2022 Transfer Portal Discussion

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GopherWeatherGuy said:
Stop repeating this nonsense because it's not true. There were only 2 players in the portal when Ben was hired. The decimation and rebuild to a last place team was his own choice, and one of the main reason's he hasn't earned my respect.

You're acting like the Gophers were coming off of a scandal or something, which they weren't. Ben inherited what most other first year head coaches inherited last season. This team could have, and should have been better.
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You don’t respect him cause he decimated a bottom 4 B1G team and started over?
 

ecoperson said:
The decimation was not his own choice. No one wanted to stay with Ben from the previous regime. He rebuilt the entire team based on the handful of recruits who were willing to take a chance on a first-time, no-name head coach.

Ben didn't pout or make excuses... he rolled up his sleeves and simultaneously hired a coaching staff, recruited the portal, and began recruiting the 22s. He then led his team (down 2 likely starters due to season-ending injuries) to an undefeated non conference record and, despite not coming up with a lot of Ws, took the remaining group of odds and ends into arenas across the B1G and did not look completely out of place.

Most new head coaches did not face anywhere near this type of adversity last season. Most head coaches bring at least some members from their previous staff with them. Ben was like a one-man show for the better part of 2 months yet still fielded a competitive team... this earned my respect.
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Do you understand how recruiting works? If no one wanted to play for Ben, that's on Ben. There was still enough talent on Pitino's last team to be ranked 16h before injuries hampered them the rest of the season. If anything new coaches get a pass because they can sell their vision without results at a new school. Ben should be able to sell his vision to players who were still on the team as well as new recruits, such as PJ did when he took over.

You shouldn't be hired as a head coach at a B1G school if you're a no name, first time head coach. Now we should be happy because a bunch of players who didn't belong in the B1G decided to play for that coach which lead a last place finish?

Most coaches faced as much of a depleted roster as Ben did, that's a fact. Ben being a 'one man show' is just as much his fault as anyone.

Ben continues to look like Dan Monson handing MN recruits starting positions before they step on campus, and appears to be more concerned about 'keeping people happy' than winning games. That strategy has nearly a 100% failure rate.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Do you understand how recruiting works? If no one wanted to play for Ben, that's on Ben. There was still enough talent on Pitino's last team to be ranked 16h before injuries hampered them the rest of the season. If anything new coaches get a pass because they can sell their vision without results at a new school. Ben should be able to sell his vision to players who were still on the team as well as new recruits, such as PJ did when he took over.

You shouldn't be hired as a head coach at a B1G school if you're a no name, first time head coach. Now we should be happy because a bunch of players who didn't belong in the B1G decided to play for that coach which lead a last place finish?

Most coaches faced as much of a depleted roster as Ben did, that's a fact. Ben being a 'one man show' is just as much his fault as anyone.

Ben continues to look like Dan Monson handing MN recruits starting positions before they step on campus, and appears to be more concerned about 'keeping people happy' than winning games. That strategy has nearly a 100% failure rate.
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If players left during PJs first year they would have had to sit out. Of course you know this but for some reason put your head in the sand and ignore it (not surprising).

What Minnesota kid is being handed a starting spot?
 



GopherWeatherGuy said:
Do you understand how recruiting works? If no one wanted to play for Ben, that's on Ben. There was still enough talent on Pitino's last team to be ranked 16h before injuries hampered them the rest of the season. If anything new coaches get a pass because they can sell their vision without results at a new school. Ben should be able to sell his vision to players who were still on the team as well as new recruits, such as PJ did when he took over.

You shouldn't be hired as a head coach at a B1G school if you're a no name, first time head coach. Now we should be happy because a bunch of players who didn't belong in the B1G decided to play for that coach which lead a last place finish?

Most coaches faced as much of a depleted roster as Ben did, that's a fact. Ben being a 'one man show' is just as much his fault as anyone.

Ben continues to look like Dan Monson handing MN recruits starting positions before they step on campus, and appears to be more concerned about 'keeping people happy' than winning games. That strategy has nearly a 100% failure rate.
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You should take issue with the AD and judge him for hiring a coach with no head coaching experience. If you fail to see how well this less decorated, less experienced coach performed under the extraordinary circumstances of the extra COVID year, the free transfer, and coping with the loss of two starters, I can't help you.

If you play golf with your buddies, everybody plays with a different handicap to allow you to all enjoy your time together. Unfortunately, the B1G and NCAA can't just give Ben any extra wins or points for his lack of experience. Ben had to tee off from the championship level tee just like every other D-1 head coach and, despite not having a handicap of any sort, he still finished around par. He far exceeded reasonable expectations for someone in his situation.

Now that he has been head coach for a year, we can all begin to RAISE our expectations for him and the program. He has a year under his belt and it should be more easy to objectively judge his body of work versus some oddball first year.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Do you understand how recruiting works? If no one wanted to play for Ben, that's on Ben. There was still enough talent on Pitino's last team to be ranked 16h before injuries hampered them the rest of the season. If anything new coaches get a pass because they can sell their vision without results at a new school. Ben should be able to sell his vision to players who were still on the team as well as new recruits, such as PJ did when he took over.

You shouldn't be hired as a head coach at a B1G school if you're a no name, first time head coach. Now we should be happy because a bunch of players who didn't belong in the B1G decided to play for that coach which lead a last place finish?

Most coaches faced as much of a depleted roster as Ben did, that's a fact. Ben being a 'one man show' is just as much his fault as anyone.

Ben continues to look like Dan Monson handing MN recruits starting positions before they step on campus, and appears to be more concerned about 'keeping people happy' than winning games. That strategy has nearly a 100% failure rate.
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Monson inherited a sewer. He had a better conference record than Pitino. Ben will need time. I believe Ben will do better than Pitino and that is not that tough. No one has built sustainable success here. Lets give Ben and staff time. He was not my 1st choice but those kinds of guys were not coming here. I see a ton to be optimistic about especially after that horrible coaching regime we had far too long. Ben started with character and he will not cut corners. Plus this staff will evaluate far better.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Do you understand how recruiting works? If no one wanted to play for Ben, that's on Ben. There was still enough talent on Pitino's last team to be ranked 16h before injuries hampered them the rest of the season. If anything new coaches get a pass because they can sell their vision without results at a new school. Ben should be able to sell his vision to players who were still on the team as well as new recruits, such as PJ did when he took over.

You shouldn't be hired as a head coach at a B1G school if you're a no name, first time head coach. Now we should be happy because a bunch of players who didn't belong in the B1G decided to play for that coach which lead a last place finish?

Most coaches faced as much of a depleted roster as Ben did, that's a fact. Ben being a 'one man show' is just as much his fault as anyone.

Ben continues to look like Dan Monson handing MN recruits starting positions before they step on campus, and appears to be more concerned about 'keeping people happy' than winning games. That strategy has nearly a 100% failure rate.
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Which Minnesota recruits has he handed starting positions before they stepped on campus?
 



Johnnyboy18 said:
He's a Craig Smith nut hugger and is mad Johnson was hired.
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I am a huge Craig Smith fan as well. Even had the pleasure of meeting the man a couple times. Great dude and a heck of a coach. I like the Tim Miles tree personally. Honestly Ben is following that path more than what Richard did here so it’s a terrible reason to be anti Ben right now.
 

Holy Man said:
You're the exception. Most people want to "like" the public figures connected to that which they are interested, including coaches of the teams they follow.

In real life, the uber competent can also be poison in the office because people don't "like" them. Likeability isn't everything, and maybe not most important, but it is a real factor in most environments, including building a college basketball program from the ground up.
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I absolutely agree with your second paragraph. As I conceded above to another poster, the likability factor would be important for recruits; what you've described above is very important for co-workers and subordinates. But, I will never play for Ben Johnson, work for or with Ben Johnson, or hang out with him so those personal qualities are pretty much irrelevant to me unless he behaves in such a way that he alienates the public and I don't expect that.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Most coaches faced as much of a depleted roster as Ben did, that's a fact. Ben being a 'one man show' is just as much his fault as anyone.

Ben continues to look like Dan Monson handing MN recruits starting positions before they step on campus, and appears to be more concerned about 'keeping people happy' than winning games. That strategy has nearly a 100% failure rate.
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I don't agree with the "most" part of the first statement. I actually examined that question during the season and few had the level of attrition encountered by Ben. You're correct that he wasn't alone among coaches in facing that level of attrition. Perhaps there is a legitimate argument that he should have made a greater effort to retain more players from the 2020-21 roster but, on a personal level, I didn't miss most of those players.

Ben recruited virtually an entirely new team and that team played well for the first 11 games of the season but its weaknesses were exposed brutally after that. In the end, the 2021-22 season simply has to be regarded as another bad one. It would be premature to call Ben Johnson another failed coach at this point but an objective person should admit the possibility that he could be one in the making.
 

Gopherfan84 said:
I am a huge Craig Smith fan as well. Even had the pleasure of meeting the man a couple times. Great dude and a heck of a coach. I like the Tim Miles tree personally. Honestly Ben is following that path more than what Richard did here so it’s a terrible reason to be anti Ben right now.
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Very few if any are anti Ben. Just stop.
 




Are there any credible sources to 1. Carrington starting and 2. Ramberg getting a scholarship? Seeing those two comments quite a bit on here the last two weeks
 

Dakota2 said:
Which Minnesota recruits has he handed starting positions before they stepped on campus?
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We have 2 guards currently and one is a true freshman. The transfer guard pool is quickly drying up and none of them are starting caliber in the B1G.
 

Spottedmuskie said:
Which is odd, because it looks like Ben did better this past season then Smith, even though Smith had been a head coach before.
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Gopherfan84 said:
I am a huge Craig Smith fan as well. Even had the pleasure of meeting the man a couple times. Great dude and a heck of a coach. I like the Tim Miles tree personally. Honestly Ben is following that path more than what Richard did here so it’s a terrible reason to be anti Ben right now.
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I've said my piece on Smith before but Johnnyboy doesn't know how to read. He may fail at Utah, but he has a track record of figuring things out. I'm not anti-Ben, nor does Craig Smith have anything to do with my thoughts on the current roster and Ben's recruiting ability.

With the current state of the transfer portal, you always have to be in win now mode. With the lack of guard recruiting, that doesn't appear to be the case to me. Getting Garcia is nice, but this is the only place he'd likely be able to play next season. That's not even guaranteed yet.

The rest of the spring recruiting has been disappointing with the opportunity to really make this team competitive next season. As it stands today, I think they are only marginally better on paper than last season. That's IF everyone stays healthy. Many other B1G teams are returning more, and have recruited better.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
We have 2 guards currently and one is a true freshman. The transfer guard pool is quickly drying up and none of them are starting caliber in the B1G.
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I think you (and some others on this board) are way to focused on traditional positions. I’d like to see another ball handler…and I think we will get one from the portal….but for me I think the Gophers have a pretty versatile roster.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
We have 2 guards currently and one is a true freshman. The transfer guard pool is quickly drying up and none of them are starting caliber in the B1G
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We have the follow player who can get PG or SG

Carrington *
Battle
Henley *
Cooper *
Grad Combo Guard *

The ones with asterisks can play some at PG. Also who is B1G guards we could have gotten out of the portal.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
We have 2 guards currently and one is a true freshman. The transfer guard pool is quickly drying up and none of them are starting caliber in the B1G.
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I did a rough count of the portal yesterday. I'd estimate that about 40% of the players have committed. That leaves somewhere between 900 and 1000 who haven't yet. Even if only 25% of those players are capable of playing at this level, that probably translates into over 100 available guards. We should recruit 2 but perhaps we can get by with one.
 

GopherPlaya said:
We have the follow player who can get PG or SG

Carrington *
Battle
Henley *
Cooper *
Grad Combo Guard *

The ones with asterisks can play some at PG. Also who is B1G guards we could have gotten out of the portal.
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We do not have that last hypothetical player you listed yet. I don't think we should count someone who hasn't committed.
 

ethomasp31 said:
I think you (and some others on this board) are way to focused on traditional positions. I’d like to see another ball handler…and I think we will get one from the portal….but for me I think the Gophers have a pretty versatile roster.
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I am not one of those people, and I've argued against needing a '5' a lot on this board. 'Versatile' isn't always a good thing. It reminds me of the saying 'if you have 2 QB's you have none'.

I think guard is by far the most important position in basketball and you need several of them. The philosophy of having 6'8" - 6'10" guys guarding high end point guards and combo guards is not a good thing.
 

GopherPlaya said:
We have the follow player who can get PG or SG

Carrington *
Battle
Henley *
Cooper *
Grad Combo Guard *

The ones with asterisks can play some at PG. Also who is B1G guards we could have gotten out of the portal.
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I'm still laughing that people think a 6'8" Henley who rarely brought the ball up in HS, who didn't have any other power offers despite playing in a highly populated area in the backyard of USC/UCLA, think he's capable of playing PG in the B1G as a true freshman and won't get eaten alive.
 
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GopherWeatherGuy said:
I'm still laughing that people think a 6'8" Henley who rarely brought the ball up in HS, who didn't have any other power offers despite playing in a highly populated area in the backyard of USC/UCLA, think he's capable of playing PG in the B1G as a true freshman and won't get eaten alive.
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I’m still laughing at you comping him to John Leuer.
 

topos said:
I’m still laughing at you comping him to John Leuer.
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The only comparison I made to John Leuer is that they both entered HS as 6'0" guards and went through massive growth spurts. What position you start at in HS doesn't mean you play that position for the rest of your career.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
We have 2 guards currently and one is a true freshman. The transfer guard pool is quickly drying up and none of them are starting caliber in the B1G.
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We have lots of guys who can play all over the floor. There is no requirement that two of the starting five are what you label as guards. He would play Battle, Garcia, Ihnen, Fox, Payne in some combination with Cooper before he would start a freshman who he believes is not ready.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
I'm still laughing that people think a 6'8" Henley who rarely brought the ball up in HS, who didn't have any other power offers despite playing in a highly populated area in the backyard of USC/UCLA, think he's capable of playing PG in the B1G as a true freshman and won't get eaten alive.
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Then BJ is the one you should start laughing at, here is a quote from his news conference last week posted on 247:


Are you still looking in the portal for like a starting two guard?

"You know, right now I feel pretty good about our players. If we could add depth maybe a combo piece, I might lean that way. But I really like our roster. Isaiah gives you versatility. Isaiah can play the two through the four. Jamison is going to play the perimeter and the inside. Parker, Dawson, and Pharrel, are all interchangeable. There are a lot of ways we can go. Then you add in the freshmen and Treyton Thompson into the mix, we have some pretty good depth. So now we look and see if there is a combo that can help Ta'lon out a little bit. I would like to get Jaden Henley some looks at the one, especially with his size and versatility. If we do do something it will be to get Ta'Lon a little bit of help."

https://247sports.com/college/minne...ything-Ben-Johnson-Said-on-May-5th-187224013/


I think it makes for a more respectful and enjoyable board environment to offer an opinion while leaving out the bravado, insulting or mocking tones. Civility breeds respect and camaraderie, like a discussion with a group of friends. Isn't that what we want rather than the other unpleasant feelings?
 


I think some of you are just over thinking the situation.

The college basketball recruiting scene has changed dramatically for P5 schools. They no longer have to use roster spots on “project” freshman that fill out the roster riding the pine. The P5 schools will use the smaller schools to develop those player. No P5 school is going to “lock up” a roster spot for 5 years on a player that is a project. They all have a huge group of feeder schools that will supply ready to go transfers.

So P5 rosters will only consist of players that are all deserving of playing time. Established players, established transfers and the top talented freshman. (and of course a few walks on that can fill out the practices)

Of course we are not Duke or Kentucky that is full of 5-star recruits, but we are getting closer to our version of it. We are getting some top in-state freshman and some top rated transfers in position of need. With proven success comes the very top in-state recruits, our shot at some very top rated national recruits and even more success in the transfer portal.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
I'm still laughing that people think a 6'8" Henley who rarely brought the ball up in HS, who didn't have any other power offers despite playing in a highly populated area in the backyard of USC/UCLA, think he's capable of playing PG in the B1G as a true freshman and won't get eaten alive.
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Do a little homework...

Henley was a guard his whole career until he grew from 6-3 to 6-7 his sophomore season. That is when he transferred to Colony which is basically an all star school. A school that had good PG's to carry the ball up so he didn't need to do it. In college, his versatility can be used to bring up the ball at times.

Here he is in 2020 wearing #21 and #35 at times and showing very good ball handling skills on some drives to the basket.


You can take your pick of watching a few of these highlights to get a better feel of his skills. He is very good;

Jaden Henley's Video "2 Fast Breaks vs San Dieguito Academy "

Jaden Henley's videos on MaxPreps.
www.maxpreps.com www.maxpreps.com

Jaden Henley's Video "Game Highlights vs Bonita "

Jaden Henley's videos on MaxPreps.
www.maxpreps.com www.maxpreps.com

Jaden Henley's Video "Game Highlights vs Jesuit "

Jaden Henley's videos on MaxPreps.
www.maxpreps.com www.maxpreps.com
 

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