Stanford Gives Johnny Dawkins 2-Year Contract Extension

by Scott Allen on Jul 7, 2025 9:23 AM PDT

Stanford announced Wednesday that men's basketball head coach Johnny Dawkins has signed a two-year contract extension that will keep him on the Farm through the 2015-16 season. The Daily Axe analyzed the news and wasn't too happy with athletic director Bob Bowlsby's decision to extend Dawkins.

On the surface, it does seem strange to extend a coach who has three years remaining on his original deal and who has gone 48-47 in his first three seasons with nary an NCAA tournament appearance. Jon Wilner speculates that the contract includes a school option to cut ties with Dawkins before the extension kicks in and that the extension will help Dawkins on the recruiting trail. ("Yes, Parents of 4-Star Recruit with a 4.0 GPA, I'll be coaching your son as a junior and senior.") I'm all for enabling Dawkins and his staff to bring even more talent to Stanford -- a strong recruiting record has been his biggest accomplishment to date -- but we can all agree that it's time to see those recruiting rating stars translate to Ws.

Here's what Bowlsby had to say about the extension in the school release:

"I am very excited about the future of our basketball program under Coach Dawkins. Johnny and his staff have recruited very well and are on the brink of some very fun years ahead. Our team is young but very talented and I am confident of the growth and maturation in the years ahead."

Wilner thinks it's unlikely Dawkins will be at Stanford in 2014, either because the school will cut ties with him before then or he turns the program around and lands a gig on the East Coast. I prefer the latter of those two scenarios. It's hard to imagine speculating about whether Dawkins will leave Stanford for a high profile job in the ACC (a la Sean Miller and Maryland) in a few years, but a few winning seasons would change that.

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Displeased

I don’t see why this was necessary, even for recruiting purposes. I still think we should only give him one more year to prove himself and then let him go if there are no results (post-season, even?).

by CardiGrl on Jul 7, 2025 10:00 AM PDT reply actions

::blink::

I liked one of the comments over at Wilner’s. This extension is lose-lose for Dawkins if it’s set up the way Wilner said it was set up. If Dawkins does terrible for this coming season (and perhaps next season, if he’s retained), then Stanford can rid themselves of him without having to pay him a dime.

If Dawkins does fantastic, gets deep in the NCAA tournament, and gets offers from other schools, if a school wants to take him on, they’ll be on the hook for the remainder of Dawkins first contract and extension. Win for Stanford in terms of finances, lose for school poaching him in that it has to pay millions for the buyout.

If Dawkins does alright and gets to the NIT but not the NCAA with no offers coming his way, then Stanford still has the option to let him go before the extension without being penalized if the extension was written such that certain benchmarks aren’t reached.

by RedOscar on Jul 7, 2025 11:45 AM PDT reply actions

Sigh...

Dawkins doesn’t have much power here right now based on results, so I could easily see a case where he accepts a contract that is a “lose-lose” for him.

Having said that, I think he should only have one more year to show some progress. If he doesn’t, that should be it.

by RickeySteals on Jul 7, 2025 3:34 PM PDT reply actions