“Eight is Enough” was a popular television series that ran from 1977 to 1981.

As far as Stanford Athletic Director Bernard Muir was concerned, eight years was enough for men’s basketball coach Johnny Dawkins, whose Cardinal failed to reach the NCAA tournament for the seventh time in his tenure.

This year’s Stanford team finished 15-15, a record so bad Stanford couldn’t even get invited to the NIT, the best consolation prize for those who don’t go dancing. Stanford knows the NIT all too well, having won the championship twice in three appearances under Dawkins’ watch.

Muir’s dismissal of Dawkins, one of the nicest guys in the coaching ranks, didn’t come a minute too soon. With the emergence of football as the school’s premier sport, men’s basketball needs to start pulling its weight and generate some interest on campus. There is no excuse for the paltry crowds seen in Maples Pavilion the past couple of years for men’s basketball games. Covering the DePaul game in mid-December, I deduced it was the smallest crowd I have ever seen at a men’s basketball game, despite the announced attendance at 4,912.

For a major college, the lack of spectators at men’s hoop games has been an embarrassment. Also embarrassing was the way the Cardinal finished the year after an 8-4 overall start, getting off to a 3-2 start in the Pac-12. Stanford lost eight of its final 12 games, including a 94-62 blowout at Arizona to end the regular season. Before the loss to the Wildcats, the Cardinal needed a win over Arizona State to have a chance to be considered for the NIT. Stanford lost by 10 points in a lackluster effort to a Sun Devils team, a lowly 4-13 in the Pac-12 entering the game.

Worse was a 91-68 rout at the hands of Washington in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas. The Stanford players played as if they stayed out after curfew for they were constantly a half-step slow.

Dawkins knew his team was going to have a hard time scoring, yet he never extended full-length of the court with his guards, where he had some depth. Twins Malcolm and Marcus Allen seem to be the type of players who would thrive in an open-court game. Heck, let them play together, knowing they’ve played together since they were tots.

Rotate in Dorian Pickens, Marcus Sheffield, Christian Sanders and Cameron Walker, four other athletic players, keeping the Allen brothers fresh. One has nothing to lose. Stanford needed to create offense out of its defense.

No denying the loss of guard Robert Cartwright to a broken arm before the season hurt the Cardinal’s backcourt. And not having power forward Reid Travis, out of commission the last 22 games of the year to a stress fracture, was devastating. Travis was off to a good start, averaging 12.8 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.

It is difficult to say how many games Stanford would have won with Cartwright and Travis. Neither player was on the floor when Stanford played its best game of the year, a 76-72 win over Oregon at Maples Pavilion on Feb. 13. Stanford made the smart pass, hitting the open man, in the win over the Ducks, a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tourney.

Where was that kind of basketball in other games? The sign of a good coach is having players be consistent, game in and game out. Even when then No. 10 seed Stanford shocked No. 2 seed Kansas 60-57 in a 2014 second-round NCAA tournament game in St. Louis, the Cardinal did not play well in an 82-72 loss to No. 11 seed Dayton in the Sweet Sixteen in Memphis. The Flyers were there to be had, yet once Stanford trailed 20-19 with 9:33 left in the first half, it never took a lead the rest of the game.

Despite shocking the Jayhawks, that Cardinal team may have underachieved. Stanford’s starting five in the 2014 postseason are all playing professional basketball somewhere. Dwight Powell is on the Dallas Mavericks, while Anthony Brown plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. Josh Huestis plays for OKC in the Thunder’s Developmental League. Chasson Randle, Stanford’s all-time leading scorer, plays pro ball in the Czech National Basketball League. Stefan Nastic, a native of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, toils in the Basketball League of Serbia.

What is next for Stanford men’s basketball? Dawkins, who had no prior head coaching experience, was a gamble by then Stanford AD Bob Bowlsby, one that backfired. Muir needs to find a Jim Harbaugh-like coach, someone with the swagger and enthusiasm to light a fire under a program lagging far behind — not only the football program, but the women’s basketball program.

The Pac-12 all-Century men’s basketball team was announced last week. The only Stanford player on the 20-player team was Hank Luisetti, a three-time All-American forward back in 1936-38.

Stanford men’s hoop has a lot of catching up to do, don’t you think?

Email John Reid at jreid@dailynewsgroup.com; follow him at twitter.com/dailynewsjohn.