CBS: Grading the major hires of the 2021 college basketball coaching carousel (Ben Johnson, only hire given a C)

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Ben Johnson		CWould Johnson have been hired at Minnesota if he wasn't a Minneapolis native who played for the Gophers from 2002 to 2004? The bet here is no. While there is nothing wrong with hiring a coach who has ties to the program -- see favorable grades given out for Woodson and Davis above -- this one feels like a stretch. The last NCAA Tournament victory Johnson was part of came in 2010 when he was on staff at Northern Iowa. Since then, he was part of unremarkable staffs at Nebraska, Minnesota and Xavier, and it's unclear how any of those stints equipped him to thrive as a first-time head coach in what is widely regarded as the nation's toughest conference.

www.cbssports.com

2021 college basketball coaching carousel grades: Chris Beard to Texas an A+, UNC gets B+ for Hubert Davis

Grading the major hires of the 2021 college basketball coaching carousel
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com

Go Gophers!!
 

Yep, everyone has an opinion, doesn't mean its the correct one. I think if Ben has hired the correct assistants, he will do well. I'm sure the writers at CBS are wrong as many times as they are right. In our case I'm willing to play it out and give Ben a chance to turn this around. True, no head coaching experience but everyone has to start somewhere. He is getting his chance at our Big Ten school and it may yet prove to be a mistake. Some on here don't like it, I for one like the guys chances, no wise sage advice, just a gut feel that he's the guy and I'm willing to give him a chance. Good Luck Ben, prove them all wrong!
 

Outsider said:
Yep, everyone has an opinion, doesn't mean its the correct one. I think if Ben has hired the correct assistants, he will do well. I'm sure the writers at CBS are wrong as many times as they are right. In our case I'm willing to play it out and give Ben a chance to turn this around. True, no head coaching experience but everyone has to start somewhere. He is getting his chance at our Big Ten school and it may yet prove to be a mistake. Some on here don't like it, I for one like the guys chances, no wise sage advice, just a gut feel that he's the guy and I'm willing to give him a chance. Good Luck Ben, prove them all wrong!
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IDK, the guy gave a pretty reasonable take. Basically echoing the exact sentiments of those surprised by the hire on this board. I also hope Ben succeeds and out performs the given grade.
 

GopherBlood666 said:
IDK, the guy gave a pretty reasonable take. Basically echoing the exact sentiments of those surprised by the hire on this board. I also hope Ben succeeds and out performs the given grade.
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Big fan of this hire but have no problem with the article. It is not like we had the chance to hire Beard. Someone has to be graded high,someone low. Time will tell who does better on that list.
 

GopherBlood666 said:
IDK, the guy gave a pretty reasonable take. Basically echoing the exact sentiments of those surprised by the hire on this board. I also hope Ben succeeds and out performs the given grade.
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Like the hire now as I’m seeing their plan, but I think they are generous giving a C. I don’t expect many National writers to know Ben’s strengths or how good the staff is. Coyle knew that too. Archie Miller was given an A on most of these things when Indiana hired him.
 



howeda7 said:
7 A's. 6 B's. 1 C. And we passed on one of the A's. Ouch.
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I assume that this is sarcasm.....seeing as how grades given out by a CBS donk mean absolutely nothing.
 

stocker08 said:
I assume that this is sarcasm.....seeing as how grades given out by a CBS donk mean absolutely nothing.
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It’s true the grades mean nothing. But, Ben only got a C because the guy was being nice. What logic, what merit, what experience, would anyone point to as this being a commendable hire deserving of a higher grade? Good citizen? Nice guy?

We like his diamond in the rough unheralded assistant coaches. We were not able to get any of the top 7 rated Minnesota HS players who all had equal or higher offers in Holloman, King, Aligbe, Heide, Lee, Watson and Jefferson.
But we did get a couple and expect a third of the unrated MN HS guys, who we think are better, despite very few comparable competing offers for any of
those guys.
Ben has a chance to out perform all the guys on the list. When he does he’ll get and deserve a better grade.
 

60's Guy said:
It’s true the grades mean nothing. But, Ben only got a C because the guy was being nice. What logic, what merit, what experience, would anyone point to as this being a commendable hire deserving of a higher grade? Good citizen? Nice guy?

We like his diamond in the rough unheralded assistant coaches. We were not able to get any of the top 7 rated Minnesota HS players who all had equal or higher offers in Holloman, King, Aligbe, Heide, Lee, Watson and Jefferson.
But we did get a couple and expect a third of the unrated MN HS guys, who we think are better, despite very few comparable competing offers for any of
those guys.
Ben has a chance to out perform all the guys on the list. When he does he’ll get and deserve a better grade.
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Ben will not have to out perform anyone on that list to become successful here. Go 11-9 in the conference 5 straight years, any 5 year stretch and that will top what has been done here. If he does that he will have proven sustained success can be done here.
 



60's Guy said:
It’s true the grades mean nothing. But, Ben only got a C because the guy was being nice. What logic, what merit, what experience, would anyone point to as this being a commendable hire deserving of a higher grade? Good citizen? Nice guy?

We like his diamond in the rough unheralded assistant coaches. We were not able to get any of the top 7 rated Minnesota HS players who all had equal or higher offers in Holloman, King, Aligbe, Heide, Lee, Watson and Jefferson.
But we did get a couple and expect a third of the unrated MN HS guys, who we think are better, despite very few comparable competing offers for any of
those guys.
Ben has a chance to out perform all the guys on the list. When he does he’ll get and deserve a better grade.
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It's not like Johnson has been elsewhere and failed. No way of knowing what he can do as a head coach until he actually is one. And if you didn't notice.....I said that these grades mean absolutely nothing. Couldn't matter less. Results matter.....not a letter grade assigned by some random rube.

As for not getting any of the top 7 recruits in Minnesota.....that's just misleading. Aligbe doesn't have a Gopher offer and neither does Jefferson. And Lee hasn't signed anywhere. Payne and Carrington don't have composite rankings yet. But 247 has them as #7 and #8 in a LOADED MN class. Payne at number 7 is still a top 150 guy. Carrington is at 213. Ola-Joseph at 214. You get three guys ranked like that and still have complaints? Carrington specifically has a very nice offer list.
 

60's Guy said:
It’s true the grades mean nothing. But, Ben only got a C because the guy was being nice. What logic, what merit, what experience, would anyone point to as this being a commendable hire deserving of a higher grade? Good citizen? Nice guy?

We like his diamond in the rough unheralded assistant coaches. We were not able to get any of the top 7 rated Minnesota HS players who all had equal or higher offers in Holloman, King, Aligbe, Heide, Lee, Watson and Jefferson.
But we did get a couple and expect a third of the unrated MN HS guys, who we think are better, despite very few comparable competing offers for any of
those guys.
Ben has a chance to out perform all the guys on the list. When he does he’ll get and deserve a better grade.
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Thorson was a rumored coach for any of the coaches that were hired and Jenkins was the lead assistant at Richmond which has had more success than us the last 20 years. Super unheralded.

Considering they didn't try to get commits from three of the recruits on your list (Lee, Aligbe, and Jefferson) is misleading at best. Of course you know 247 updated their rankings and mentioned Carrington and Payne as top 150 players.
 

60's Guy said:
It’s true the grades mean nothing. But, Ben only got a C because the guy was being nice. What logic, what merit, what experience, would anyone point to as this being a commendable hire deserving of a higher grade? Good citizen? Nice guy?

We like his diamond in the rough unheralded assistant coaches. We were not able to get any of the top 7 rated Minnesota HS players who all had equal or higher offers in Holloman, King, Aligbe, Heide, Lee, Watson and Jefferson.
But we did get a couple and expect a third of the unrated MN HS guys, who we think are better, despite very few comparable competing offers for any of
those guys.
Ben has a chance to out perform all the guys on the list. When he does he’ll get and deserve a better grade.
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Payne will almost certainly end up ranked ahead of Aligbe and Jefferson, probably ahead of Lee and Watson, and possibly above King and Heide.
 

He might only be a "C" ...but he's our "C".

It is not like having a big name and being the son of Rick Pitino along with coaching stints under his father and Billy Donovan helped our last coach. It's not like having a National Championship and successful seasons at KY helped the coach before him. I like our chances.
 



Johnnyboy18 said:
Thorson was a rumored coach for any of the coaches that were hired and Jenkins was the lead assistant at Richmond which has had more success than us the last 20 years. Super unheralded.

Considering they didn't try to get commits from three of the recruits on your list (Lee, Aligbe, and Jefferson) is misleading at best. Of course you know 247 updated their rankings and mentioned Carrington and Payne as top 150 players.
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I’m just reporting stuff…you like to spin everything. In the 247 ratings you refer to: 6 of the 7 guys I listed are in the “new Top 150. Payne is at 150. Carrington is not listed at this time.
 

CPTMidnight said:
He might only be a "C" ...but he's our "C".

It is not like having a big name and being the son of Rick Pitino along with coaching stints under his father and Billy Donovan helped our last coach. It's not like having a National Championship and successful seasons at KY helped the coach before him. I like our chances.
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So the reason he’ll be successful and the others were not is because he went to high school in Minnesota? ?
 

60's Guy said:
So the reason he’ll be successful and the others were not is because he went to high school in Minnesota? ?
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Not sure how you got that out of my comment but I'll bite.

Yes. The biggest reason (but not the only) he will be successful is he is from Minnesota, went to high school in MN, played at MN, has recruited in MN, knows the Amatuer leagues here in mn, knows the high school coaches, and is passionate about the local basketball scene.

We are a weird bunch here in Minnesota from you passive aggresive Charlie Brown white guys to the turmoil of the inner city. ADVANTAGE: Johnson
 

CPTMidnight said:
Not sure how you got that out of my comment but I'll bite.

Yes. The biggest reason (but not the only) he will be successful is he is from Minnesota, went to high school in MN, played at MN, has recruited in MN, knows the Amatuer leagues here in mn, knows the high school coaches, and is passionate about the local basketball scene.

We are a weird bunch here in Minnesota from you passive aggresive Charlie Brown white guys to the turmoil of the inner city. ADVANTAGE: Johnson
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What does this mean: "from you passive aggresive Charlie Brown white guys"
 

Gopher Teeth said:
What does this mean: "from you passive aggresive Charlie Brown white guys"
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I don't know if you know this but for some folks on this board, if you don't think Johnson had a resume of a typical Big Ten hire, you're racist. Ironically for someone saying the hiring critics are passive aggresive [sic], they won't really come out and say it.
 

builtbadgers said:
Ben will not have to out perform anyone on that list to become successful here. Go 11-9 in the conference 5 straight years, any 5 year stretch and that will top what has been done here. If he does that he will have proven sustained success can be done here.
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Yep, this is 100% accurate. Going 11-9 at Minnesota for 5 straight years would be a drastic improvement. Going 11-9 at Michigan State. . . well you wouldn't make it 5 years. He's got a tough hill to climb, it's obviously hard to win here, but landing guys like Payne goes a long way to making that happen.

At the end of the day, our opinions about the hire and these publications rankings of the hire will matter a lot less a year from now. They'll matter even less the following year. We'll finally have some information about Ben and the trajectory of the program other than our opinions. The hiring process (everywhere) is not an exact science and there is always a degree of luck involved. You can do everything right (process-wise) and land on the wrong guy and do everything wrong and land on the best guy.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I don't know if you know this but for some folks on this board, if you don't think Johnson had a resume of a typical Big Ten hire, you're racist. Ironically for someone saying the hiring critics are passive aggresive [sic], they won't really come out and say it.
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So Charlie Brown is racist, or is that just a racist comment meaning 'loser white guys'?
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Yep, this is 100% accurate. Going 11-9 at Minnesota for 5 straight years would be a drastic improvement. Going 11-9 at Michigan State. . . well you wouldn't make it 5 years. He's got a tough hill to climb, it's obviously hard to win here, but landing guys like Payne goes a long way to making that happen.

At the end of the day, our opinions about the hire and these publications rankings of the hire will matter a lot less a year from now. They'll matter even less the following year. We'll finally have some information about Ben and the trajectory of the program other than our opinions. The hiring process (everywhere) is not an exact science and there is always a degree of luck involved. You can do everything right (process-wise) and land on the wrong guy and do everything wrong and land on the best guy.
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Not true that i can find a example of doing everything wrong and landing on the right guy. Of course we may have a different opinion of what the right guy is. On the other hand there have been only a few slam dunk hires in the past 20 years. Super tough to be great. Building a solid foundation is the goal here. That has proven to be very tough but other places have done it with even less success in their history.
 

C grade for the hire of Ben Johnson? Even with that being the lowest grade given it’s a pretty generous grade.
 

Gopher Teeth said:
So Charlie Brown is racist, or is that just a racist comment meaning 'loser white guys'?
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No that is just my code for the Patrick Reusse types on this board and elsewhere who are negative first last and always. ...as if being an extremely negative will help the people around you know they should fix the problem for you - this is classic MN.

Obviously both extremes were caricatures of basketball people who live here. We can be a weird state and the good players (and their families) live somewhere in-between those extremes. Ben "gets" the people from this state and I kinda like that about him. I think it does translate into keeping the recruits instate on some level. The hire is growing on me.
 

60's Guy said:
So the reason he’ll be successful and the others were not is because he went to high school in Minnesota? ?
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I think that she is referring to that you can already see a difference in recruiting of our states best players. The high school basketball coaches I've talked to see a significant difference. But if you want to be negative and whine about the hire for the next 5 years.....go ahead dude.
 

stocker08 said:
I assume that this is sarcasm.....seeing as how grades given out by a CBS donk mean absolutely nothing.
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Of course it doesn't "mean" anything. But 14th out of 14 while you snubbed #4 isn't a ringing endorsement either.
 




Gopher Teeth said:
So Charlie Brown is racist.....?
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Yes, he was. In the early comic strips he occasionally was depicted wearing a white hood. I read about it on social media. Lucy was justified in tormenting him.
 


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