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Pete Thamel, ESPN
The University of Washington has informed coach Mike Hopkins that he will not return as the men’s basketball coach next season, sources told ESPN.
Hopkins will coach out the remainder of the 2023-24 season, according to sources, including the Pac-12 tournament and any postseason that Washington (17-14, 9-11 Pac-12) reaches afterwards.
Hopkins has one full year remaining on his deal, and will be owed nearly $3.1 million for the remainder of his deal, per his contract.
Hopkins is 118-105 over seven seasons at Washington, which included one NCAA tournament appearance in 2019 when Washington won the conference title. Hopkins won the Pac-12 Coach of the Year award during each of his first two seasons at Washington.
Since that 2019 NCAA bid, Washington has not reached the NCAA tournament. They won a game in the 2019 NCAAs and finished that year 27-9. Since then, Washington has been inconsistent, including a 5-21 season in 2020-21.
Hopkins’ tenure includes coaching a flurry of high-profile Huskies players, including NBA draft picks like Matisse Thybulle, Isaiah Stewart and Jaden McDaniels. This year, Keion Brooks Jr. is the Pac-12’s leading scorer at 21.3 points per game.
As Washington athletics transitions to the Big Ten for the 2024-25 academic year, they will embark on a national search for an experienced head coach, per sources.
Expect the Washington brass to put a premium on head coaching experience, per sources, similar to the priority that new athletic director Troy Dannen did during Washington’s football search earlier this year. This will mark Dannen’s second high-profile hire since taking the job in October.
He hired former Arizona coach Jedd Fisch to replace Kalen DeBoer, who left for Alabama after Washington reached the College Football Playoff title game following the 2023 football season.
The opening at Washington will become an interesting litmus test of how the job is viewed nationally as a Big Ten job, especially with the continued financial gap through television contracts that the league and the SEC are forging compared to other conferences.
Hopkins came to Washington as the head coach in 2017 after working at Syracuse for Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim for 22 seasons. He was part of a staff that reached 16 NCAA tournaments, four Final Fours and the 2003 national title.
He’s a native of Southern California who played collegiately at Syracuse. He also has been a major contributor to USA Basketball, as he’s been a court coach on nine different USA Basketball staffs.
Washington will enter the Pac-12 tournament with some momentum, as the Huskies have won two of the past three games. That includes a 74-68 win on Thursday night at No. 18 Washington State and a home victory against UCLA on Feb. 29.