Amir: Great hire Minnesota; Gopher ball is in good hands! Oturu: Best thing I’ve read in a while. Major reason why i put that maroon and gold on

Donate To GopherHole




GophersInIowa said:
That was over 20 years ago.
Click to expand...
So, what does the passage of time have to do with it? He didn't personally believe in the "stay home and play for your state school" mantra any more than all the recent high school kids who have left Minnesota for other programs (and have gotten trashed for it in some circles). He didn't walk the walk back when it was time for his decision, but he expects that of kids now?
 


WindyCityGopher said:
So, what does the passage of time have to do with it? He didn't personally believe in the "stay home and play for your state school" mantra any more than all the recent high school kids who have left Minnesota for other programs (and have gotten trashed for it in some circles). He didn't walk the walk back when it was time for his decision, but he expects that of kids now?
Click to expand...

The Gophers were also just coming off a major academic scandal and being short scholarships in the years Ben Johnson was being recruited by Monson. Hard to blame kids for not being psyched on staying home in the scenario.
 

WriterGoph said:
The Gophers were also just coming off a major academic scandal and being short scholarships in the years Ben Johnson was being recruited by Monson. Hard to blame kids for not being psyched on staying home in the scenario.
Click to expand...

It was fine for Joel Pryzibilla the year before and Kevin Burleson in 99. Both NBA players
 


UpAndUnder43 said:
That’s awesome. I always liked him. Don’t want him as a gopher assistant.
Click to expand...

His credentials seem pretty good to me for a first time D1 assistant:

- Played Big Ten basketball at a high level
- Coached for D1 MN, so has relationships there which would be helpful for recruiting that program
- Handful of years as a head coach in this state and did well enough to earn the BSM job
- Known for being a very likable and respectable person

I guarantee you the coaches in town respect him and he’d do a great job of recruiting. The combo of him and Ben would recruit MN extremely well and that woulda go a long way with the amount of talent it’s producing. You don’t have to want to hire him, but I strongly disagree that he’d be a bad hire.
 



WriterGoph said:
The Gophers were also just coming off a major academic scandal and being short scholarships in the years Ben Johnson was being recruited by Monson. Hard to blame kids for not being psyched on staying home in the scenario.
Click to expand...
Um no. Get your years right. He committed to Northwestern before the academic scandal broke out.

He was recruited by Clem and turned clem down
 

Keyser Söze said:
His credentials seem pretty good to me for a first time D1 assistant:

- Played Big Ten basketball at a high level
- Coached for D1 MN, so has relationships there which would be helpful for recruiting that program
- Handful of years as a head coach in this state and did well enough to earn the BSM job
- Known for being a very likable and respectable person

I guarantee you the coaches in town respect him and he’d do a great job of recruiting. The combo of him and Ben would recruit MN extremely well and that woulda go a long way with the amount of talent it’s producing. You don’t have to want to hire him, but I strongly disagree that he’d be a bad hire.
Click to expand...
Ben Johnson hasn’t recruited MN extremely well. Damian may be better at it than him, but has never recruited. I’d prefer coaches with college experience when hiring a head coach with no head coaching experience.

if the goal is find local kids and that’s all we want hire the top person from Grassroots, D1 MN and Howard pulley. That can be the staff. I have grander visions (well, had) for what this regime could and would do.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Ben Johnson hasn’t recruited MN extremely well. Damian may be better at it than him, but has never recruited. I’d prefer coaches with college experience when hiring a head coach with no head coaching experience.

if the goal is find local kids and that’s all we want hire the top person from Grassroots, D1 MN and Howard pulley. That can be the staff. I have grander visions (well, had) for what this regime could and would do.
Click to expand...
Larry Suggs, dave holmgren said so.
 

GophersInIowa said:
He’s well respected and well liked in the local HS and AAU ranks. The high reward would be he’s able to keep a lot more top talent home. Will it happen? We’ll see. That’s why it’s also high risk.
Click to expand...
Being well respected and well liked is great. I dont think that pushes guys like Jones's, Suggs, etc to stay in MN. Nice and all, just doesn't justify "high reward".
 



WindyCityGopher said:
So, what does the passage of time have to do with it? He didn't personally believe in the "stay home and play for your state school" mantra any more than all the recent high school kids who have left Minnesota for other programs (and have gotten trashed for it in some circles). He didn't walk the walk back when it was time for his decision, but he expects that of kids now?
Click to expand...
But he came back home. Perhaps he knows it was a mistake. He was 18 when he made that decision. He’s 39 now. Are we really going to judge him based on that one decision over 20 years ago?
 

BarnBurner said:
Being well respected and well liked is great. I dont think that pushes guys like Jones's, Suggs, etc to stay in MN. Nice and all, just doesn't justify "high reward".
Click to expand...
of course its not going to push 5 star guys to stay....
what im hoping it does is that it pushes guys like JP, Dawson, Roddy, Terry, Walton, Carlson type kids to stay home....

we will find out in a hurry if he is able to do that....maybe not with the 2021 class....but the 2022 MN class is loaded with the type of guys we gotta keep here
 

BarnBurner said:
Being well respected and well liked is great. I dont think that pushes guys like Jones's, Suggs, etc to stay in MN. Nice and all, just doesn't justify "high reward".
Click to expand...
And unless we are paying them to stay home, most kids are going to leave. But that's the way it is for most power conference schools. Kids want a new life experience. University Ave doesnt even get shut down for football game day. Going to the U is a different experience
 

BarnBurner said:
Being well respected and well liked is great. I dont think that pushes guys like Jones's, Suggs, etc to stay in MN. Nice and all, just doesn't justify "high reward".
Click to expand...
If that’s what you consider high reward, then yes you’re right. I would argue the next group of recruits are nearly as important. Guys like Garcia.
 

Gophs24 said:
of course its not going to push 5 star guys to stay....
what im hoping it does is that it pushes guys like JP, Dawson, Roddy, Terry, Walton, Carlson type kids to stay home....

we will find out in a hurry if he is able to do that....maybe not with the 2021 class....but the 2022 MN class is loaded with the type of guys we gotta keep here
Click to expand...
Again, it doesn't justify "high reward".
 


GophersInIowa said:
If that’s what you consider high reward, then yes you’re right. I would argue the next group of recruits are nearly as important. Guys like Garcia.
Click to expand...
Agree about the next group of players. That does nothing to justify "high reward". Unless you have a definition.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I don’t love the hire. Think it’s risky but with potential high reward. Don’t like that he’s had no head coaching experience. Feel like there were safer options. Who he hires as assistants will be huge. I do like that it sounds like he is well respected in AAU which Pitino wasn’t. Like it or not, AAU can have a big influence over where some guys go.
Click to expand...
Not a reflection on this post but I am always amazed when the concern about hiring assistant coaches is there. You just paid almost 2 mil. to a coach. He better be an alpha male of the staff not someone who needs a security blanket around him.
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
Um no. Get your years right. He committed to Northwestern before the academic scandal broke out.

He was recruited by Clem and turned clem down
Click to expand...

Do you have proof of that? Honest question.

Ben was at Northwestern from (I believe) the fall of either 2000 or 2001 and came to the U from 2003 til he graduated in 2005.

The scandal broke in March of 1999 and Clem was quickly gone. So if what you say is true, Ben made his commitment more than 18 months before hitting campus.

Be very interested to see this timeline as most kids don't commit until the fall or the spring of their senior year (which again, I believe to have been Fall 1999 and Spring 2000 for Ben).
 

WriterGoph said:
Do you have proof of that? Honest question.

Ben was at Northwestern from (I believe) the fall of either 2000 or 2001 and came to the U from 2003 til he graduated in 2005.

The scandal broke in March of 1999 and Clem was quickly gone. So if what you say is true, Ben made his commitment more than 18 months before hitting campus.

Be very interested to see this timeline as most kids don't commit until the fall or the spring of their senior year (which again, I believe to have been Fall 1999 and Spring 2000 for Ben).
Click to expand...

I could be off a year with the above, but someone let me know.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Ben Johnson hasn’t recruited MN extremely well.
Click to expand...

When Ben Johnson was trying to recruit Minnesota kids to come here, he was doing so as an assistant. Maybe those kids just didn’t want to play for Pitino. I fully expect him to recruit Minnesota players well as the head coach and that will go a long way for this program.
 

Keyser Söze said:
When Ben Johnson was trying to recruit Minnesota kids to come here, he was doing so as an assistant. Maybe those kids just didn’t want to play for Pitino. I fully expect him to recruit Minnesota players well as the head coach and that will go a long way for this program.
Click to expand...
Time will tell I guess. I still support the program and him. I don’t think being critical of his track record is a bad thing. This was a mid major hire.
 

GopherOhana said:
well, the team did go 0-11 when Al was out injured.

Johnson graduated 1999, joined NU fall 1999 and would have signed His LOI before the ganglehoff news hit the papers
Click to expand...
Al Nolen was good. I liked Al. Just pointing out facts. Though I think my Coffey stats were wrong.
 


GopherNuts said:
I think that’s true for established coaches, I don’t think Coach K is asking much of his assistants. For inexperienced coaches though, I think assistants play a much bigger role and often times make or break young coaches. Recruiting is definitely a big part of it but I also think they help mold a philosophy especially early on, they’re the connector between the HC and player carrying that relationship over from recruiting, scouting opponents, making in game suggestions, coaching a kid up on the bench, they coach specific position groups in practice and so on.

One thing I didn’t like about Pitino’s original staff of McHale, Kimani and Ben was there was no head coaching experience in that group. Theoretically a group of recruiters but no one that knew how to run a program and as a result, the culture was really poor. Things didn’t improve dramatically but I think Pitino had a better grasp on the program and how he wanted to approach a game with Conroy and Jeter (he’s since left obviously) on staff. Game plans improved which I think is reflective of good scouting but we still struggled to adjust in game which falls on the HC. I also feel a lot better about the group of kids we had in the program this past season, kids that are just about the work...unfortunately they had bad injury luck and we didn’t have the depth.
Click to expand...
The Head Coach has to be able to ride without the training wheels real fast, especially in the B1G. If you rely too heavily on the assistants to run and manage the team then you are in trouble. Those assistants will quickly be hired away for other HC jobs and you will not have any continuity. Sure, give him the best help we can get, but he has to grow very quickly.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Yeah. I think the rush of former players to support Ben does mean something.
Click to expand...
Yes, and it helps to have positive reviews from he people who truly know him. But the Minnesota BB community needs to step up big time with players committing to the U.
 

ecoperson said:
I think Johnson's decision to leave proves the point... the head coach matters. Johnson said no to Monson because he and his local coaches didn't like him. MN ballers said no to Pitino for the same reason. The hope is that players will say yes to Johnson because of who he is and the reputation he has with their coaches. Time will tell if he can build some hometown pride and establish a defense-first game plan.
Click to expand...
I think Pitino was influenced by his background of being in programs that steered clear of AAU program coaches and influencers. There are many very good coaches that want nothing to do with a player that is being "handled" by the AAU crowd. They only deal with the high school coaches.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom