Aaron Johnston

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SD State Athletic Director responds to the Minnesota Gophers interest in Aaron Johnston
 

Here are coach Aaron Johnston's incoming recruits for the past three years. I thought this may be interesting since people say he's effective at recruiting regional talent others may overlook.

I've already said Johnston doesn't make my top list and I don't want him at Minnesota because other potential coaches are better, I believe, but he does deserve praise for what he has achieved:


2023-24 includes one player from South Dakota and one player from Iowa:

gojacks.com

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL ADDS TWO ON NATIONAL SIGNING DAY - South Dakota State University Athletics

South Dakota State head women's basketball coach Aaron Johnston has announced the addition of two players to the 2023-24 roster Wednesday as part of National Signing
gojacks.com gojacks.com


2022-23 includes two from Minnesota and two from Iowa:

gojacks.com

JACKRABBITS ADD FOUR ON NATIONAL SIGNING DAY - South Dakota State University Athletics

BROOKINGS, S.D. - South Dakota State women's basketball head coach Aaron Johnston announced the signing of four players to the 2022-23 squad as part of National
gojacks.com gojacks.com


2021-22 includes one from Minnesota and one from South Dakota:

gojacks.com

TWO SIGN WITH SDSU WOMEN'S BASKETBALL - South Dakota State University Athletics

Jackrabbit women's basketball signs two.
gojacks.com gojacks.com



At this link below you can see the season results by year.

7 times made the NCAA tournament and eliminated in the first round.

2 times eliminated in the second round.

1 time made the Sweet 16.

en.wikipedia.org

South Dakota State Jackrabbits women's basketball - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org


A word of warning: Imagine crosstown Saint Thomas, in the same league, becoming good like this.

Gophers women's basketball needs to go back on track -- like now.
 


www.inforum.com

McFeely: Jackrabbits coach Johnston dismisses speculation about Gophers job

Longtime SDSU coach says this time "no different" than other times he's been connected to open jobs
www.inforum.com www.inforum.com

"Every time a job has been opened, my name has been thrown around. So this time is no different. I think the only difference is social media is a little more prevalent. So really other than that, it's the same as any other time," Johnston said shortly after SDSU beat St. Thomas 87-59 in the quarterfinals of the Summit League tournament Saturday at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.
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"We talked a little bit about it the other day, and I just reassured them that that social media stuff is just entertainment. It's not really news and not really factual," Johnston said. "Just like in the past, I think we were playing in the WNIT one year in the semifinals that was the talk of the newspaper and the news media that I was a candidate for another job. But really, nothing was going on then, either."
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it sounds like he isn't going ANYWHERE... so can we stop, now?
 


Bfan said:
Here are coach Aaron Johnston's incoming recruits for the past three years. I thought this may be interesting since people say he's effective at recruiting regional talent others may overlook.

I've already said Johnston doesn't make my top list and I don't want him at Minnesota because other potential coaches are better, I believe, but he does deserve praise for what he has achieved:


2023-24 includes one player from South Dakota and one player from Iowa:

gojacks.com

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL ADDS TWO ON NATIONAL SIGNING DAY - South Dakota State University Athletics

South Dakota State head women's basketball coach Aaron Johnston has announced the addition of two players to the 2023-24 roster Wednesday as part of National Signing
gojacks.com gojacks.com


2022-23 includes two from Minnesota and two from Iowa:

gojacks.com

JACKRABBITS ADD FOUR ON NATIONAL SIGNING DAY - South Dakota State University Athletics

BROOKINGS, S.D. - South Dakota State women's basketball head coach Aaron Johnston announced the signing of four players to the 2022-23 squad as part of National
gojacks.com gojacks.com


2021-22 includes one from Minnesota and one from South Dakota:

gojacks.com

TWO SIGN WITH SDSU WOMEN'S BASKETBALL - South Dakota State University Athletics

Jackrabbit women's basketball signs two.
gojacks.com gojacks.com



At this link below you can see the season results by year.

7 times made the NCAA tournament and eliminated in the first round.

2 times eliminated in the second round.

1 time made the Sweet 16.

en.wikipedia.org

South Dakota State Jackrabbits women's basketball - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org


A word of warning: Imagine crosstown Saint Thomas, in the same league, becoming good like this.

Gophers women's basketball needs to go back on track -- like now.
Click to expand...
Summit League a little different then Big Ten League? What would the Gophers women's team do in this league?
 


UnFadeable21 said:
Apparently Johnston wanted the job in 2014 but was never contacted by the U.

In 2018 again was interested but the U was all in on Lindsay.

Maybe 2023 is finally third times the charm.
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Interested in where you got your information.
 

007gopherfan said:
Summit League a little different then Big Ten League? What would the Gophers women's team do in this league?
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The Summit has been a very top heavy conference with the two South Dakota schools dominating the regular season and tournament for several years. Gophers have not fared well against either team. NDSU jumped USD for second this year, and I believe they beat the Gophers this season as well. Once you get past the top teams, the quality drops off pretty drastically.
 



Gophers112233 said:
www.inforum.com

McFeely: Jackrabbits coach Johnston dismisses speculation about Gophers job

Longtime SDSU coach says this time "no different" than other times he's been connected to open jobs
www.inforum.com www.inforum.com





it sounds like he isn't going ANYWHERE... so can we stop, now?
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What do you think he’s gonna say? The rumors are true and I’m thinking about taking the Minnesota job?

These girls will playing in the ncaa tournament next week. We’ll see what happens when they’re eliminated.
 



These coaches being named as candidates in the other thread are better coaches than Johnston to me: Megan Duffy (Marquette), Lindy La Rocque (UNLV but realistically should stay there), Carla Berube (Princeton), Linda Blair (Maryland), and Megan Griffith (Columbia but realistically should stay there). And there are others I'm not listing here as the ones I had called out before.

Yes, I believe Minnesota is a woman's job and yes I believe there are women who are most qualified for it.

Yes, there are woman pilots who are the best in the world.. And writers. Generals/field commanders (the first 4 star USA general being a George W Bush appointment). And doctors. And lawyers. And Supreme Court justices (across both sides of the spectrum). At the Super Bowl the military flyover was all women combat pilots. In a year or two a women will land on the moon. And yes basketball coaches.

And for the record, Dawn Staley at South Carolina could coach an NBA team deep into the playoffs and maybe even to dynasty status like she has done at South Carolina.

 






If the Gophers hired Linda Blair, at least we could get some good "Exorcist" jokes out of it.

"new coach says her head is spinning as she tackles Big Ten coaching job......."
 


Bfan said:
These coaches being named as candidates in the other thread are better coaches than Johnston to me: Megan Duffy (Marquette), Lindy La Rocque (UNLV but realistically should stay there), Carla Berube (Princeton), Linda Blair (Maryland), and Megan Griffith (Columbia but realistically should stay there). And there are others I'm not listing here as the ones I had called out before.

Yes, I believe Minnesota is a woman's job and yes I believe there are women who are most qualified for it.

Yes, there are woman pilots who are the best in the world.. And writers. Generals/field commanders (the first 4 star USA general being a George W Bush appointment). And doctors. And lawyers. And Supreme Court justices (across both sides of the spectrum). At the Super Bowl the military flyover was all women combat pilots. In a year or two a women will land on the moon. And yes basketball coaches.

And for the record, Dawn Staley at South Carolina could coach an NBA team deep into the playoffs and maybe even to dynasty status like she has done at South Carolina.

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Puke.

They should hire the best person for the job who very likely could be a woman.

If they are mandating (which I am sure they are) that we hire a particular category of person, they deserve to fail.
 

Just get a qualified coach, I want to cheer for a winning team. There’s no reason that our neighbors to the left consistently make the tournament and have better teams than Minny.
 

Ogee Ogilthorpe said:
Johnston isn't going to say one single thing about remotely considering another job before his season is 100% finished. I would all but dismiss anything he says prior to that.
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This is incorrect. He has came out and said that he is not interested in the opening. One thing that is different is coaches such as Megan Duffy and Kristen Gillespie have not come out and put out public statements of not being interested. Aaron can not say interested during season but he has FLAT OUT CAME OUT and said not interested.

I think it's perfectly fine for it to be female coach with so many qualified coaches that are female as options for this position.

Another question to ask..Aaron has been successful for awhile, if he is such a slam dunk candidate and willing to move to power five, why hasn't he?! Oklahoma, Illinois, Marquette, Penn State, Drake, West Virginia all have been open in the last 6-7 years. Why not move to those? I think we are romanticizing him as a coach cause he close. Marquette beat Texas and UConn (with injuries) similar to SDSU beating Louisville and Kansas State this year. I would say Megan Duffy sets you up better for long term success.
 

bball_craz_31 said:
This is incorrect. He has came out and said that he is not interested in the opening. One thing that is different is coaches such as Megan Duffy and Kristen Gillespie have not come out and put out public statements of not being interested. Aaron can not say interested during season but he has FLAT OUT CAME OUT and said not interested.

I think it's perfectly fine for it to be female coach with so many qualified coaches that are female as options for this position.

Another question to ask..Aaron has been successful for awhile, if he is such a slam dunk candidate and willing to move to power five, why hasn't he?! Oklahoma, Illinois, Marquette, Penn State, Drake, West Virginia all have been open in the last 6-7 years. Why not move to those? I think we are romanticizing him as a coach cause he close. Marquette beat Texas and UConn (with injuries) similar to SDSU beating Louisville and Kansas State this year. I would say Megan Duffy sets you up better for long term success.
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Johnston has had options to move up. Family really likes Brookings. I don’t know if he’ll ever leave, but if he did it would’ve been MN in 2014.
 

007gopherfan said:
Summit League a little different than Big Ten League? What would the Gophers women's team do in this league?
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SDSU beat the gophers badly last year on the way to the WNIT championship! I am also a gopher women’s BB fan and I imagine they could finish in the top four of the Summit most years.
 


bball_craz_31 said:
This is incorrect. He has came out and said that he is not interested in the opening. One thing that is different is coaches such as Megan Duffy and Kristen Gillespie have not come out and put out public statements of not being interested. Aaron can not say interested during season but he has FLAT OUT CAME OUT and said not interested.

I think it's perfectly fine for it to be female coach with so many qualified coaches that are female as options for this position.

Another question to ask..Aaron has been successful for awhile, if he is such a slam dunk candidate and willing to move to power five, why hasn't he?! Oklahoma, Illinois, Marquette, Penn State, Drake, West Virginia all have been open in the last 6-7 years. Why not move to those? I think we are romanticizing him as a coach cause he close. Marquette beat Texas and UConn (with injuries) similar to SDSU beating Louisville and Kansas State this year. I would say Megan Duffy sets you up better for long term success.
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when has he said the actual words...."i am not interested in the gophers job" along those lines?

not some fine tune talking in an interview...do your best to walk around the question....but actually say i am not interested
 





Gophers_4life said:
I mean they could easily live in like, Jordan. But yeah, OK. Fair enough
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Agreed, but one of the knocks is they don’t want to drive an hour each way to the office. The job is grueling enough and takes up enough time. Most don’t want to lose more time in a car driving home. Part of what they like about Brookings is they don’t have to live far away. The community treats him and his family really well.
 

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