SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY

With Mike Hopkins receiving public backing from Syracuse as Jim Boeheim’s eventual successor last week, it means the longtime assistant is more securely positioned to become a first-time head coach by the end of the decade. It’s a relative rarity, though, for a men’s basketball coach to get his first job in charge of a college team in the Atlantic Coast Conference. On one hand, the ACC usually isn’t a place for starter jobs. On the other, it didn’t stop one coach (Dean Smith) from winning two national titles and three more (Vic Bubas, Bill Guthridge and Bones McKinney) from reaching the Final Four at least once apiece. – Patrick Stevensc, Connect Syracuse. Read more.