That seems to be the advice of a lot of basketball pundits right now and Marshall is in Los Angeles with Wichita State playing in the Elite Eight at Staples Center. But he’s told Yahoo Sports he turned down offers of $2 million at other schools.
“I’m not in search of anything,” Marshall said. “I’ve got a great life, great family, great community I live in, great school, great administration, great players. What more do I need? More money? That’s the only thing. We can obviously make runs in the NCAA tournament from Wichita State.”
The best hire is Syracuse assistant Mike Hopkins. Great recruiter. Has
nationwide recruiting chops, especially here in Southern California
where he has significant ties to the best basketball talent pool in the
country. He will build a program. He is from here. Young, energetic,
experienced and a great basketball coach. He will bring the players in
and fill Galen. This would be a great hire. He wants to be here. The donors, alumni, the school and the city will look back at what a wise decision it was to bring him in.
Or they’ll be watching him and Syracuse continue to make deep runs in
the NCAA tourney year after year and wonder what could have been. Timing
is everything. Lou Galen would have loved him. He’s the perfect fit.
Agree wholeheartedly with this post. USC needs to find a great assistant like Hopkins and give him his shot. They should avoid either retreads or trying to convince a top coach to jump. Schools are paying to keep their coaches so if they got one, its likely the coach had worn out his welcome. And dear God don’t hire some UCLA reject like Howland.
Who on this year’s Orange squad is from Southern Cal? Amaker worked with Coach K, and look at the job he did with Michigan who today is in the elite eight without him. Maybe Hopkins will turn out to be a good coach who knows. Seems like after fifteen years as a top asst. some other school would have gone after him the past couple of years to head their program.
Possibly coaches now waiting to see who ucla asks and hires before evaluating the USC situation. Marshall is my 1st choice with Tim Floyd a strong second choice if he really wants to return to this part of the country.
Other programs balked because he was promised the job at SU when Boeheim retired. But Boeheim isn’t quitting anytime soon. This is Will Muschamp 2.0
Waste of $$$$. Let fucla have him. They are Dumb enough.
Scott is going to name about the half the coaches in the NCAA tournament as the choice Haden “really wants.” He’s been wrong every time so far, but – since he’s named all of them – we now await the smarmy post telling us it was so obvious and he doesn’t know why it took USC so long. Or, he counts off all the supposed targets that “turned down” SC’s offer (read: Scott’s guess). I hear they’re after Greg Popovich now. “But would he really want to leave such a comfortable job in San Antonio to come work at a school that can’t even lure the best that college has to offer? Here’s betting Popovich gets a ten year contract.”
more info on Hopkins (from team website)….
Mike Hopkins, one of the most popular players in Syracuse University
basketball history, is now forging a new following as an assistant coach
on the staff of Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim. He is in his 15th
season on the Orange coaching staff.
Syracuse has advanced to postseason play in each of his years
on the coaching staff. The 15-year run includes 11 NCAA Tournament and
four NIT berths. The Orange won the NCAA Championship in 2003.
Born in San Mateo, Calif., where he played on the 1987
California state team at Mater Dei High School, Hopkins enrolled in
Syracuse in 1989.
Hopkins led the 1991-92 SU team to the BIG EAST Championship.
He was a two-year starter at shooting guard and a team captain as a
senior.
Hopkins played professional basketball in the Continental
Basketball Association with the Rochester (Minn.) Renegades and in
Europe with teams in Turkey and Holland following his graduation from
Syracuse.
He joined the SU coaching staff in 1995 and immediately made
his mark on the program. He tutored the Orange guards and was a key to
the development of eventual NBA draft choice Jason Hart. Producing top
performances out of his charges continued with the efforts of Jonny
Flynn, Allen Griffin, Gerry McNamara, Demetris Nichols and Josh Pace.
Hopkins has handled scouting reports for the Orange, he’s
worked with the academic advising office on the players’ academic
progress and he runs the Syracuse Elite Camp. During the summer of 2000
he added recruiting responsibilities to his job description. His efforts
on the road immediately showed up in a positive manner as the Orange
build for the future.
UCLA hires Steve Alford. Great hire for them. Good recruiter. Works hard. We need to counter with bringing in Hopkins. Now is the time. First Mora, now Alford. We better roll up the sleeves and get to work. Otherwise, it could be a long decade ahead of us.