Ben Johnson is a Disaster

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Ben definitely has another year to get things moving in the right direction, despite how painful this regular season was (I believe in miracles, so let’s go win the BTT!). There is a talented (young) core, the players seem bought in, and honestly it’s been very surprising watching the last few games that Garcia, Battle, Henley, JOJ, and Payne are all able to create their own shot (for years it’s seemed like we only had one guy on any team that could). I’m intrigued where this could go if you give it a couple/few years to marinate!
 

PoockItInfor6 said:
Ben definitely has another year to get things moving in the right direction, despite how painful this regular season was (I believe in miracles, so let’s go win the BTT!). There is a talented (young) core, the players seem bought in, and honestly it’s been very surprising watching the last few games that Garcia, Battle, Henley, JOJ, and Payne are all able to create their own shot (for years it’s seemed like we only had one guy on any team that could). I’m intrigued where this could go if you give it a couple/few years to marinate!
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I see the same things that will only improve with experience. Garcia has a chance to be All-B1G 1-2 team next year. The freshmen should make bigger strides with some weight training this offseason.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
I see the same things that will only improve with experience. Garcia has a chance to be All-B1G 1-2 team next year. The freshmen should make bigger strides with some weight training this offseason.
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Garcia was ripped earlier in the season, including by moi, he simply hadn’t played enough games to get his rhythm - he’s fun to watch when he’s cooking, cause he’s a matchup nightmare then.
 


MaxyJR1 said:
I see the same things that will only improve with experience. Garcia has a chance to be All-B1G 1-2 team next year. The freshmen should make bigger strides with some weight training this offseason.
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Payne, JOJ, and Henley have all shown the potential to develop into really good players. Payne specifically looks like he could be a star.

Carrington hasn't quite shown the same promise but it is way too early to give up on him.

Really important off season for all those guys to build on the experience they gained this year to hopefully take another step in development next season.
 


Gopher_In_NYC said:
Garcia was ripped earlier in the season, including by moi, he simply hadn’t played enough games to get his rhythm - he’s fun to watch when he’s cooking, cause he’s a matchup nightmare then.
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Me too! I wasn't impressed, but he has really taken to his roll on the team.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Me too! I wasn't impressed, but he has really taken to his roll on the team.
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Gopher_In_NYC said:
Garcia was ripped earlier in the season, including by moi, he simply hadn’t played enough games to get his rhythm - he’s fun to watch when he’s cooking, cause he’s a matchup nightmare then.
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Me as well. I thought he didn't fit and didn't play with passion. He changed my view.
 


bga1 said:
Me as well. I thought he didn't fit and didn't play with passion. He changed my view.
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Garcia's season is weird. He has been a consistent double digit scorer all year but like others have said he just didn't come across as all that impressive early in the season.

He has really stepped up his game as the season has gone on. Hasn't had a major impact in his overall stat line but it is clear that he is our best player.
 



Bad Gopher said:
I've watched sports for a lot of years, and the one thing I'd never do if I were a GM or AD is fire someone based on one season or one game. I've seen many make that mistake, and it's always a mistake. And I suppose the same thing is true of retaining someone: you shouldn't keep someone around just because of one win or one successful season. To wit: the U has been criticized for firing Tubby Smith in the wake of a NCAA tournament win. That's the faulty attitude I'm talking about: "How can you fire him?! He just won a game for you!" Obviously, his dismissal was based on a years-long body of work. Similarly, both Monson and Pitino had very good individual years within their tenure, but they couldn't sustain it. We'll end up seeing how UW plays this with Gard.

Where am I going with this? I'm not really sure, other than to say that it's hard to judge in the moment whether a good game in the BTT is a green shoot of spring or whether it's the exception that proves the rule of how bad this team has been this year: that a fleeting flash of competence and an actual win is so surprising and thrilling that maybe it only reinforces how bad things have been lately.
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Remember all the turning the corner talk after beating Ohio state.... Yeah don't read to much into 1 good game
 

MNVCGUY said:
Garcia's season is weird. He has been a consistent double digit scorer all year but like others have said he just didn't come across as all that impressive early in the season.

He has really stepped up his game as the season has gone on. Hasn't had a major impact in his overall stat line but it is clear that he is our best player.
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I've always felt that the key to being a pro prospect is being an inside/outside player. He started off the season trying to do too much on the perimeter. It's been as he's embraced operating and scrapping in the interior that he's become more productive and dangerous. He's a matchup problem for anyone trying to follow him around.
 

Off-GridTNgopher said:
Remember all the turning the corner talk after beating Ohio state.... Yeah don't read to much into 1 good game
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It's the eye test- not the win. It looks better in longer stretches now. There is a long way to go, but the young guys are growing and that is at least a sign that there is some competent coaching happening. Need more talent and Ben has a lot to learn on game and roster management. There is nothing wrong with recognizing positive signs even if it is nowhere near the destination we want to be yet.
 




Bad Gopher said:
I've always felt that the key to being a pro prospect is being an inside/outside player. He started off the season trying to do too much on the perimeter.
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Yes, that's why, in the earlier part of the season, a number of us said that he played like "the shortest 6'11" player we've ever seen." He's still not exactly a juggernaut in the defensive interior but he's a fine all around player and it sure helps to be tall enough to shoot over most people.
 
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bga1 said:
It's the eye test- not the win. It looks better in longer stretches now.
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In addition to maturity, greater depth because of good health at the moment, and greater confidence, I think there could also be an end-of-season psychological thing going on that makes them play with a greater sense of urgency.
 


Some of the comments are hilarious! The difference between a good offensive set and a bad one is too often defined by the shot. Goes in good! Not in, bad! But it’s the same set. Poor shooting stats make any offense look bad. One view of Johnson’s coaching is his plays off of timeouts. He has a pretty good percentage on those, and also in getting the ball in play from out of bounds, something, more than one Gophers team has struggled to do.
 

Gopheritnow said:
Some of the comments are hilarious! The difference between a good offensive set and a bad one is too often defined by the shot. Goes in good! Not in, bad! But it’s the same set. Poor shooting stats make any offense look bad. One view of Johnson’s coaching is his plays off of timeouts. He has a pretty good percentage on those, and also in getting the ball in play from out of bounds, something, more than one Gophers team has struggled to do.
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Let me get this straight: your seventeenth post is to attack pretty much everyone else on the board. Well played.
 

Gopheritnow said:
Some of the comments are hilarious! The difference between a good offensive set and a bad one is too often defined by the shot. Goes in good! Not in, bad! But it’s the same set. Poor shooting stats make any offense look bad. One view of Johnson’s coaching is his plays off of timeouts. He has a pretty good percentage on those, and also in getting the ball in play from out of bounds, something, more than one Gophers team has struggled to do.
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I refuse to applaud any coach for inbounding the ball.
 


Bad Gopher said:
Let me get this straight: your seventeenth post is to attack pretty much everyone else on the board. Well played.
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My 19th is to point out the word "some" is not all inclusive, and yes "some" of them are hilarious. And, that "some" Cherry pick a point in a post, and ignore the rest of the content. No names mentioned of course.
 



Gopheritnow said:
I am sure after Coach Brown sees the loyalty to coaches at the U of M he will be waiting at his phone for Coyle to call!
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We let Pitino hang around for 8 years despite being very unimpressive. That we are even considering giving a coach with Johnson's record a third year shows that coaches get a plenty long leash here.
 


bleedsmaroonandgold said:
We let Pitino hang around for 8 years despite being very unimpressive. That we are even considering giving a coach with Johnson's record a third year shows that coaches get a plenty long leash here.
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Yeah.
This is like Todd lickliter but worse (lickliter had been to two sweet 16s as a head coach)


But it is like Todd lickliter in that everyone probably including AD and the head coach knows year 3 is the last year. Because it’s too expensive to make the move after year 2.

So we can just pencil in 13th or 14th and look forward to next March to see who we get next.
Our only hope is if Johnson hates it so negotiates and exit right now at some level in between this years buyout and next years buyout
 

Some guy said:
Yeah.
This is like Todd lickliter but worse (lickliter had been to two sweet 16s as a head coach)


But it is like Todd lickliter in that everyone probably including AD and the head coach knows year 3 is the last year. Because it’s too expensive to make the move after year 2.

So we can just pencil in 13th or 14th and look forward to next March to see who we get next.
Our only hope is if Johnson hates it so negotiates and exit right now at some level in between this years buyout and next years buyout
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The last paragraph is incredibly unlikely. So we just sit and wait.
 

howeda7 said:
The last paragraph is incredibly unlikely. So we just sit and wait.
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Agree
If we lose battle, next year is even worse than this year.

Could’ve easily lost to western Michigan,
Cal baptist, Chicago state this year but didn’t.

We had only one loss that was non P6 and it was 19 win UNLV
I doubt we avoid a really bad loss again last year.
 

Some guy said:
Agree
If we lose battle, next year is even worse than this year.

Could’ve easily lost to western Michigan,
Cal baptist, Chicago state this year but didn’t.

We had only one loss that was non P6 and it was 19 win UNLV
I doubt we avoid a really bad loss again last year.
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You are not really paying attention to player efficiency. Battle was the least efficient regular player we had outside of Samuels and TT. I'd love to have him back in a role but he was in the star, shoot whenever you want role and he and the team were not well served by that. If we bring back the core, we will be a lot better than last year. We ended the year a much better team than we were early in the season- still bad, but much better. Payne and Garcia will be a front court duo that most every Big Ten team would want. How we fill out the rest of the lineup and how they all fit together is key.
 

bga1 said:
You are not really paying attention to player efficiency. Battle was the least efficient regular player we had outside of Samuels and TT. I'd love to have him back in a role but he was in the star, shoot whenever you want role and he and the team were not well served by that. If we bring back the core, we will be a lot better than last year. We ended the year a much better team than we were early in the season- still bad, but much better. Payne and Garcia will be a front court duo that most every Big Ten team would want. How we fill out the rest of the lineup and how they all fit together is key.
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Strongly disagree
Not more than 2 players that would see rotational minutes on a top half team in the conference.
 

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