Washington Basketball: 8 candidates to replace Mike Hopkins as Head Coach

Bryce Drew

Hopkins was a long-term assistant at Syracuse without basically any head coaching experience, so it’s unlikely that the Huskies are going to hire another high major assistant with a similar background. They’ll be looking at people with head coaching experience and winning pedigree, so interviewing Drew seems like a good idea.

A native of Baton Rouge, Drew starred at Valparaiso and made a memorable buzzer beater back in 1998 before a six-year NBA career. His coaching career began at his alma mater in 2011, leading the then-Crusaders to a pair of trips to the NCAA Tournament. After flaming out in three years as head coach at Vanderbilt, Drew has bounced back nicely at Grand Canyon, with two more trips to the Big Dance in his first three seasons and perhaps another in a few weeks.

At the mid-major level, Drew has been fantastic, with a boatload of conference titles in his years at Valparaiso and Grand Canyon. It’s easy to look at a rough stretch at Vanderbilt, but he was hit hard by injuries and inconsistency despite great recruiting work while in Nashville. While Washington and the Big Ten might not exactly be the best landing spot, Drew should get another shot at the high major level at some point, especially with all the winning he’s done down in Arizona.