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He was athletic, but he essentially shot his way out of the starting five, and completely out of the rotation for majority of the season.

No

I would like to think Coyle has learned his ex-Gopher hire lesson after Ben and Whalen and will hire an experienced and proven winning coach like he did for women in Coach Plitzuweit.

5-0 MN (fouls)

Interesting read: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6035757/2025/01/08/jim-crutchfield-nova-southeastern-dii-basketball/?source=user_shared_article Too old for MN, but his methods and style of play is interesting and might make Nolan Richardson’s “40 mins of hell” seem like a walk in the park.

Love their style of play last year. He would be at the top of my “gettable” coaches list.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6028371/2025/01/02/drake-bulldogs-basketball-ben-mccollum-transfers/?source=user_shared_article A true coach who can actually change his system to best fit his personnel.

Grand Canyon has more talent than MN and an excellent coach in Bryce Drew. I loved how they played in their NCAA tourney run last year.

Hard to say what Betts has to offer with the way Ben manages the game. I would have at least tried a bigger lineup instead of the 3 guard/bricklayers and Garcia + Frank/Edmunds/Fox. Maybe the bricklayers would actually improve if Ben had offensive sets? Asuma is the only true PG on the team...

More Edmunds and Betts. Frank needs to earn his minutes. He is soft and slow.

Hard to find consistency when you have a good first half and then get zero second half minutes. Who knows what goes thru Ben’s mind? Loved how Ben killed the legs of the guys in the second half of the Wake game. Trying to condition them for B1G play?

I’d like to see Garcia, Edmunds, Betts, Patterson/Mike Mitchell, and Asuma. Betts looked decent at SF in the first half a game or two ago. Edmunds has more life and is at least in shape versus Frank Mitchell. Ben’s failure to try different combos and develop players during the non conference...

Coyle appears to have righted on of his wrongs with the hire of Coach P for women’s team. He needs to do the same for the men following the season.

Build a new “Barn” with a raised floor and play games at Mariucci. 9700 capacity for hockey more than sufficient for basketball. The way the Gopher basketball programs are going the Women could play at Mariucci and Men at Ridder.

Saw this when searching for info on him: Unless he pulls a Hawkins, he is staying at Charlotte. https://www.thecharlottepost.com/news/2024/04/10/sports/lu-cye-patterson-decides-to-stick-with-charlotte-49ers/

Agree there has to be accountability. En was missed the reward system entirely.

And Ben actually commented in a Fuller article on how his guys looked worn down towards the end. If they weren’t burned out physically, they were mentally. He lost this team. If we don’t have the NIL to offer, then provide some PT. It is time for a change to someone that can adapt.

In the era of the “portal at will” and NIL, you have to give all your recruits a few mins here and there. You pretty much have to recruit all season long now. Hard to say what Keinys potential is when he never got on the court, even in blowouts. I think he got in 2-3 non conference games. Ben...

The book on Ben's first real HS recruiting class is complete. Everyone has now left.

Preseason grade B+/A-. Final: C-. The NIT opportunity came as a result of several teams declining their invitation. Instead of using the gift NIT invite as a bonus developmental opportunity and reward, Ben maintained his status quo distribution of playing time. It doesn’t take much to give...