Jim Boeheim Not Going Anywhere, Neither Is Mike Hopkins

Andy Katz reported last night that Jim Boeheim will not be resigning as the head basketball coach at Syracuse University, which I didn't even realize was a thing. I suppose I see why that needed to be reported but I don't remember thinking that he would at any point.

More interestingly, Katz confirms that assistant coach Mike Hopkins remains on board and remains the heir to the throne thanks to an "iron-clad contract" that the board of trustees finalized a few years back.

And most interestingly, is the sprinkling of information starting to leak about the relationship between Hopkins and Bernie Fine.

Hopkins coached alongside Fine, who recruited him as a player, but according to a source, grew apart from Fine after he got the nod to succeed Boeheim over Fine. Fine was demoted and taken off the road when Hopkins and Troy Weaver, now the assistant general manager of the Oklahoma City Thunder, were the primary recruiting assistants. That's when the Orange signed Carmelo Anthony, Gerry McNamara, Craig Forth and Billy Edelin and changed the fortunes of what had become a middling program, winning the NCAA title in 2003.

According to the source, Fine and Hopkins' coaching relationship has not been the same since.

Who knows where the truth is on this one. This could very well be someone at SU trying to drive some distance between the disgraced Fine and the heir apparent of SU basketball.

There's also this new piece by ESPN on Bobby Davis (which is well-written, even-handed and, unsurprisingly, not written by Mark Schwarz) which shares a very interesting details that may or may not have any bearing:

According to someone close to the Syracuse program, Davis stayed with Hopkins, who has an agreement with the university to replace Boeheim when the Hall of Fame coach retires, early in his coaching career and allegedly did "steal stuff from him."

Asked whether there was any truth to the theft allegation, Davis says, "No, not that I can remember."

That same claim came up via a coach at "at another nationally known program." Interesting.