FanHouse JohnnyDawkins

The trendy thing in sports now is naming your own successor. It's happening all over college basketball (and has even entered the NFL).

One guy that thinks it is all hooey is Duke's Mike Krzyzewski. Coach K thinks it is not his place to name who succeeds him in Durham:

"No one should be able to name their own successor," Krzyzewksi told the newsppaer. "Maybe if you own your company or whatever ... but I should not have the right. It's not even the right. It's not a position I should be in, though I should give a lot of input."

Um, okay. You don't want to name your own successor ... but you want to tell the University who is should be.

This all came about when Stanford hired away Duke assistant Johnny Dawkins. During the press conference, Stanford AD Bob Bowlsby mentioned that Coach K said Dawkins was his heir apparant at Duke.

K has dimissed all of that, but did say he would recommend Dawkins to be his successor.

Krzyzewski is right: he doesn't have the right to tell the school who his replacement will be once he hangs it up. If you retire or whatever, the school must move on without you. However, I do understand the reasoning behind leaving your program you built into a powerhouse in trusted hands.

Of course, the school may end up with a short leash. Remember that Sean Sutton ... Eddie Sutton's son and hand-picked successor at Oklahoma State ... was lopped off after this past season.

Duke University hired Mike Krzyzewski's son-in-law to be Director of Basketball Operations for the school.

Chris Spatola, who is married to Krzyzewski's youngest daughter Jamie, served as a graduate assistant/head team manager for the Blue Devils last season and helped the program in summer camps, travel preparation and other day-to-day activities.

Spatola's resume doesn't stop there. He spent five years in the United States Army as a Battery Commander and Executive Officer. He also hooped it up for the Academy, even making it to the All-Patriot League second team twice during his career. He's fifth all-time in scoring for Army.

Of course, some will cry nepotism. But what I've heard and read about Spatola, he seems to project the Duke image well, is energetic, hardworking and organized. He should be quite an addition to the program.

Also, Duke added former player Nate James to the coaching staff, replacing Johnny Dawkins ... who left for the Stanford head coaching job. Current assistants Steve Wojciechowski and Chris Collins were promoted to associate head coaches.

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.

Duke associate head coach Johnny Dawkins will be the next head coach at Stanford, according to sources. Dawkins, a former Duke player and assistant for 11 years, takes over for Trent Johnson who left for LSU.

He inherits a team that will lose the Lopez twins, Brook and Robin, to the NBA draft, but will return its primary perimeter players in Mitch Johnson, Lawrence Hill and Anthony Goods, who will all be seniors next season.

Despite flirting with Georgetown a few years ago, many people do feel that Dawkins will one day replace Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. Getting the Stanford job as his first head coaching gig is quite an endorsement of how good of a coach he is.

They are getting a great guy. Dawkins wanted his first head coaching job to be at a school with high academic standards that also had a great hoops program. Stanford is definitely that. He's just 44 years old, so he could be around Stanford for many years to come.

Or when Duke looks for Coach K's successor.

He's also in charge of player development for the U.S. Olympic Team as they get ready for the Beijing Games this summer.