University of Washington men’s basketball coach Mike Hopkins reportedly turned down an interview at UCLA during the school’s coaching search this offseason, a detail that was included in a fascinating story written on Tuesday by The Los Angeles Times’ Ben Bolch.

The note about Hopkins was only a small tidbit in a story that was an interesting look at one the most talked-about coaching search of the offseason. It’s worth reading for the details beyond Hopkins.

In terms of the former Syracuse assistant coach, the story cited text messages sent from UCLA’s Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Relations Josh Rebholz to a group of major donors.

Bolch wrote: The Bruins’ list of candidates was further winnowed, Rebholz wrote, when other coaches such as Washington’s Mike Hopkins, Purdue’s Matt Painter and Iowa State’s Steve Prohm declined to be interviewed regardless of our ability to pay more than we ever have, a commitment to charter as a team, and increase to assistant salary pool, etc. Very disheartening to not even have a chance with ‘Tier II’ guys.

The Tier I candidates, identified earlier in the story, included Kentucky’s John Calipari, Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens, Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, Villanova coach Jay Wright, Oklahoma City Thunder coach Billy Donovan, Gonzaga’s Mark Few and Virginia’s Tony Bennett.

The school nearly hired Texas Christian’s Jamie Dixon, only to decide at the final moment that his contract buyout was too problematic. Bolch’s story also indicates that UCLA thought it had a reasonable chance at Calipari and it offered Wright double his salary at Villanova with no success.

Ultimately, the Bruins fired Steve Alford in the middle of last season and eventually replaced him with Cincinnati’s Mick Cronin. Bolch reported that the school started its search with a list of 60 candidates. Hopkins was removed from that list after declining to be interviewed.

It says something about Hopkins’ rapid success at Washington that a program like UCLA, considered to be a blueblood program because of its great history, would be interested in him. It also says something about Hopkins’ commitment to the University of Washington that he turned down the interview. Hopkins, who returned Washington to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011 this year, signed a six-year contract extension with the Huskies this offseason.

Hopkins played four years at Syracuse and was an assistant at the school from 1995 to 2017. He was named head coach in waiting at Syracuse before choosing to leave to take the Washington job before that occurred. In interviews, Hopkins cited a desire to craft his own legacy and be closer to his family on the West Coast as his reasons for leaving SU.

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