Incoming freshman power forward Miles Plumlee wanted a release from his letter of intent when Stanford head coach Trent Johnson left for LSU.

He's now made his decision on where he wants to go: Duke.

The funny thing about that is Stanford just hired former Blue Devils player and assistant Johnny Dawkins to replace Johnson. Even at the press conference, Dawkins said that he wouldn't be surprised if Plumlee chose to go to Duke.

Still, it probably wasn't Dawkins who steered him over to Duke. Plumlee will have a close friend with him in Durham -- his brother. Mason Plumlee, who is a rising high school senior, had already committed to join the Blue Devils in 2009.

The older Plumlee is quite a get. He's 6-10 and has that typical Duke perimeter game of recent big men. His size is sorely needed on a team that lacked it last year. Kyle Singler did a valiant job trying to defend in the paint but he, at times, was overmatched and it took away from other aspects of his game.

Plumlee may not be ready physically to match up against the better big men in the ACC, but he will join fellow recruit Olek Czyz and Singler for what should be a much improved front line.

I guess Mike Krzyzewski is trying to get that awkwardness that Roy Williams had going on out of the way very early.

Last week, news broke that Duke assistant Johnny Dawkins would be the new head coach at Stanford. Dawkins was considered, by many, to have been the eventual successor for Coach K at Duke. According to Stanford AD Bob Bowlsby, Coach K said so himself:

Bowlsby said one of the first people he spoke to about the open job at Stanford was Krzyzewski and that he asked Krzyzewski about both Dawkins, who was Krzyzewski's right-hand man for 11 seasons, and Duke assistant Steve Wojciechowski.

"At that time, Coach Krzyzewski said that Johnny was a likely successor to him [at Duke]," Bowlsby said.

Coach K has at least another ten years left in him to coach, so it wasn't like Dawkins was going to get a good look at it anytime soon. I think Dawkins is a great hire (albeit an inexperienced one) for the Cardinal program and would be the kind of guy that would stick around for a while.

Well, maybe until Coach K comes calling.

He inherits a team that will lose the Lopez twins, Brook and Robin, to the NBA draft, but will return its primary perimeter players in Mitch Johnson, Lawrence Hill and Anthony Goods, who will all be seniors next season.

Despite flirting with Georgetown a few years ago, many people do feel that Dawkins will one day replace Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. Getting the Stanford job as his first head coaching gig is quite an endorsement of how good of a coach he is.

They are getting a great guy. Dawkins wanted his first head coaching job to be at a school with high academic standards that also had a great hoops program. Stanford is definitely that. He's just 44 years old, so he could be around Stanford for many years to come.

Or when Duke looks for Coach K's successor.

He's also in charge of player development for the U.S. Olympic Team as they get ready for the Beijing Games this summer.