University of Minnesota Athletics
Women's Basketball
- Title:
- Assistant Head Coach
| COACHING HIGHLIGHTS |
| Six NCAA Tournament appearances |
| NCAA Sweet 16 in 2008 |
| Four Colonial Athletic Association titles |
| One Horizon League Championship |
| Coached seven WNBA Players |
| Two front-court All-Big Ten honorees |
| 15 All-CAA honorees |
| Five CAA All-Defensive Team selections |
| Two All-Atlantic 10 honorees |
| Three All-Horizon League honorees |
| Three CoSIDA Academic All-District players |
| Signed several top-rated recruiting classes |
| PLAYING HIGHLIGHTS |
| Four NCAA Tournament appearances at Ohio State |
| Two Sweet 16s and two Elite Eights |
| Three Big Ten Championships |
| All-Big Ten First Team honoree |
| Chicago Tribune Player of the Year |
| Scarlet & Gray Player of the Year |
| Big Ten All-Decade Second Team |
| Ohio State All-Century Team |
| Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame inductee |
| Two-time All-American |
| Recipient of four gold medals and one silver |
A 26-year coaching veteran and four-time gold medalist with USA Basketball, Niki Dawkins joined the University of Minnesota women's basketball program on April 25, 2014, as the first member of head coach Marlene Stollings’ coaching staff. Dawkins, who was named associate head coach following the 2014-15 season, also serves as the Golden Gophers' recruiting coordinator and co-defensive coordinator.
In her first season working with Minnesota's posts, Dawkins helped Amanda Zahui B. and Shae Kelley emerge as one of the top front-court duos in program history. The pair combined to score 1,199 of the Gophers' 2,514 total points, which accounted for 48 percent of Minnesota's scoring output. The duo also pulled down 50 percent of the Maroon and Gold's total rebounds, combining for 735 of Minnesota's 1,461 boards.
Zahui B. was named a first-team All-American by the WBCA, Associated Press, U.S. Basketball Writers Association and espnW, was the media's choice for Big Ten Player of the Year and was the lone unanimous selection to the All-Big Ten First Team by both coaches and media. Kelley also earned a spot on the media's All-Big Ten First Team and the coaches' All-Big Ten Second Team. Both Zahui B., the No. 2 overall pick by the Tulsa Shock, and Kelley (third round pick of the Minnesota Lynx) were selected in the 2015 WNBA Draft.
In 2015-16, Dawkins’ tutelage helped the Gophers break a 34-year-old program record as they averaged 83.6 points per game to rank fourth in the nation. Minnesota’s 2,676 points broke the program record set in the first year under Stollings’ staff. Rachel Banham earned Big Ten Player of the Year, All-America First Team and Wooden Award Top-Five honors before being selected fourth overall in the WNBA Draft.
In 2016-17, the Gophers set a program record with 508 offesive rebounds. Center Jessie Edwards shot 59.8 percent from the field, the fourth-best accuracy for a season in program history. She blocked 44 shots, No. 8 in the Minnesota record book. Dawkins oversaw the emergence of freshman Taiye Bello in the Gophers' frontcourt. Bello started the last 11 games at center.
Dawkins held the same position under Stollings for two seasons at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), where she played a significant role in orchestrating one of the largest turnarounds in the nation in 2013-14 and helped assemble a six-player recruiting class that ranked 38th nationally and third-highest among non-BCS programs.
No stranger to the Big Ten Conference, Dawkins served as an assistant coach at Michigan as well as her alma mater, Ohio State. One of the most influential African-American athletes to play at Ohio State, Dawkins helped the Buckeyes to three Big Ten Championships and four NCAA Tournament appearances from 1985-89. During her playing career, she earned Kodak All-America First Team and Street & Smith All-America First Team honors, Chicago Tribune Player of the Year recognition, All-Big Ten First Team accolades and was named the Scarlet and Gray Player of the Year. She is a member of the Big Ten 1980 All-Decade Second Team, the Ohio State All-Century Team and was inducted into the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000.
Dawkins would go on to win four gold medals, three as a player and one as a coach, with USA Basketball. In 2002, she was an assistant with the U.S. 20-and-Under squad, which included former Gopher Lindsay Whalen, that won the gold medal at the COPABA Young Women's World Championships in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil. During her collegiate days, Dawkins was a member of two USA Select Teams (1988 & 1990), the World University Team (1989) and the Junior National Team (1987).
Dawkins’ teams have participated in six NCAA Tournaments and won five league championships. She has coached eight WNBA players during her career, including Katie Smith, who is a seven-time WNBA All-Star and was named one of the top-15 players in WNBA history, and more recently, the Gophers’ Zahui B., Kelley and Banham.
Prior to joining Stollings' staff at VCU, Dawkins spent seven seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Old Dominion University under legendary head coach Wendy Larry. Dawkins helped the Lady Monarchs to a 158-67 overall mark, four CAA Tournament titles and four NCAA Tournament appearances, including a run to the Sweet 16 in 2008.
She graduated from Ohio State in 1989 with a degree in economics. Following her graduation, she spent one year abroad playing professionally for the Italmeco Bari Club in Bari, Italy.
Dawkins and her husband, Tony, a men's college and WNBA official, gave birth to twin girl and boy babies, Imani and Isaiah, on Sept. 14, 2011.
