The Pac-10's top coach packed his bags, and one of the most highly regarded assistants in college basketball took the top job in Palo Alto.

Trent Johnson, 2008 conference coach of the year, accepted the top job at LSU, leaving the Cardinal with a vacancy and even more change after its best season since Mike Montgomery left in 2004.

In turn, the Cardinal turned to ... Duke.

Stanford formally introduced Johnny Dawkins almost four weeks after the end of the season. Dawkins, 44, a longtime lieutenant of Mike Krzyzewski with the Blue Devils, has never been a head coach. But he said the timing was right.

Dawkins agreed to a six-year contract one day after interviewing with Bob Bowlsby, who went the well-known route to hire Jim Harbaugh as Cardinal football coach a year ago.

"We're very excited to start the Johnny Dawkins era at Stanford," Bowlsby said.

Johnson's move was considered a bit of a surprise, but predicting the future in the Pac-10 isn't a winning proposition. Four of five first-team all-conference picks -- Arizona State's James Harden is the lone returnee --expressed intentions to enter the NBA draft.

To that end, there was little question about the future of Brook Lopez -- the 7-foot forward almost certainly has played his final game as a college player.

Lopez had 26 points and 10 rebounds in the season-ending loss to Texas, but he wasn't ready to announce his future plans.

A few days later, Robin Lopez, himself a 7-foot sophomore, and Brook Lopez declared for the NBA draft.

Brook Lopez, an NBA lottery pick, was easily the top individual performer for Stanford.

The high school standouts from Fresno arrived at Stanford in lockstep and will depart Palo Alto much the same way. Brook Lopez was a third-team All-American, with averages of 19.3 points and 8.2 rebounds per game.

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