Unreal Hopkins back for a 7th season

[Walla Walla Dawg II]

I am not a basketball fan, but this seems like a very bad decision. But I do think it's safe to say that if he doesn't produce this next season, we will be fired before the team is washed up after the final game.

[Captain 97]

The fact is this program can't attract a coach any better than Hopkins. Its simply not a marque job. Romar is the only coach who has ever done anything with this program in my lifetime. They got greedy and thought they could do better. I predicted this would happen when they fired him.

They had a few good teams in my life time. Welp and Schrempf, Donald Watts, the first heart breaker against UCONN. Romar could no longer coach them up. Losing as many games as he did with NBA lottery picks is simply unforgivable. Hopkins won IMMEDIATELY with his guys. Seems he just can't recruit. The Zone Defense is a killer now as well, since we don't have a stud like Thybulle wrecking offenses. They flat out can't rebound out of it and get killed since the other team knows they can just bomb threes and crash the boards.

Hopkins being a bad fit does not mean Romar should have been kept. Who cares how many studs you bring in if they can't actually play basketball?

If there was a better fit than Hopkins that actually wanted this job, don't you think they would have hired him? I absolutely believe that Romar would have won more games over the last 6 years than Hopkins has.

[Michael K.]

If there was a better fit than Hopkins that actually wanted this job, don't you think they would have hired him? I absolutely believe that Romar would have won more games over the last 6 years than Hopkins has.

So, you looked at what Hopkins did with Romar guys, and felt Romar gets more out of the players he has? Not sure I follow that logic. Romar went 9 and 22 in his last season, 2 and 16 in league. His recruiting class was wrecked and several players left, but the majority of the kids Hopkins had were Romar left overs. Many at the time thought they were the ones no one wanted. So? Hopkins takes that group and goes 21 and 13 and 10 and 8 in Conference. A win improvement overall of 12 with 8 more Conference wins...and by your logic the two men would have equal results with similar talent? Oh boy.

Hopkins convinced Nowell to stick around, but sorry, there was no other player on that roster that made an impact that Romar didn't have the year prior. Fultz left for the Pros and Atewe followed Romar to Pepperdine. Sorry, there is just zero evidence to support your claim that the guy that couldn't win with Lottery picks on his roster would win more than Hopkins has of late, not with the same kids.

[AZOldDawg]

If Brooks returns and he can get a couple of kids in the portal the team should be reasonably solid. What he really needs to do is get an offensive guru for an assistant.

[Michael K.]

If Brooks returns and he can get a couple of kids in the portal the team should be reasonably solid. What he really needs to do is get an offensive guru for an assistant.

There is something about a Purple and Gold jersey that makes kids forget how to shoot! I won't say I watch them a ton, but in every game I watch, they would have won if they didn't give up an offensive rebound on just about every other missed shot. It is a HUGE problem with his zone defense, and always has. The zone was designed back in a time when the three point shot either didn't exist, or was a very difficult shot. These kids hit threes now like they are layups, and add in that the zone makes rebounding very difficult and I just don't see what this fucking dinosaur sees in staying with the zone!

My HS team played zone back in the 80s and 90s. That said, my Sophomore year was the very first year that Washington State had a three point line in HS. It was not an easy shot, and we were not a tall team. We could pack it in and not get killed inside, force a long miss and then get out in transition. Worked very well, until we got to the State Tournament and every team had one or two sharp shooters that would kill us from distance. I just don't think you can win consistently with that antiquated defensive philosophy. Especially without Thybulle reeking havoc.