MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Johnny Dawkins has Stanford on the verge of its first Elite Eight appearance since 2001, but the Cardinal coach says it wasn’t about his players having to learn and adjust to him, but him having to learn and adjust to them.
Stanford may not have blistering speed, but it has size in 6-foot-10 Dwight Powell and 6-11 Stefan Nastic, with four of the top six in the rotation at least 6-7.
“This thing is personnel driven,’’ Dawkins said. “When I first came, I had an idea in mind of how I wanted to play. Now I had to learn to make adjustments. I was coming in with some preconceived notions of we’re going to pick up full court, we’re going to pressure everyone and get after these guys, and we’re going to play a certain system offensively. I found that not to be the right system for this group.
“I had to readjust as a coach, and I had to grow. My growth was being able to listen and look at new things and say, ‘OK, how do you devise a system that’s going to maximize who these guys are?’ And we started making those adjustments. … So those are the things that I’ve had to do as a coach and right along with our players.’’
No. 10 seed Stanford (23-12) takes on No. 11 Dayton (25-10) in one South Regional semifinal Thursday at FedEx Forum (7:15 pm, CBS), while top overall seed Florida (34-2) faces N. 4 UCLA in the 9:45 pm nightcap.
The Gators — who have won a school-record 28 straight games and are in the Sweet 16 for the fourth consecutive season — have knocked UCLA out of the Big Dance three times in the past eight years. It likely will come down to a clash of styles, with Florida leading the SEC and in the top 10 nationally in defense (57.9 ppg), and UCLA averaging 81.5 ppg and leading the Pac-12 in assists.
Florida coach Billy Donovan was bemused at all the attention his “new” three-year, $3.7 million garnered last month, saying it was old news.
“I was actually a little bit surprised it came out. That happened last year, so it’s like I’m getting congratulated on this new news, but that was done last year,’’ Donovan said. “Obviously, very, very thankful, very appreciative of Dr. [Bernie] Machen [school president] and Jeremy [Foley, athletic director] and what they’ve done for myself and my family. But that was something that happened at the end of last season.’’