[Lefty Noob]

According to the Associated Press, "Jim Boeheim has known for a while who he wanted to succeed him as head coach of the Syracuse Orange when he decides to retire, and now it's official that assistant coach Mike Hopkins is the man... Hopkins said Tuesday that he had reached an agreement on a plan to succeed the Hall of Fame coach." Good choice?

It's official -- Hopkins will succeed Boeheim as caoch at Syracuse - NCAA Basketball - Yahoo! Sports

[ROUSHAC]

YEP! He was a good player for the Orange, recruits well, gets along with the players and other assistant coaches, and is popular in the area.

His responibility has been the guards, and he has done well coaching Griffin, McNamara, Pace, Devendorf, Harris, and Rautins in his time here. He didn't fare so well with the progress of Edelin and Wright. This year he has Jonny Flynn to work with - probably briefly, maybe two years at best. That doesn't look to be too tough a job.

As to his game coaching abilities, that remains to be seen obviously. However, he will be handed a golden opportunity like Jim was when Danforth left. Nothing like being handed a team that will be competitive from the get-go rather than a startup program or a major rebuilding job.

Syracuse has a lot of talent this year, but they have a lot of young players who are not playing well as a team yet. Hopefully, they will gel by the time the season comes to a better end than last year.

Maybe we better go to the basketball forum for this discussion.