Ben Johnson is a Disaster

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Everyone is so focused on personnel gains and losses (and there will be gains) and less on whether Johnson can actually coach. People assume it's a lack of talent that held back Minnesota this year, but it's my opinion that another coach could have done better with THIS YEAR'S roster. I'm not even talking about W's and L's, I'm talking about offensive and defensive efficiency, and specifically defense. There has been zero progress - in fact, regression - and it can be shown in cold, hard numbers. I don't care about eye-test stuff or if the freshman are scoring in double digits in 30-point blowout losses.

I see nothing to indicate that the coaching staff has committed to, or achieved any semblance of, team improvement.
 

formerlybis said:
Everyone is so focused on personnel gains and losses (and there will be gains) and less on whether Johnson can actually coach. People assume it's a lack of talent that held back Minnesota this year, but it's my opinion that another coach could have done better with THIS YEAR'S roster. I'm not even talking about W's and L's, I'm talking about offensive and defensive efficiency, and specifically defense. There has been zero progress - in fact, regression - and it can be shown in cold, hard numbers. I don't care about eye-test stuff or if the freshman are scoring in double digits in 30-point blowout losses.

I see nothing to indicate that the coaching staff has committed to, or achieved any semblance of, team improvement.
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All fair. It was a terrible season and I agree that other more seasoned coaches might have done a little better- perhaps gotten to 5-6 wins with this squad- assuming the same injuries.

I have been a critic of the hire but I recognize that the school hired a rookie coach who was going to suffer through the learning. I think he is learning and showing improvement. In the first dozen big Ten games our margin of loss was 16 points on the average. In our last 8 which saw us posting Payne up low and getting better play from our frosh, we averaged losing by 8 points per game. Still bad, but this is improvement. I think we have to recognize that and wait to see if he builds on that and makes the right additions. He is 100% guilty of bad roster construction last year.

I think Ben can get the job done here.
 
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formerlybis said:
Everyone is so focused on personnel gains and losses (and there will be gains) and less on whether Johnson can actually coach. People assume it's a lack of talent that held back Minnesota this year, but it's my opinion that another coach could have done better with THIS YEAR'S roster. I'm not even talking about W's and L's, I'm talking about offensive and defensive efficiency, and specifically defense. There has been zero progress - in fact, regression - and it can be shown in cold, hard numbers. I don't care about eye-test stuff or if the freshman are scoring in double digits in 30-point blowout losses.

I see nothing to indicate that the coaching staff has committed to, or achieved any semblance of, team improvement.
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I think we should be fair and give credit where credit is due. Garcia progressed significantly from where he was at the beginning of the season to when he hit mid-season form, both before and after his injury. Payne built a lot of his offensive game on the fly during the course of the season. Carrington started to make jump shots later after not being able to hit the broad side of a barn early on. This was a better team late than it was early.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Look, we all get that you are desperate to see Johnson fired but you have to know there is a difference between winning 6 conference games in year 3 vs. winning 6 conference games in year 8. Neither mark is great but in year 3 you are still in the building phase, by year 8 you should be well past that point.

I feel confident in saying there is a bar Johnson will have to reach in year 3 to get a year 4 but I don't know exactly what that is going to be. Gotta believe there have to be some obvious signs of improvement though.
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Hilarious. Mr Positive MNVCGUY cant quite admit the obvious. Yet.
 

formerlybis said:
Everyone is so focused on personnel gains and losses (and there will be gains) and less on whether Johnson can actually coach. People assume it's a lack of talent that held back Minnesota this year, but it's my opinion that another coach could have done better with THIS YEAR'S roster. I'm not even talking about W's and L's, I'm talking about offensive and defensive efficiency, and specifically defense. There has been zero progress - in fact, regression - and it can be shown in cold, hard numbers. I don't care about eye-test stuff or if the freshman are scoring in double digits in 30-point blowout losses.

I see nothing to indicate that the coaching staff has committed to, or achieved any semblance of, team improvement.
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You are correct. Yet, some right here on gh (coaches) proclaim the drastic improvement in defensive efficiency or some other metric.
 



Bad Gopher said:
I think we should be fair and give credit where credit is due. Garcia progressed significantly from where he was at the beginning of the season to when he hit mid-season form, both before and after his injury. Payne built a lot of his offensive game on the fly during the course of the season. Carrington started to make jump shots later after not being able to hit the broad side of a barn early on. This was a better team late than it was early.
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Team as a whole was playing a lot better late in the season. Not great and it certainly doesn't erase the early season struggles but there was definitely some signs of improvement. The freshman seemed to be getting a lot more comfortable which is to be expected for freshman.

Huge off season, got to fill some major needs and keep developing the guys that are coming back. Hopefully the better play late in the season gives them something to build off of.
 

MNVCGUY said:
I'm not trying to defend anything other than to say Johnson should at least be allowed to have year 3 before people just assume how it is going to go.
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But then what would @GopherWeatherGuy fixate on?
MNVCGUY said:
There is definitely a chance the Johnson hire goes the way of the Brewster hire....first time head coach put in a really tough spot at a job they weren't ready for....but the difference in basketball is that you don't have to find nearly as many pieces as football to be successful so with what is coming back there is a chance Johnson could get things on track next year if he can find the right portal guards.
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formerlybis said:
Everyone is so focused on personnel gains and losses (and there will be gains) and less on whether Johnson can actually coach. People assume it's a lack of talent that held back Minnesota this year, but it's my opinion that another coach could have done better with THIS YEAR'S roster. I'm not even talking about W's and L's, I'm talking about offensive and defensive efficiency, and specifically defense. There has been zero progress - in fact, regression - and it can be shown in cold, hard numbers. I don't care about eye-test stuff or if the freshman are scoring in double digits in 30-point blowout losses.

I see nothing to indicate that the coaching staff has committed to, or achieved any semblance of, team improvement.
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No issues with the roster he put out there, and it was probably better than what I had hoped for coming out of year 1. A little light at guard for sure, but I thought he had enough other other pieces to counter that. He did not show in any way he knows how to get the best out of the players he brought in. Agree with starting Payne on the bench to start the season, but after battle came back and he decided to put Thompson back on the bench, Payne had easily shown enough at that point to warrant a starting spot. Instead he decided to start JOJ and Samuels. No issue with JOJ but he is too redundant being on the floor with Battle/Garcia at the same time. No need to elaborate on Samuels (I agree he should have started 2-4 games early to send a message to Henley, but anything beyond that was idiotic). The team often was sparked after a slow start once JOJ was replaced with Payne. Don't give me this "we have to give the coach the benefit of doubt, we are not at practice everyday, etc..." 2 conference wins does not buy you any room here. I'd be in a much more optimistic place if it was obvious Ben could coach on gameday, but just didn't have the players to compete yet. He would have to recruit at Calipari levels to make up for his gameday coaching shortcomings. I'm sure Ben does a lot of things well and there is a lot that goes into coaching, but the most important thing that is delivering on gameday, he has not proven he is anything other than the title of this thread suggests.
 



bga1 said:
Fire the coach and you melt the whole thing down again. I hope we don't have to get there.
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And hire the right coach and we'll be more competitive in year 1 than any of Ben's years, because good coaches actually know how to recruit and build through the portal immediately.

He's going to need a lot in the portal to get more than 2 wins next year, let alone 6 or 7. Odds of doing that are very slim. I hope we do get there because there's a 99% chance we're wasting our time caring about this program until Ben is gone.
 
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GopherWeatherGuy said:
And hire the right coach and we'll be more competitive in year 1 than any of Ben's years, because good coaches actually know how to recruit and build through the portal immediately.

He's going to need a lot in the portal to get more than 2 wins next year. Odds of doing that are very slim. I hope we do get there because there's a 99% chance we're wasting our time caring about this program until Ben is gone.
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Yeah, I think we all know what the chances of hiring the right coach are. Monson, Tubby, Pitino, BJ. Maybe Tubby was the closest we got and he never once got above .500 in the Big Ten.

Ben is our best bet right now and also our only coach for now. I hope he nails it in the portal and I know you do as well. Personally, I think he has a 5-6 win team right now with Payne, Garcia, JOJ, Carrington and Christie as the core. Needs to get the right guys to make it 8+

And yes, I am assuming some good offseason improvement by both players and coaches.
 


bga1 said:
Yeah, I think we all know what the chances of hiring the right coach are. Monson, Tubby, Pitino, BJ. Maybe Tubby was the closest we got and he never once got above .500 in the Big Ten.

Ben is our best bet right now and also our only coach for now. I hope he nails it in the portal and I know you do as well. Personally, I think he has a 5-6 win team right now with Payne, Garcia, JOJ, Carrington and Christie as the core. Needs to get the right guys to make it 8+

And yes, I am assuming some good offseason improvement by both players and coaches.
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Monson was a very good hire under the circumstances, and Tubby was 100% the right hire and a home run. It just didn't work out. Pitino was a reach. Ben was an even bigger one. He might be our only coach, but he is absolutely not our best bet.
 



Block M said:
Strongly disagree with this. Battle had a disastrous season (possibly due to injury and for other reasons I don't understand) and his productivity could be replaced, for instance, by a healthy Isaiah Ihnen. Payne and Garcia are absolutely one of the best returning front court tandems in the B1G. The keys will be to add a guard that can break a defense down and another guard that can knock down open 3-pt shots with consistency. I am also hopeful that Henley returns since he's got some game and physical gifts he can grow into.
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Lol
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
it's called reading the tea leaves.

No one knows how next season will turn out.

Every person is responsible for their lives and how they react to situations, people are responsible for their own happiness or lack of it in my experience. If this is that big a deal, maybe this is an opportunity for your maturation?
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Hear! Hear!

If a cart is heading towards a cliff, when does calling out "the cart is heading towards the cliff!" sound like ill will?
 


Yeah can't say I was expecting Cooper or Battle to transfer instead of foregoing their remaining eligibility. So does this mean some players do value winning? I was under the impression Battle and Cooper understood we are rebuilding. Don't they know Ben will have tickets for them behind the bench when we are winning in 2027?
 

MennoSota said:
Oh yes, I was wrong. The entire UMN athletic department is gone. There is no hope for UMN. The Regents will vote to leave the B1G and all athletics to become like U of Chicago. We can cheer on Luke Loewe in his fishing boat and enjoy the 3 months of unfrozen land. 😏
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Dude..... go see a doctor. You're acting like my dad when he had a stroke. Seriously.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
This isn’t a youth issue, this is a coaching and roster construction issue. It’s not going to get much better next season.

When you hire someone who doesn’t have any credentials to be a B1G coach, this is what you get. This is the worst Gopher basketball team I’ve seen in my lifetime.
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Re-adding this to the top now that we literally have one upperclassmen on scholarship
 




Many posted before this last season that we needed to at least get through season 2.
 

MennoSota said:
It's all over. There is no hope for UMN basketball. We are exiting the B1G, like U of Chicago did so many years before us. Even the Summit League is too far above us. There is no hope. All is lost. Even a HOF coach can not save us from our doom. Woe is us!
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Get help soon
 




GopherWeatherGuy said:
This isn’t a youth issue, this is a coaching and roster construction issue. It’s not going to get much better next season.

When you hire someone who doesn’t have any credentials to be a B1G coach, this is what you get. This is the worst Gopher basketball team I’ve seen in my lifetime.
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Gopher season ticket holder since 1993 and I am done. Non competitive and I am over wait for next year. There is no next year. I pay my hard earned money on this crap show. No more. Why would our great inexperienced coach start and give major minutes to this piece of ***+ player - Henley when he knew or should have known he was gone to transfer at seasons end. There is NO chance that the barn will be fun again. Thanks for wrecking the program
 

Plato said:
When Little Ricky left the veterans on the team who had eligibility chose to go with him.
The cupboard was literally bare when Johnson came.
Last year he had some veteran players come via the portal, causing a great deal of excitement during the cupcake pre-conference games, but proved lacking in conference play.
He is fielding a team with two transfers who could not start for their prior teams and very inexperienced players.
Johnson needs at least two years more to show what he can do in recruiting and development.
Why Coyle chose Johnson instead of other coaches was never made clear.
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Ridiculous. There are many second year coaches who were/are successful. It was his job to keep the players that were here two years ago before they transferred than get get good recruits and coach up whatever players he had and he has failed miserably. Let’s ride him for five more years and we can start from scratch each year. How many 14th place finishes in the big ten before you say no more. At least we have many scholarships open to recruit Talen Cooper likes
 


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