POWER MOVE: Inside Mike Hopkins’ departure from the only school he ever knew

The Daily Orange – The Independent Student Newspaper of Syracuse, New York

Hopkins called Boeheim early Saturday afternoon and asked if he could come over. Boeheim obliged, but Hopkins needed to be quick. Jamie Boeheim, a Jamesville-DeWitt (New York) High School junior, had a basketball game that night in Troy for the state playoffs and the Boeheims were leaving soon. The two families live in the same Fayetteville neighborhood, but the cold forced Hopkins to drive a few houses down.
Hopkins entered the house, turned left and joined the 72-year-old in a side room. Boeheim closed the doors, which surprised his wife, Juli. Sitting on a couch, Hopkins told his boss. The two grown men at the top of their profession were made vulnerable.
“You know I’m a big crier,” Hopkins said. “You know that.”
The night before, lying in bed with his wife, Tricia, Hopkins couldn’t fall asleep. Tricia pestered her husband about his back-and-forth with his soon-to-be new boss after the two spoke earlier Friday. First-year UW Director of Athletics Jennifer Cohen had called Bret Just, Hopkins’ agent, notifying him of the Huskies’ interest in his client. When Just relayed the message to Hopkins, it piqued his interest more than any other inquiry had. His restlessness brought back memories of waking up at 2 a.m. as a California kid to write alternating scenes of a screenplay with his friend.
Hopkins’ name has been on the Huskies’ radar for “a long time,” Cohen told The Daily Orange. (UW fired Lorenzo Romar, its coach of 15 years, on March 15.) Still, the AD didn’t know if Hopkins would bite considering his pending takeover, and the mutual interest surprised her.
“He had started to allow himself to dream,” Cohen said, “about maybe something different than what he’s always known.”
On Wednesday, tucked away in a team room below court level in Alaska Airlines Arena, Hopkins recited an excerpt from his favorite ...

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