GOPHERS HIRING BEN JOHNSON

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leib0039 said:
Jeff Goodman said he interviewed and did not get the North Illinois job. Which looks bad for the hire.

Another thing I will mention. Not that it's their job but guys like Amir and Oturu love this hire, they need to help out then. Guessing a talk from Oturu couldn't hurt with Holloman or Amir giving Aligbe a call.
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Thanks.
 



TNGophfan said:
I know what I say here will not influence anyone one way or the another but here goes. I resisted commenting until I had a chance to think it through. I think Coyle decided to risk big for a home run. Niko or Smith were safe picks with a track record, but Coyle, for whatever reason, didn't see them as home-run hires. Who knows why. Don't believe he could get Muss, not enough money here.
Though surprised and underwhelmed, this may work out. If you look at the responses to the kids that played here-Coffey, Otero, Shell, Hurt, they all are extremely positive. Maybe they know something we don't.
I do agree that the assistants he hires will be huge. Maybe Thorson, keep Conroy, add Miles or another experienced assistant and, who knows.
Rooting for Ben and team. Coyle laid his nuts on the line, will say that.
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And I will ask again, How do u sell some mythical sense of hope to an already angry and apathetic fan base that needs to buy tickets to fund other MN sports?
 

Flipper1a said:
Are you sure Gates is a better coach? I am not. Can Gates recruit better than Ben in MN.....I don't think so. Ben has a ton of MN connections.
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How can we be sure? We know zero about Ben's coaching ability. Gates has a track record as a Head Coach. Ben has zero track record. I'd take my chances with the first guy.
 


People are complaining by talking about Johnson's resume? We hired a coach who had won a National Championship....how did that work out?
salzie said:
He was obviously on coyles list.

I don't think he was hired because they needed a diversity hire.

Lots of anguish about mn losing mn recruits, coyle got a guy connected to local recruits and endorsed by local basketball community.

I'll agree gamble, but appears direction we're going

He wasn't in my top 5, I'm all in though.
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BINGO!!!
 


salzie said:
You don't see how saying johnson only got the job due to being black isn't offensive and a shot at Johnson?
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He didn't say it was the only reason, he said it was part of the reason, are you saying it wasn't part of the reason at all?
 

It's all about recruiting athletes. We haven't been able to recruit them in quite some time. When was the last time that we had a 6-4 shooting guard that could finish at the rim?

Surprised by the hire but hopefully Ben will surprise us all!
 



laazrakit said:
Goes back to the days of Lou Holtz... I think. That's as far back as I go with it, anyways. The idea is that one of us wouldn't bolt for the next best open position, but instead stay the course and lead Minnesota to the promised land.
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I was at the Dome during the Spring Game in Lou's second season and there were ~35K fans there; I was in 10 grade and felt eutrophic; they even let us on the filed to meet some players, I met Norries Wilson (super cool) and was in awe that a human being could be that large. I was devastated when he went to ND.
 

WoodburyTim said:
I think a lot of people are surprised that the place to start is at the U of M in the Big10. Usually people start at Rider or Sam Houston State. I think we found out today that we aren't that far above those schools.
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Give me a break. That's not it at all. We could have hired one of the MWC coaches or Gates. For whatever reason, we chose not to.
 


Urbandale said:
Please post a link that shows a blank resume for Johnson.

You may not like the choice. I may not like the choice. But a reasoned and patient and thought-out choice is a good process, whether or not the results are something you agree with.

But go ahead and keep not understanding what the word process means.
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It's a figure of speech, I get he technically has a resume. He doesn't have an adequate resume for the job. I had a resume in 10th grade.

Are you really pretending to not get what people are saying?
 



Ralph said:
We have to give Johnson a chance. The fact that Pitino had eight years and wasn't able to build the relationships necessary to get Suggs and Hurt was pretty damning.

If and that's a huge if Johnson can build relationships and get top MN talent to come to the gophers then it will be a good hire. Recruiting is about building relationships first.

You have to give him a chance. If he's willing to drive to Elk River and Hopkins and watch an eighth grader play ball we may be on to something.

If Bueckers wins four titles at UCONN and the Lady Gophers don't at least win a big ten title then we can expect to see a new women's coach soon.
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One of the biggest complaints you and others have levied against the current state of the affairs of the Gophers is their inability to land local talent. So to rectify that we hired the guy that was the lead local recruiter for five of the eight years on that very staff?
 

CentralGopher said:
While personally I didn't enjoy his sarcasm I doubt most thought he was a douche otherwise you would have seen many articles citing a dislike of him as a main reason someone didn't commit here. Just sour grapes on your part because you believe he rode daddy's coat tails and feel the need to run your mouth about it continually.
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I agree, I should not have said most coaches, the few I know thought he was a douche and insincere,and disliked Pitino, doesn't mean he was, I never personally met Richard Pitino.
 

salzie said:
I'm calling out racism

Question his background, fine. Saying he has no resume and only a diversity hire is an insult to johnson.

He's got local connections, gopher alum, and history as an assistant coach.

He's got a lot going for him besides race.
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Neat. I don't wanna get called a racist. He has a GREAT resume. whew. Dodged a bullet there.
 



gopherdudepart2 said:
one of us
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alchemy2u said:
Great, you are letting the tail wag the dog! That is just who I want to pull the strings at a B1G university, a bunch of egotistical AAU parents that think they are god's gift to basketball.
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Unfortunately, that does seem to be the reality that the Gophers have to live with if they want to keep some of the local talent home.
 

GopherOhana said:
from his NU recruiting notice:
Ben Johnson (guard, 6-3, 180, Minneapolis, Minn./De La Salle) -- High honorable mention All-American this year by Street and Smith Ranked No. 60 in the country by Bob Gibbons Listed among the top 100 players in the nation by Blue Ribbon Minnesota Player of the Year as a junior First-team all-state honoree as a junior by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press and Minnesota Basketball Magazine Three-time team captain Averaged 23 points, five rebounds and three assists as a junior Participated in the Nike camp last summer Earned a tryout for last summers U.S. Junior World Championship team Led De La Salle to the class AA state championship last season, scoring 35 points in the championship game De La Salle was state runner-up during his sophomore season Honor roll student Plays percussion in the school band High school coach is Dave Thorson Born Benjamin Lewis Johnson on 12/23/80 Son of Hal and Katie Johnson Chose Northwestern over Michigan State, Arizona, Seton Hall and Xavier.


looks like he grew up as a Minnesotan, but not a golden gopher. The U was his fallback school after two years at NU. add, he left the U for a similar position at Xavier.

I just really don’t get the “one of us” label.
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It was common knowledge that the U was dirty when Johnson was being recruited. Thorson was his coach. Thorson made no secret about what he thought of the integrity of Clem’s program.
 

skiumah1 said:
My comparison is this feels like a Ryan Saunders hire
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I can see this comparison, as Ryna Saunders was hired by the Timberwolves because Glen Taylor admired and really liked Flip. I think Saunders can coach, it is a tough gig the Timberwolves.
 


Anyone think this sounds like when Beauregard hired fleck at wmu?
 



4thegophers said:
After I saw news of the hire I contacted two friends that are D1basketball coaches (one a asst head coach) to get their reaction. Both said that they had heard rumors over the weekend but were still none-the-less surprised. They both knew him, one a little better than the other. They think he is a very good recruiter and well thought of on the AAU circuit and that one of the past problems in getting recruits to the University was that Pitino was a lazy recruiter and did little to support his assistant’s efforts. So much so that that lack of effort was what drove Ben away. Left to his own devices, they think he will be able to recruit good players and really grow into the job. They think he will have to bring in a veteran presence as an assistant, but overall is a great guy, really knows his stuff and knows how to develop players.
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Well this is good to hear, and I appreciate your input. Any ray of hope right now is pretty much worth its weight in gold.
 

leib0039 said:
Jeff Goodman said he interviewed and did not get the North Illinois job. Which looks bad for the hire.

Another thing I will mention. Not that it's their job but guys like Amir and Oturu love this hire, they need to help out then. Guessing a talk from Oturu couldn't hurt with Holloman or Amir giving Aligbe a call.
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If I’m a top recruit with potentially millions of dollars on the line in a few years from the NBA, I wouldn’t trust my future to a unproven coach with no head coaching experience.
 

salzie said:
You don't see how saying johnson only got the job due to being black isn't offensive and a shot at Johnson?
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bigyetti18 said:
It's all about recruiting athletes. We haven't been able to recruit them in quite some time. When was the last time that we had a 6-4 shooting guard that could finish at the rim?

Surprised by the hire but hopefully Ben will surprise us all!
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I hope so ...but Ben was on staff here. So he was one of the recruiters.

It will be interesting to see who stays. Can he pull Mashburn back in the fold? Was he involved with recruiting Carr? Mitchell, Freeman and Ihnen- does he think he can develop them?
 


salzie said:
I'm calling out racism

Question his background, fine. Saying he has no resume and only a diversity hire is an insult to johnson.

He's got local connections, gopher alum, and history as an assistant coach.

He's got a lot going for him besides race.
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Oh please, you are not some crusader. You are a dime a dozen clown on the internet who feels progressive because he knows how to spell the word racism over and over.

The reason race as a factor is being questioned is because it was brought up over and over in the discussion before the hire, both on here and in the media. You can't have it both ways. If it is insulting to Johnson now, it was just as insulting before the hire as are most discussions of diversity based hiring.

And for the record, I don't think they hired him because he is black. More because they are pinching pennies and also trying to play the trump card of he is one of us. Mix that in with a little reality that he might have some connections to the local AAU circuit, which has so far yet to be proven as useful.
 

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