Stanford is in the market for a basketball coach after dismissing Johnny Dawkins on Monday. Don’t be surprised if the national search concludes a short distance from campus.
The Cardinal is expected to pursue former big man and current Warriors assistant coach Jarron Collins, according to multiple sources.
Collins played in the NBA, worked for the Pac-12 Networks and joined the Warriors staff two years ago. His interest level in the Stanford vacancy is not known.
“At the end of the day, I plan to do all I can to win another championship,” Collins said Monday before the Warriors’ game against the New Orleans Pelicans. “That’s where all my focus is right now.”
Dawkins took the Cardinal to just one NCAA tournament in eight years and never contended for the Pac-12 regular-season or tournament titles.
“This decision was not easy, and it was a very difficult discussion for both Johnny and me,” Stanford athletic director Bernard Muir said in a statement. “But like everything else during his tenure at Stanford, he handled it with class, respect and the utmost concern for his student-athletes,”
Muir, a staunch Dawkins supporter in the past, will lead the search for a replacement and gave no timetable for hiring a coach.
CBS Sports was the first to report the news of Dawkins’ dismissal.
Hired in the spring of 2008 by former athletic director Bob Bowlsby, Dawkins inherited a program that had been to the NCAA tournament 13 of the previous 14 years.
The Cardinal reached March Madness just once in his eight seasons — a run to the Sweet 16 two years ago — and never finished closer than four games off the pace in the regular season.
He was 12 games under .500 in league play over the course of his tenure.
