BREAKING!!!! Dennis Evans ask for release….

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Just can't lose and be as pathetic in any season as this team has been this year. There really is no excuse for a Big Ten team to ever be this bad. Plus, there really is no show of major improvement on the court. I don't blame this kid one bit.

The disaster that many predicted is starting to shine through. Not sure how he recovers here, this is a really big hit for Ben.
 


He must have found a school that will let him play both BB and soccer. Understandable.
 

howeda7 said:
This hurts far more for what it says about Ben and the program than the actual player. I was already resigned to Dennis being underwhelming next year, as freshman big men usually are (perhaps a similar year to Payne this year) and then leaving via the portal or draft.
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I don't think it says much about Ben. I think it draws one to question whether or not the strategy of the long slow build will work in this new world. That has been my concern since the day he was hired: Would he ever gain momentum before the patience of the players and the fans wore out.
You have a three year window to impress and hold people in there. The fact that year two is so awfully bad shortens the window.
 



Bob_Loblaw said:
God is he an idiot. Yes, being historically bad hurts recruiting. Even if the only factor is NIL, don't ya think the fanbase might be willing to spend a bit more if we weren't so f'n awful?
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You know what he is? A contrarian. That's how people like him pretend to be smarter than everyone else: by disagreeing with everyone else.
 

howeda7 said:
This hurts far more for what it says about Ben and the program than the actual player. I was already resigned to Dennis being underwhelming next year, as freshman big men usually are (perhaps a similar year to Payne this year) and then leaving via the portal or draft.
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100% this. The one thing some folks could hang their hat on with this guy was recruiting and that's a wash now. Even for fans, it was something kind of new and exciting to look forward to.

What do we have to look forward to for next year?
 

bga1 said:
I don't think it says much about Ben. I think it draws one to question whether or not the strategy of the long slow build will work in this new world. That has been my concern since the day he was hired: Would he ever gain momentum before the patience of the players and the fans wore out.
You have a three year window to impress and hold people in there. The fact that year two is so awfully bad shortens the window.
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I'll disagree. It means Evans sees what we all see. It's not happening. We can give it another year, but there's no point.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
100% this. The one thing some folks could hang their hat on with this guy was recruiting and that's a wash now. Even for fans, it was something kind of new and exciting to look forward to.

What do we have to look forward to for next year?
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Season tickets are going to be in the tank that's for sure.
 



Bad Gopher said:
You know what he is? A contrarian. That's how people like him pretend to be smarter than everyone else: by disagreeing with everyone else.
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But he's not even smart enough for that. He's a failed contrarian with no inside information.

"A little birdy told me that if Ben Johnson doesn't drastically improve his Big 10 record, he could lose his job within the next three years".
 

bga1 said:
I don't think it says much about Ben. I think it draws one to question whether or not the strategy of the long slow build will work in this new world. That has been my concern since the day he was hired: Would he ever gain momentum before the patience of the players and the fans wore out.
You have a three year window to impress and hold people in there. The fact that year two is so awfully bad shortens the window.
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When your floor is as bad as it's been for any team in the Big Ten for 20 years, what does that say about your ceiling? I believe most coaches could win more than 5 games in this conference over their first two years. Wow, this sucks.
 

I usually feel some animosity toward a good recruit who backs out (probably shouldn’t). But here I don’t hold anything against him. Just a smart, practical, and obvious choice. I would’ve done the same.

I mean, I had free, good seats to see the Gophers play in Lincoln on Saturday. I gave them away before this news because I just don’t have the energy to watch them get stomped by Nebraska. Let that sink in.
 




DelawareGopher said:
I usually feel some animosity toward a good recruit who backs out (probably shouldn’t). But here I don’t hold anything against him. Just a smart, practical, and obvious choice. I would’ve done the same.

I mean, I had free, good seats to see the Gophers play in Lincoln on Saturday. I gave them away before this news because I just don’t have the energy to watch them get stomped by Nebraska. Let that sink in.
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The kid was born with a winning lottery ticket, why would you take it to a program with undeniably bad roster construction, a coach on the warm seat, and in the midst of an historically bad run.

If that's your kid, you'd be a fool to not look elsewhere. It sucks for us but this was our destiny the day the coaching announcement was made.
 



But what about the wing-span?

I was told there would be wing-span. 😡

Actually don’t think a guy never playing a single minute here is anything to get worked up over. Everyone except the most faithful of the faithfully can see how far this program is from making the minor jump from 14th in the conference to 10th.

Johnson was more than likely getting 4 years and probably a fifth year to get this going. Whether one recruit was here or not doesn’t change that.
 

scools12 said:
But what about the wing-span?

I was told there would be wing-span. 😡

Actually don’t think a guy never playing a single minute here is anything to get worked up over. Everyone except the most faithful of the faithfully can see how far this program is from making the minor jump from 14th in the conference to 10th.

Johnson was more than likely getting 4 years and probably a fifth year to get this going. Whether one recruit was here or not doesn’t change that.
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In normal programs, I agree with you. For teams in the midst of historically bad basketball, it was the only thing we could even delude ourselves into being excited about.

Now what? I guess we could break a record for having the most PFs of any team in history. That's kind of fun.
 

Otis said:
I’m waiting for Wet Blanket’s spin!

And just what section of his blanket is wet?
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I could see EasyTherePilgrim sticking to his Clem angle and say that Evans is CBJ’s Chris Webber that got away. Didn’t Clem almost get Webber? Didn’t he almost have Al ahmin? This actually lines up perfectly for EasyTherePilgram
 


Go Gophs said:
Just can't lose and be as pathetic in any season as this team has been this year. There really is no excuse for a Big Ten team to ever be this bad. Plus, there really is no show of major improvement on the court. I don't blame this kid one bit.

The disaster that many predicted is starting to shine through. Not sure how he recovers here, this is a really big hit for Ben.
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I think this is worse than any disaster that anyone predicted.
 

Realistically, I'm just not sure when you can expect to be a good team at this point under Ben. There's no way he keeps his job, it's just a matter of time.

The only hope I would say is if he goes transfer portal heavy and actually hits. I'm just not sure he can sell himself with the past 2 years being what they are.

I'm also just not convinced he can actually strategize and coach at this high of a level.

A lot going against him right now.

Sign me up for another coaching hire, those are fun discussions. Just don't end it the same way this time.
 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
I could see EasyTherePilgrim sticking to his Clem angle and say that Evans is CBJ’s Chris Webber that got away. Didn’t Clem almost get Webber? Didn’t he almost have Al ahmin? This actually lines up perfectly for EasyTherePilgram
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It's still year 0 for Pilgrim. So CBJ still has a couple years before even lining up with the Clem timeline.

He is also going to play the card that everyone else is cheating.
 

What are the downsides of us holding him to his commitment, vs the upside of him coming here? With basically nothing for us to lose, I say we hold him to his commitment. You signed the deal to dance, so live up to the commitment. Let's dance :cool03::cheer::cool03:

 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
I could see EasyTherePilgrim sticking to his Clem angle and say that Evans is CBJ’s Chris Webber that got away. Didn’t Clem almost get Webber? Didn’t he almost have Al ahmin? This actually lines up perfectly for EasyTherePilgram
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Weber and El Amin were interested on the strength of the tournament runs.
 


skiumah1 said:
Realistically, I'm just not sure when you can expect to be a good team at this point under Ben. There's no way he keeps his job, it's just a matter of time.

The only hope I would say is if he goes transfer portal heavy and actually hits. I'm just not sure he can sell himself with the past 2 years being what they are.

I'm also just not convinced he can actually strategize and coach at this high of a level.

A lot going against him right now.

Sign me up for another coaching hire, those are fun discussions. Just don't end it the same way this time.
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Two potential factors here:
1) Obviously any buyout
2) The ability to attract another coach may depend partly on whether they themselves think Johnson has been fairly treated.
 

Full Speed Ahead said:
What are the downsides of us holding him to his commitment, vs the upside of him coming here? With basically nothing for us to lose, I say we hold him to his commitment. You signed the deal to dance, so live up to the commitment. Let's dance :cool03::cheer::cool03:

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It'll piss off the AAU and HS coaches maybe. They are a sensitive bunch.
 

scools12 said:
But what about the wing-span?

I was told there would be wing-span. 😡

Actually don’t think a guy never playing a single minute here is anything to get worked up over. Everyone except the most faithful of the faithfully can see how far this program is from making the minor jump from 14th in the conference to 10th.

Johnson was more than likely getting 4 years and probably a fifth year to get this going. Whether one recruit was here or not doesn’t change that.
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I felt the same. But I just don't see any sort of path to actually getting there at this point.

The only path is transfer portal, and it's really not great after 2 years to realize that you failed with your initial plan and what you sold yourself as when getting hired.
 


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