Congrats to Tommy and Johnny!

[ancienteagle]

Johnny!

As my kids would say, "Trees Rule! Birds Drool!"

[Duvall]

I think as long as the new coach wins a championship ever 8 or 9 years, makes the final four every 3 or 4 years, wins 25 games and makes the tournament every year, wins the ACC every 3 years or so, runs a clean program that encourages education, is always in the top 25, almost always in the top ten, he will have almost nothing to fear, except of course, not being as good as his predecessor.

Pretty funny. Has any coach ever met that standard at any school?

[dukelifer]

Very happy with the Stanford win. Not only is Dawkins from the Coach K coaching tree (zone defense notwithstanding), but it's a senior-laden, teamwork-oriented team.

Wiggins' last game made Parker's look good. If Wichita takes care of Kentucky, none of the glam freshmen will advance to the Sweet 16.

Gordon is still in it.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Thank you, JD, for keeping this tourney worth watching and giving me a team to follow!

[MCFinARL]

Gordon is still in it.

And, as it turns out, Randle is still in it, along with the other Kentucky frosh. They played about their best game of the year today to beat a very tough Wichita team--a really good game, even if I might have preferred a different outcome.

Tough weekend for the Wiggins family.

[Atlanta Duke]

Nice story on the Stanford win and Coach K advising JD before his first tournament game as a head coach to "share your stories" with his team.

One such story sticks with the Cardinal players...

“I will never forget… Danny Meagher,” Dawkins begins...

Meagher explained: “This is it for me,” Dawkins remembers him saying. “This was my last opportunity.”

“We need all of our players thinking of themselves as seniors, not as freshmen and sophomores,” Dawkins continues. “If we can all have that feeling, we’ll play with that sense of desperation that is required to be successful.”

http://college-basketball.si.com/201...ess/?eref=sihp

Any story with a Danny Meagher reference is a good story

[hurleyfor3]

Pretty funny. Has any coach ever met that standard at any school?

K, Dean, Wooden, maybe Rupp. Although in none of those cases was the success evenly distributed. Roy's done it so far at unc.

So you only need to be one of the four or five best coaches ever.

[CameronBornAndBred]

I think as long as the new coach wins a championship ever 8 or 9 years, makes the final four every 3 or 4 years, wins 25 games and makes the tournament every year, wins the ACC every 3 years or so, runs a clean program that encourages education, is always in the top 25, almost always in the top ten, he will have almost nothing to fear, except of course, not being as good as his predecessor.

Pretty funny. Has any coach ever met that standard at any school?

Roy's done it so far at unc.

Really? Not saying he's a bad coach, but he does not meet the standards set by the OP.

[NashvilleDevil]

Don't know if anyone saw this or heard about it. But during the press conference yesterday, Andrew Wiggins and Wayne Selden were asked about Stanford's point guard Chasson Randle and they preceded to giggle and say they did not know who he was. Now granted these are kids that probably do not follow Pac12 basketball and to them Stanford was just the next victim on their way to the Final Four. But I got a great sense of satisfaction that Kansas is going home brought down by the team coached by my all time favorite Duke player and Andrew Wiggins had an abysmal game in the process.

[DukieInKansas]

Don't know if anyone saw this or heard about it. But during the press conference yesterday, Andrew Wiggins and Wayne Selden were asked about Stanford's point guard Chasson Randle and they preceded to giggle and say they did not know who he was. Now granted these are kids that probably do not follow Pac12 basketball and to them Stanford was just the next victim on their way to the Final Four. But I got a great sense of satisfaction that Kansas is going home brought down by the team coached by my all time favorite Duke player and Andrew Wiggins had an abysmal game in the process.

They asked Randle about that in the post game press conference. He admitted that he heard/saw that and got some motivation from it. Said Coach told him not to talk about it but Johnny tapped him on the back like it was ok to discuss it. Players need to be wary of providing locker room fodder.

[burnspbesq]

From the Small World/Life's Little Ironies department: one of the schools actively recruiting Johnny Dawkins' son Aubrey, who is doing a PG year at New Hampton, is ... Dayton.

[OldPhiKap]

Jay Bilas linked this on a tweet today. Best 15 minutes you may spend today.

http://youtu.be/Y50kQ5GOROs

Still my favorite.

[NashvilleDevil]

Jay Bilas linked this on a tweet today. Best 15 minutes you may spend today.

http://youtu.be/Y50kQ5GOROs

Still my favorite.

Mine too!

[Des Esseintes]

I think as long as the new coach wins a championship ever 8 or 9 years, makes the final four every 3 or 4 years, wins 25 games and makes the tournament every year, wins the ACC every 3 years or so, runs a clean program that encourages education, is always in the top 25, almost always in the top ten, he will have almost nothing to fear, except of course, not being as good as his predecessor.

Pretty funny. Has any coach ever met that standard at any school?

K, Dean, Wooden, maybe Rupp. Although in none of those cases was the success evenly distributed. Roy's done it so far at unc.

So you only need to be one of the four or five best coaches ever.

Actually, none of those guys but K qualify. Dean only won two titles over a very long career. Rupp's rep was blackened by the point shaving scandal. Wooden may have been unaware, but truckloads of cash were being funneled to his players. And Roy has spent real time outside the top 25 long after the rebuild from the Doherty years was over, in addition to the general sullying of reputation that's been happening in Chapel Hill this past decade+.

So K's successor will have to be in the top two coaches of all time.

[MCFinARL]

Very nice story about Johnny Dawkins in the Washington Post today. http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports...9e1_story.html

It includes some great details, such as the fact that when Dawkins was growing up his nickname was "the cardiac kid" because he was "as serious as a heart attack," or that his mom thanked Coach K for offering him a scholarship because " 'I'm sick and tired of hearing that boom-dee-boom [Johnny dribbling the basketball around the house] all day long.'"

[CameronBornAndBred]

Nice post season run by JD in both his conference and NCAA tourneys. Dayton looks to be the real deal, I would love to see them crash the FF party.
Hopefully Stanford fans were, and are, excited about their team this season. Obviously, this was a "must make noise" year for JD, much like K's when JD and company made it to the second round of the tournament. I enjoy the parallels; hopefully Dawkins has some guys coming back that can build on this year's success, just as he did 30 years ago when he played in Cameron.

[Henderson]

Nice post season run by JD in both his conference and NCAA tourneys. Dayton looks to be the real deal, I would love to see them crash the FF party.
Hopefully Stanford fans were, and are, excited about their team this season. Obviously, this was a "must make noise" year for JD, much like K's when JD and company made it to the second round of the tournament. I enjoy the parallels; hopefully Dawkins has some guys coming back that can build on this year's success, just as he did 30 years ago when he played in Cameron.

Yes, nice post-season run, much needed by JD. I'm very happy for him. I'm also glad for TA's success at Harvard.

But JD's losing a ton of talent to graduation this year. I'm happy that, if we couldn't get Reid Travis, Stanford did.