Should the UCF Knights give basketball coach Johnny Dawkins a contract extension?
After Friday's loss to UCLA in the NCAA Tournament, UCF Knights coach Johnny Dawkins was obviously asked about if anything was in the works about a contract extension.
Here's what Dawkins had to say:
"Well, you guys know I love UCF," Dawkins said. "I've been here for over a decade. So, it's been my home, or second home basically. So, of course, you know, I don't handle those things because all I was thinking about is winning this game right here today. And, so I haven't had a chance to really think about any of those things other than you guys know,I love UCF and I love Orlando, and and our community has been great to me my entire time there. So, I have nothing but fondness for the area and we'll see what happens. But the bottom line is you know right now I'm just still getting over, you know, tough game, hard fought loss that we just had and those things will take care of themselves, I'm sure."
While the UCF athletic department has a decision to make, at least one longtime sports columnist says it should be a no-brainer. Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel recently made his case for the Knights to sign Dawkins for the long haul.
"I don’t care that UCF lost 75-71 to storied UCLA on Friday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament," Bianchi wrote. "What matters is 10th-seeded UCF was actually in the tournament against UCLA and made the blueblood Bruins sweat until the final buzzer. Certainly, UCF athletic director Terry Mohjair and the school’s leadership are smart enough to know Dawkins deserves a decent extension. Not a one-year deal. Not a two-year deal. Give him three years. He deserves it."
The Knights made the Tournament for the first time since 2019 after being picked to finish near the bottom of the Big 12. They had a 20-win season and gave UCLA all it could handle thanks to a late rally.
Bianchi also wrote, "So the question becomes simple: What more does UCF need to see? If the answer is “a deeper tournament run,” then the evaluation is flawed. Because tournament results are inherently volatile. One bad matchup, one bad shooting night, one unfortunate stretch of five minutes can define a season’s ending. That’s the nature of March. It’s not a reliable measure of program health. What is reliable is consistency. Growth. Competitiveness in a power conference. Dawkins has delivered all three."
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Shandel Richardson is the publisher of UCFRoundtable. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com