Syracuse basketball Jim Boeheim addressed the media regarding his future and the future of the program following Mike Hopkins surprise decision to leave the Hill and take the head coach position at the University of Washington. Boeheim talked about his decision to extend his contract at Syracuse past the 2018 season, which was originally set as his retirement date and he fielded questions about everything from his staff for next season to the future of Tyler Lydon. So what are the biggest takeaways from what the coach had to say?
This All Happened Very Quickly 
The College Basketball world, particularly in Syracuse, was caught off guard when the news broke that Mike Hopkins was heading to Seattle. It seems that Boeheim didn’t know much before everyone else. Boeheim said that Hopkins came to him “in tears” on Saturday to tell him that he was taking the opportunity to be a head coach. If this is true, and there is no reason to think that Boeheim knew before this, this entire sequence of events took place in a little more than 24 hours. Athletic Director John Wildhack, who was also at the press conference, said that he wanted to act quickly and extending Boeheim’s contract was the logical move.
There is No Clear Line of Succession 
Mike Hopkins was the logical choice to replace Boeheim. Well, now he’s gone and Boeheim is here to stay past next season and the clear line of succession is out the window.
We did the succession plan here because of Mike Hopkins.
In other words, now that Hopkins is gone, Syracuse does not have a concrete plan for the post-Boeheim era. That is not necessarily the end of the world but it was certainly comforting to know that Syracuse had a coach at the ready for when Boeheim decided to call it a career. Syracuse fans are surely glad to know that Gerry McNarmarra and Adrian Autry are staying on as assistant coaches. Maybe one of them will take over when Boeheim is ready. Only time will tell.
Boeheim Doesn’t Think Tyler Lydon is NBA Ready
Color me shocked. That is sarcasm, by the way.. Boeheim thinks that Lydon has the potential to be a lottery pick if he comes back and fine-tunes his game. There is no way to know that for sure, and Boeheim does not often think his players are ready to go after only a year or two. The coach said that he spoke to Lydon Monday at 1pm and said that Lydon had not yet hired an agent. Reports emerged around two o’clock that Lydon had in fact signed an agent and is set to declare for the NBA Draft. By signing an agent, Lydon would be locked into his decision and cannot return to school. Boeheim said that he recommended that Lydon go to the Combine, get evaluated and then make a decision. That is, to be fair, a very logical course of action. However, it seems that Lydon may have his mind made up.
