College basketball notes: Stanford’s Dawkins, others fired

Johnny Dawkins got his second chance at Stanford two years ago after a special run to the Sweet 16.

Yet the Cardinal couldn’t consistently make it to the NCAA Tournament, and that cost Dawkins his job.

He was fired Monday after eight seasons as Stanford coach. Dawkins guided the Cardinal to the 2014 Sweet 16 and NIT championships after the 2012 and ‘15 seasons, but Stanford went 15-15 this season and finished ninth in the Pac-12 Conference at 8-10. Dawkins was 156-115 during his Stanford tenure.

“I want to thank the Stanford community for playing such an important part in the lives of Tracy and I and in the lives of our four children,” Dawkins said in a statement. “While I am disappointed that we could not achieve the desired high level results, I leave proud of the tremendous young men who have given their all to the program and I know the future is bright for Stanford basketball.”

Dawkins came to Stanford after working as a top assistant at alma mater Duke under coaching mentor Mike Krzyzewski.

“This decision was not easy and it was a very difficult discussion for both Johnny and me, but like everything else during his tenure at Stanford, he handled it with class, respect and the utmost concern for his student-athletes,” athletic director Bernard Muir said. “There are so many great things that Johnny was able to accomplish on The Farm, including improving the graduation rate, achieving an Academic Progress Rate of 1000, an NCAA Sweet 16 appearance and two NIT championships.”

Dawkins’ status had been in jeopardy for several years. Muir acknowledged in the spring of 2013 that the program needed to reach the NCAA Tournament the following season for Dawkins to stay. Stanford then reached the Sweet 16, but Dawkins refused to say he felt any redemption at that point, even given all the injuries to key players and challenges during his time on The Farm.

He acknowledged he has been an athlete and coach long enough to understand the demands and expectations in a results-oriented business – and one year back in the tournament was just considered one important step for a program that wants to be an annual NCAA Tournament team again as Stanford used to be under former coach Mike Montgomery.

Berkeley moves to fire assistant coach over sex harassment

The men’s basketball coach at California that he is moving to fire an assistant coach who violated the school’s sexual harassment policy.

It comes as the university has faced criticism for its handling of substantiated sexual harassment allegations involving an astronomy professor and the dean of its law school.

Assistant coach Yann Hufnagel has been suspended pending termination proceedings and will not be traveling with the team during the upcoming NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, the athletic department said in a statement.

The person who accused Hufnagel of sexual harassment is not affiliated with the school, university spokesman Dan Mogulof said. Hufnagel didn’t immediately reply to an email seeking comment on head coach Cuonzo Martin’s decision to fire him.

This was Hufnagel’s second year as an assistant coach. He worked with the university’s guards last year and the team’s backcourt was considered one of the best in the Pac 12 conference, the school said.

Before a year at Vanderbilt and his two years at UC Berkeley, Hufnagel spent four years as an assistant basketball at Harvard.

Cal 23-10) was given a four-seed for the NCAA tournament and will play Hawaii in Spokane on Friday.

TCU coach Trent Johnson fired after 12-21 season

Trent Johnson, a former Stanford head coach, was fired as TCU’s basketball coach after the Horned Frogs won only eight Big 12 Conference games in his four seasons.

TCU finished 12-21 overall this season, its first in a completely renovated campus arena.

Johnson was 50-79 with the Frogs, a period covering their first four seasons in the Big 12. They were 8-64 in regular-season conference games, those losses by an average margin of more than 15 points. Winless in the Big 12 two years ago, they finished 2-16 in league play this season.

“Trent inherited a very difficult situation, and we truly appreciated his efforts over the last four years,” athletic director Chris Del Conte said. “We simply did not have the success we envisioned but believe the pieces are now in place for us to move forward.”

Before TCU, Johnson had taken LSU, Stanford and Nevada to the NCAA Tournament. His best record with the Frogs was 18-15 last season, when they played all of their home games in a high school gymnasium while the $72 million renovation on their campus arena was being done.

“Trent Johnson is a man of unbelievable integrity. It’s hard to find a better person than Trent, and I have the highest level of respect for him,” Del Conte said. “However, we believe change is needed in the leadership of our men’s basketball program. With our new facility and playing in the Big 12, the strongest basketball conference in the country, we’re positioned well to have a men’s basketball program that makes TCU and Fort Worth proud.”

TCU’s last NCAA Tournament appearance was in 1998, while in the Western Athletic Conference with Billy Tubbs as coach.

Tip-ins

Matt Brady is out as the men’s basketball coach at James Madison. Brady compiled a 139-127 record in eight seasons with the Dukes and guided them to the 2013 Colonial Athletic Association championship and an NCAA Tournament berth. … Denver has hired Rodney Billups as its basketball coach. He spent the last six seasons on the Colorado coaching staff. He succeeds Joe Scott, who was fired after a 16-15 record in the last of his nine seasons at Denver. Billups is a former Pioneers point guard spent and the younger brother of former NBA star Chauncey Billups. … An attorney for former Yale basketball captain Jack Montague says the player was expelled over a sexual assault allegation and plans to sue the school. Attorney Max Stern issued a statement saying Montague had a consensual relationship with the woman. He says the dispute is about the last of four sexual encounters, occurring in October 2014. The lawyer says the woman claims she didn’t consent to sex but Montague says she did. Stern confirms Montague was expelled on February 10th.