I guess Mike Krzyzewski is trying to get that awkwardness that Roy Williams had going on out of the way very early.
Last week, news broke that Duke assistant Johnny Dawkins would be the new head coach at Stanford. Dawkins was considered, by many, to have been the eventual successor for Coach K at Duke. According to Stanford AD Bob Bowlsby, Coach K said so himself:
Bowlsby said one of the first people he spoke to about the open job at Stanford was Krzyzewski and that he asked Krzyzewski about both Dawkins, who was Krzyzewski's right-hand man for 11 seasons, and Duke assistant Steve Wojciechowski.
"At that time, Coach Krzyzewski said that Johnny was a likely successor to him [at Duke]," Bowlsby said.
Coach K has at least another ten years left in him to coach, so it wasn't like Dawkins was going to get a good look at it anytime soon. I think Dawkins is a great hire (albeit an inexperienced one) for the Cardinal program and would be the kind of guy that would stick around for a while.
Well, maybe until Coach K comes calling.
See, the same thing happened at North Carolina, who saw assistant coach Roy Williams (who wasn't in any successor plans) go to Kansas in 1988. A decade later, UNC legend Dean Smith retired and Tar Heel Nation expected Roy to come and ... well ... you know that old chestnut.
What was kinda interesting is that Stanford asked about Coach Wojo. Is he really ready to be a head coach? And if he was asked about like that, does this mean that Wojo is next in line for Coach K's gig?
As a Tar Heel fan, I must be honest that having Dawkins as Duke's head coach would've sucked. Not too many Carolina fans absolutely loathe Dawkins -- hell, most don't hate him. Kinda like when Herb Sendek was at NC State. Wojo, however, would be the perfect fiery, hate-able coach that could fill in K's shoes.
