as head coach, the Huskies only twice finished above.500 (17-15 in 2022 and 2024) and never again made it to the NCAA Tournament.
Hopkins finished his seven-year stay at Washington with an overall record of 118-106.
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