Washington Basketball: Mike Hopkins’ recruiting prowess is no surprise

The Washington basketball team has found a fairly stellar groove in its recruiting under head coach Mike Hopkins, and the future appears bright in Seattle.

When Mike Hopkins agreed to take the helm of the Washington basketball squad more than two years ago, initially, it floored me. I’m a Syracuse alum, and a fanatic when it comes to Orange hoops. Hopkins served as a long-time assistant to Syracuse boss Jim Boeheim, and the succession plan involved Hopkins replacing his mentor in Central New York after Boeheim retired.

That never happened. Selfishly, it has pleased me to no end. For one, Boeheim is roaming the sidelines at SU for at least several more stanzas. Equally as important, Hopkins has gotten the opportunity to build up his own program, minus the shadow of Boeheim’s legacy lurking over him.

Without question, I’m a huge advocate of Hopkins. I think that he has tremendous coaching abilities. I believe that he’s an energetic, ethical and passionate person, and he clearly puts emphasis on community and family. What’s not to like about that?

In his pair of inaugural terms with the Huskies, albeit in a struggling Pac-12, all that Hopkins has done is record consecutive 20-victory seasons, guide Washington this past March to its first NCAA Tournament since 2011, and earn back-to-back conference Coach of the Year honors. As a result, the Huskies have extended Hopkins’ contract through 2025.

Washington, looking ahead to the 2019-20 campaign, has lost four key guys to graduation, and possibly leading scorer Jaylen Nowell to the NBA Draft, which will take place on June 20. Whether the Huskies will return to the Big Dance in 2020 remains unclear, but what’s transparent to me is the fantastic achievements that Hopkins has secured on the recruiting trail.

Jaden McDaniels, a 2019 five-star power forward out of Federal Way High School in Federal Way, Wash., elected to stay home and suit up for the Huskies, despite other suitors such as Kentucky. Okay, so some detractors would argue that McDaniels is from Washington, and it’s not a sizable shock that he will compete for the Huskies. Fine.

But 2019 five-star center Isaiah Stewart isn’t from Washington. He’s a Rochester, N.Y., native who most recently attended La Lumiere School in La Porte, Ind., and chose the Huskies over crews like Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State and Syracuse.

Hopkins, with Stewart and McDaniels, has a duo of players on opposite coasts who are each in the top 10 nationally in the 2019 class, according to both the 247Sports Composite and ESPN.com. That’s pretty darn good.

With McDaniels in tow, 247Sports slots Washington’s 2019 class in the top 10 across the country, as the Huskies have also nabbed four-star shooting guard RaeQuan Battle, three-star point guard Marcus Tsohonis, and Kentucky transfer Quade Green, a former five-star point guard out of Philadelphia.

Candidly, the recruiting accomplishments by Hopkins in his first few seasons at Washington doesn’t bewilder me one iota. He did an excellent job in the recruiting arena while Boeheim’s No. 1 assistant for years and years, bringing in numerous premier talents to Syracuse. He’s doing similar things in Seattle. The only difference, though, is that now Hopkins calls the shots.