Ben Johnson is a Disaster

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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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Sorry. But firing Ben Johnson is a waste of taxpayer money, as was firing Richard Pitino. It’s NOT the coaching. Unless Glenn Taylor or some other billionaire steps up to invest in NIL payments there is no program to build. We will remain a farm team for the Texas A&Ms, the Texas techs, etc. sad, but times have officially changed. FWIW: I am amazed Johnson and Thomson got us to .500 with more road conference wins than anyone could have possibly imagined. Good man. Did what he could in a pretty crappy situation.
 


VolitileGopher said:
Sorry. But firing Ben Johnson is a waste of taxpayer money, as was firing Richard Pitino. It’s NOT the coaching. Unless Glenn Taylor or some other billionaire steps up to invest in NIL payments there is no program to build. We will remain a farm team for the Texas A&Ms, the Texas techs, etc. sad, but times have officially changed. FWIW: I am amazed Johnson and Thomson got us to .500 with more road conference wins than anyone could have possibly imagined. Good man. Did what he could in a pretty crappy situation.
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Sorry, but not a single dollar of tax payer money goes towards sports. I stopped reading after that.

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
Sorry, but not a single dollar of tax payer money goes towards sports. I stopped reading after that.

Go Gophers!!
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You are correct. Maybe if it’s changed to athletics dept revenue you will be able to finish reading the post and get his point. Since the days of Thompson, McHale, Williams et al we just keep changing coaches and the results are similar. Maybe, just maybe, it’s something else? And what’s worse pay for play is only going to amplify the differences between the haves and have nots. Only delusion would allow someone to think we are ever going toe to toe financially with the big boys.
 

Gopheritnow said:
You are correct. Maybe if it’s changed to athletics dept revenue you will be able to finish reading the post and get his point. Since the days of Thompson, McHale, Williams et al we just keep changing coaches and the results are similar. Maybe, just maybe, it’s something else? And what’s worse pay for play is only going to amplify the differences between the haves and have nots. Only delusion would allow someone to think we are ever going toe to toe financially with the big boys.
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Everyone said this about football too and it has actually leveled the playing field. The open transfer rule and pay for play means good players are going to go to where they can get the right combination of playing time and $$$ right away, and not sit on the bench at a blue blood. It actually levels the playing field.

Why do you think all of these long time coaches at big programs in basketball and football are retiring or quitting? It's a lot harder to recruit and win when everyone's paying their players, not just the blue bloods.
 

Gopheritnow said:
You are correct. Maybe if it’s changed to athletics dept revenue you will be able to finish reading the post and get his point. Since the days of Thompson, McHale, Williams et al we just keep changing coaches and the results are similar. Maybe, just maybe, it’s something else? And what’s worse pay for play is only going to amplify the differences between the haves and have nots. Only delusion would allow someone to think we are ever going toe to toe financially with the big boys.
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True or not, I still don't see how any of this justifies keeping an inferior coach. If anything, you would need a SUPERIOR coach to overcome any disadvantages. The whole rest of the world seems to understand this.
 



GopherWeatherGuy said:
Everyone said this about football too and it has actually leveled the playing field. The open transfer rule and pay for play means good players are going to go to where they can get the right combination of playing time and $$$ right away, and not sit on the bench at a blue blood. It actually levels the playing field.

Why do you think all of these long time coaches at big programs in basketball and football are retiring or quitting? It's a lot harder to recruit and win when everyone's paying their players, not just the blue bloods.
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I really don’t have any objection to improving a coaching situation. My objection is in believing it’s going to turn this program into anything more than mediocre. Decently mediocre is even a possibility. But the rules have changed and money talks. You are correct about long time coaches retiring. Some thrived on recruiting and some thrived on hookers and blow. (See Pitino, Rick) . Pay for play may have softened recruiting advantages, but money still talks. Paying the athletes above the table won’t change paying athletes under the table. Nor will the neutered NCAA. For a quick primer on the future of college sports, just take a look at MLB. Dodgers, Yankees, Boston. Then there’s the MN Twins. Class AAAA farm club for those teams.

This is not an argument for or against changing coaches. It’s simply my belief that thinking that, is going to change the Gophers relative position in college sports, in todays environment, will prove very disappointing.
 

VolitileGopher said:
Sorry. But firing Ben Johnson is a waste of taxpayer money, as was firing Richard Pitino. It’s NOT the coaching. Unless Glenn Taylor or some other billionaire steps up to invest in NIL payments there is no program to build. We will remain a farm team for the Texas A&Ms, the Texas techs, etc. sad, but times have officially changed. FWIW: I am amazed Johnson and Thomson got us to .500 with more road conference wins than anyone could have possibly imagined. Good man. Did what he could in a pretty crappy situation.
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Well that is certainly one way to be wrong...
 








Bob_Loblaw said:
Good luck Ben!
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Here, here. I felt like he was put in a position to fail here, not the least of which was hiring him into a job he was ill equipped to do. He's young and could salvage a very productive career, but he needs to know better than to pursue a job like this that a reasonable and self-aware person would know he wasn't ready for.

One thing he needs to find a way to get out from under from is the mountain of losing at the collegiate level. It's extraordinary and borderline freaky the amount of losing he's participated in as both a player and a coach. Even when he worked for an excellent coach (Miles at Nebraska), there was more losing than winning. He should find a job working for someone with a history of winning and learn winning basketball from them. He should consider himself a student and be in learning mode.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Here, here. I felt like he was put in a position to fail here, not the least of which was hiring him into a job he was ill equipped to do. He's young and could salvage a very productive career, but he needs to know better than to pursue a job like this that a reasonable and self-aware person would know he wasn't ready for.

One thing he needs to find a way to get out from under from is the mountain of losing at the collegiate level. It's extraordinary and borderline freaky the amount of losing he's participated in as both a player and a coach. Even when he worked for an excellent coach (Miles at Nebraska), there was more losing than winning. He should find a job working for someone with a history of winning and learn winning basketball from them. He should consider himself a student and be in learning mode.
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That's really good advise.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Here, here. I felt like he was put in a position to fail here, not the least of which was hiring him into a job he was ill equipped to do. He's young and could salvage a very productive career, but he needs to know better than to pursue a job like this that a reasonable and self-aware person would know he wasn't ready for.

One thing he needs to find a way to get out from under from is the mountain of losing at the collegiate level. It's extraordinary and borderline freaky the amount of losing he's participated in as both a player and a coach. Even when he worked for an excellent coach (Miles at Nebraska), there was more losing than winning. He should find a job working for someone with a history of winning and learn winning basketball from them. He should consider himself a student and be in learning mode.
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This isn't a rip on him at all but I think coaching some high school or D3 basketball (outside of the microscope of college athletics) could really help him out too. Ben never seemed comfortable on the sidelines being a leader and it just felt like way too much too soon. I think he needs to find his voice and find a presence and that's hard to do when you're dropped into the deep end too soon.
 








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