Syracuse men’s basketball assistant coach Mike Hopkins bounded across the basketball court at Manley Field House on Friday during the team’s annual media day. He hugged staff members, put his arms around reporters, joked and laughed.

After another offseason of courting offers from Division I schools like Massachusetts to be their head basketball coach, Hopkins is back on the bench for his 11th season as the assistant coach at his alma mater, and he couldn’t be happier.

‘I want to be over-prepared,’ Hopkins said. ‘I want to keep learning. I don’t want to just take a job. But trust me, I dream about coaching.’

Hopkins has spent most of the past 16 years at Syracuse. A 1993 graduate of SU, Hopkins returned to Syracuse in 1995 when Orange head coach Jim Boeheim brought him on to coach the guards.

Since then, Hopkins has become Syracuse’s top recruiter. Recruits are impressed not only with the tradition of the Syracuse program, but also with Hopkins’ easygoing yet energetic personality.

‘He’s like my high school coach,’ Antonio ‘Scoop’ Jardine said in early October. Jardine, a Neumann-Goretti High School (Philadelphia) junior, verbally committed to Syracuse on Sept. 28. ‘(Hopkins) is hyper, he’s active. He’s crazy. I like that.’

But Hopkins, who has been very busy trying to recruit members of the high school Class of 2008 this fall, hasn’t just started nabbing top recruits for the Orange now.

Syracuse senior Gerry McNamara also credited Hopkins as a big reason he decided to play for the Orange. Hopkins and McNamara immediately formed a relationship in recruiting and McNamara continues to look to the SU assistant for advice, whether about his jump shot or some matter outside of basketball.

‘He’s been great with me since day one and we have a pretty good relationship,’ McNamara said. ‘We’re as on the same page as you can get. I’ve learned so much from him. When I play my best, it’s because of what we’ve done together. He’s going to be big for me.’

Syracuse almost lost Hopkins after its championship season in 2003 when St. Bonaventure interviewed him for its head coaching position. The possibility to move up the coaching ranks while remaining in Central New York appealed to Hopkins, but his loyalty is ultimately with the Orange.

The possibility of one day being Orange head coach has crossed Hopkins’ mind a few times, but he realizes many great head coaching opportunities will probably come his way before his dream job becomes vacant. Just because he’s been at Syracuse for a long time doesn’t mean he will remain with the Orange for his entire career, he said.

For now, Hopkins is happy to be back with the Orange and working with coach Jim Boeheim. Hopkins just wants to absorb as much as he can from the Hall of Famer before his turn to be a head coach comes along.

‘(The Syracuse assistant coaches) have the best jobs in America,’ Hopkins said. ‘He’s a great boss.’

Up to the juniors

Hakim Warrick is gone. So are Josh Pace and Craig Forth. Senior Gerry McNamara can only do so much. So when Boeheim speaks about his team, he points to the junior class as the catalyst for the Orange.

Boeheim tabbed the class last year as important for the overall success of Syracuse when they were sophomores. But this year the four scholarship juniors – Demetris Nichols, Louie McCroskey, Terrence Roberts and Darryl Watkins – will all move into significant roles for Syracuse after spending most of their first two years as role players.

‘Everybody has to be able to come in and contribute,’ Roberts said. ‘Coach Boeheim, the way he rotates players, you never know what he’s going to do and you never know until game time who’s starting and who’s not.’

Nichols, McCroskey and Roberts have all started at some point in their careers. Watkins will start consistently for the first time this season due to the graduation of four-year starter Forth.

More importantly, the Orange will rely on the juniors to convert prior experience into veteran leadership. Roberts, who is noted for showing emotion on the court, said he is ready to move into a leadership position and will be more vocal this season.

‘They have to be able to go out, night in, night out and produce consistently, but that’s what they want to do,’ Boeheim said. ‘They want that opportunity, and I’m sure they would have liked to have had it last year, but there were people there in their way. I think they’re more than ready this year.’

This and that

Boeheim said Syracuse freshman Andy Rautins has mononucleosis and will rest for a few weeks. He will be back for the start of the season. … Nichols changed his uniform number from four to 34. He used 34 in high school and in AAU, but former Orange Jeremy McNeil had the number when Nichols arrived at Syracuse.

Published on October 16, 2005 at 12:00 pm