The first two seasons — that was the soft opening. It might have been surprising, and it might have been successful, but it wasn’t the unveiling of the man’s true vision.
This season? This is the grand opening. This is when Huskies basketball coach Mike Hopkins introduces his program to the country.
When Hopkins replaced Lorenzo Romar as Washington’s head hoops coach in 2017, he performed something of a Montlake miracle. After winning just nine games overall and going 2-16 in the Pac-12 the year before, the Huskies posted 21 wins during Hopkins’ first season, then 27 while capturing the Pac-12 title in his second.