It was a call that UCF men’s basketball coach Johnny Dawkins wasn’t expecting, but one he welcomed.
Dawkins, 59, was driving when he received the phone call congratulating him on being selected to the 2023 National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame class.
“I knew the gentleman and thought we were just catching up on all kinds of other things about basketball,” he said. “He asked if I was sitting down somewhere and I told him I was driving. Then he said, ‘Well, I want you to know this is what is going to happen.’”
Dawkins is being inducted as one of two former players in the five-person class, along with former North Carolina forward Tyler Hansbrough (2005-09). Also being inducted are former college scout Tom Konchalski, former Army and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and Herb Magee, former coach at Division II Jefferson.
The group was inducted Wednesday in Chicago.
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“It means a lot,” Dawkins recently told the Sentinel. “It’s something you pour your heart into and I didn’t do it for the recognition. I didn’t do it for that. It’s great to be recognized for some of your accomplishments and things you’ve done.
“I look at my teammates and everybody that was involved. You don’t get there without them.”
Dawkins was a two-time consensus All-American at Duke from 1982-86, totaling 2,556 points, second all-time in school history. He led the Blue Devils to an ACC championship and an appearance in the 1986 national championship game, earning him the Naismith National Player of the Year award.
After an NBA career with the San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons, Dawkins moved to the coaching ranks, serving as an assistant coach at Duke for a decade before becoming the head coach at Stanford and UCF.
The irony wasn’t lost on Dawkins that he would enter the HOF class with his former coach and mentor, Krzyzewski.
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“We talked on the phone about it and he’s like, ‘Hey, we’re still joined at the hip,’” Dawkins said. “We just laughed about it. It’s amazing to have him with me going in simultaneously. It will be an amazing evening with all the emotion and everything that goes along with something like that.”
UCF tips off its 2023-24 season against Florida International at Addition Financial Arena on Nov. 6.
Email Matt Murschel at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on Twitter at @osmattmurschel.
