Mike Hopkins Q&A With Jon Rothstein: Hop Talks Taking Over For Jim Boeheim

Syracuse Orange assistant basketball coach Mike Hopkins got together with Jon Rothstein for a little Q&A. Hopkins talked about taking over the reigns in three seasons once Jim Boeheim retires.

Rothstein began the exchange by asking, "How would you describe the feeling that you had last month when you got the word that you were going to officially going to take over for Jim Boeheim in three years?"

To which Hopkins responded, "Obviously I was thrilled, excited, humbled, grateful -- all those types of feelings. I just want to keep the tradition going. That's all I want to do here."

Rothstein and Hopkins go on to discuss how Hopkins ended up in Central New York all the way from California and what it will be like to take over for a legend like Boeheim. It won't be impossible for Hopkins to leave his mark, but he'll certainly have his work cut out for him.

He also addresses those scary rumors we had for the last couple years, linking Hop to "other" jobs and how we might have had nothing to worry about:

"Well at the end of the day there's very few times in life that you get the opportunity to coach at your alma mater -- a place that you love and call home. This is where I met my wife and raised my kids. On top of all of that, this happens to be one of the best jobs in all of college basketball. I think in terms of my career I just always wanted to be a head coach and in terms of better jobs being out there -- this was just the next step for me. I've been doing this a long time and have always just prided myself on having faith and knowing that the right one would come along and it did. It came along just as a I thought it would. I'm very, very excited about that."

Without giving away the entire story, it's definitely worth a read for you based on quotes like the above. You can read the full transcript here.