Saturday, April 26, 2008

Stanford Hires a Logical Choice

But is it a wise one?

Yes, the Cardinal, as rumored, hired Duke's top assistant, Johnny Dawkins, to head their men's basketball program. You can read all about it here.

The choice is logical because both Duke and Stanford are top-notch academic institutions. Time will tell whether it's a wise choice, because save Mike Brey, Coach Mike Krzyzewki's former assistants have not fared well as Division I head coaches. Dawkins had been at Duke for well over 10 years, and sometimes, at least in the business world, doing the same job for too long a time is not a good thing. I won't elaborate on the reasons here, as this isn't a business blog, but for a while I had been thinking that Dawkins was happy to be Coach K's Bill Guthridge.

It's clear, though, that he's not. He sought the Georgetown job (that went to John Thompson III several years back) and now has landed the Stanford post. He'll be emerging from Coach K's big shadow in a tough league (and right after the departure of the Lopez twins). He'll have his work cut out for him.

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