2 weeks Ago By Matt Murschel
Johnny Dawkins has been around college basketball throughout most of his life. First, as a player at Duke, then later as an assistant coach with the Blue Devils, and then as head coach at Stanford and now UCF , Dawkins witnessed a remarkable evolution in college basketball. It has transformed from an ideal of pure amateurism to an environment that teeters on the brink of professionalism.
This shift has brought excitement and challenges, compelling him to adapt his coaching and player development approach. As he prepares to lead his team into the College Basketball Crown Tournament semifinals against Villanova this Saturday at 4 p.m.
on FOX-35, Dawkins is confronted with the stark realities of today’s basketball landscape. UCF (19-16, 7-13 Big 12) has faced challenges in the first two rounds of the 16-team tournament, a struggle shared by many other participating teams. This is partly due to eight players entering the transfer portal when it opened on March 24.
While some players were injured, others, such as guards Tyler Hendricks and Nils Machowski, had been significant contributors throughout the season. The most notable name to transfer was forward Keyshawn Hall , who initially declared for the 2025 NBA Draft but later chose to enter the transfer portal. Hall, the leading scorer in the Big 12, received several name, image, and likeness deals worth an estimated $2.
5 million before ultimately committing to Auburn. “I had no hard feelings about guys entering the portal,” said Dawkins. “Guys are entering the portal for a myriad of reasons.
Guys are checking their value. Guys are in the portal to see what opportunities may be better for them and other places, and that’s fine. That’s just the world we’re in now.
I held nothing against guys who put their names in the portal.” Despite being in the portal, Hendricks and Machowski played in the Knights’ first two games, averaging 14.5 points and 13 points, respectively.
“Even before the tournament, we said that before anyone ever jumped in the portal. They elected to continue to play and kept their word about that,” Dawkins explained. “For me, you know, I counted on them being able to do that and they did.
” Darius Johnson powers UCF past rival Cincinnati into semis of Crown tourney More than 1,000 players reportedly entered the portal in just the first week of the transfer window. For schools like UCF, which are competing in postseason tournaments such as the Crown, the NIT, or the NCAA tournament, the challenge of playing while trying to maintain a stable roster and simultaneously preparing for next season is overwhelming. “It just makes more sense for all these tournaments to have the portal maybe open up on Tuesday, the day after the national championship game,” said Dawkins.
“That would be a better time to open it that way. Everything is completed. Then open it up and give everyone that time to make some decisions.
“Even in the NCAA Tournament, guys enter the portal. The thing we can do to help these young people with regards to that is just the timing when we do some things and take a hard look at it. I think it will help our game.
” The amount of money offered to players through NIL collectives makes things even more challenging. Many of these collectives are working on an accelerated clock to frontload deals before the NCAA v. House settlement is approved on April 7.
Once approved, most Division I schools will work with a $20.5 million cap as part of a new revenue-sharing model that goes into effect on July 1. “We still try to do it the old-school way.
We try to get to know people, get to know people around the student-athletes that we recruit, and then try to maximize them and bring out the best in them. That’s always our goal,” Dawkins said of the changing climate. “I’m not going to change our mission statement, which is helping young people to thrive, helping young people to develop and grow.
“But that’s changing. If you have standards in your program, you try to stick to them and try not to compromise them just because the game has changed in a certain way.” Dawkins, 61, doesn’t believe the current system is tenable and leaders need to brainstorm better solutions.
“The way it’s set up right now is very difficult, not just for us but for the student-athletes as well,” he said. Shorthanded UCF earns 1st-round win over Oregon State in Crown tourney Meanwhile, UCF is enjoying a successful run in the Crown tournament, which, unlike most postseason tournaments, offers an NIL payday for the players on teams who made it to the Final Four. The team is already in line for a $50,000 payday and could double that with a win on Saturday.
Win it all and the Knights can earn $300,000. “That’s what college basketball is transitioning to. We’re getting paid to play basketball,” said senior guard Darius Johnson.
“It’s a great opportunity to be able to play for money. Our coach always tells us we play for two things in life: pride or money. “I feel like we’re playing for the pride.
Because when we came here, no one thought we were gonna win. So that’s a little bit of pride aspect. And then you get the money benefits.
Who doesn’t want free money.” Matt Murschel can be reached at [email protected] .
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m., Saturday, T-Mobile Arena (Las Vegas) TV: FOX-35.
