Duke Blue Devils: Report – Stanford to Fire Dawkins
Stanford’s reported firing of Johnny Dawkins begs the question: What is the succession plan of the Duke Blue Devils?
Former Duke Blue Devils star Johnny Dawkins has been fired after eight seasons at Stanford University according to reports by CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish. Stanford finished 15-15 this year. Despite one performance into the Sweet Sixteen (2014), Dawkins and the Cardinal were often in the second division of the Pacific 12 conference during his tenure.
This potential development brings up an interesting point vis-à-vis the future of the Duke Blue Devils. Dawkins presumably left the Duke bench where he was an assistant to build up his resume as a head coach. If he had more success, he would be a logical successor to Coach Mike Krzyzewski when the time came. His firing has certainly derailed his road back to the top Duke job.
So who becomes the logical Duke successor now? There are several Coach K students hanging around college basketball right now. There is Steve Wojciechowski at Marquette. There is Chris Collins at Northwestern. There is Bobby Hurley at Arizona State. Finally there is former Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel sitting right next to Coach K most nights when Duke plays.
The Duke coaching search is a few years off, so we’re talking projections and not where the coaches are right now.
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The biggest wild card of the bunch would have to be Hurley. He took over the Buffalo program, won a MAC title, and then got plucked by Arizona State. The Pac-12 is a good league, but there is room for the Sun Devils to build their way up. This year was a transition year for the team, so Hurley likely needs K to hang on for three more years at least.
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Chris Collins has the lowest ceiling at his current job since Northwestern has never been to an NCAA Tournament. That and the highly competitive nature of the Big Ten will probably keep Collins from having the most desirable win/loss record. That said if he were ever to win the conference, he would be candidate number 1. They were 8-10 in league play this year.
Like Collins, Wojciechowski has a couple years in his job at Marquette. The Big East is not as strong as the Pac-12 or Big Ten so he has a greater chance of having a better career record when K retires. Marquette also went 8-10 in league play this year so there needs to be some improvement. A couple of good Tourney runs would help Wojciechowski.
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The guy who would takeover if K retired tomorrow is assistant Jeff Capel. I find it hard to believe that Capel would not make the most sense right now. He has upgraded Duke’s recruiting and he oversaw Oklahoma’s success through his recruiting efforts there. It would seem like the natural fit. The enemy that Capel has is time. The longer K hangs on, the longer one of the other Duke coaches has to get success elsewhere.
The Blue Devils are a 4 Seed in the NCAA Tournament and will play UNC-Wilmington Thursday at 12:15 PM.