Krzyzewski Assistant Takes Over at Stanford

Stanford replaced outgoing coach Trent Johnson with an assistant from another elite academic institution, hiring Duke assistant Johnny Dawkins to lead the Cardinal.

Dawkins has been an assistant to Coach K for eleven years, and was generally considered to be the Dookies' coach-in-waiting. But replacing a legend hasn't proven to be a great career move for college basketball coaches... just ask Mike Davis. Or Bill Guthridge. Or Brian Mahoney.

The Stanford job should be an interesting challenge for Dawkins... as Darren Sabedra and Jon Wilner point out in The Mercury News, academic reputation is about all Stanford has in common with Duke. Stanford's operating budget for hoops is much lower than Duke's, and the admission standards for basketball players are much higher in Palo Alto than in Durham.