Ben Johnson is a Disaster

Donate To GopherHole
Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
This is what the it must be like to be a Cleveland browns fan. The suck for twenty years straight but after every game you tell yourself, there was some good our new new roster and new new starting quarterback completed more than 1 pass tonight…so that’s a good game.
Click to expand...
I'm at the top in bashing our administration. They've sabotaged our 3 best teams (all Final Four contenders) over the last 25 years.

But as for coach Johnson...the only thing that matters is our 4 freshmen this year and our 2 incoming recruits next year.
 


bga1 said:
Tonight was a disgrace. You don't fall 30 points behind at home, EVER, against a lower division Big Ten team. There is zero design to this team, from roster construction to their offense to the defensive side of the ball. Garbage.

There is only one saving grace- the 4 freshmen are all individually promising.
Click to expand...
Why do we think Michigan is a lower-division team?
 

touchdownvikings said:
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!

I loved last night, and have been thoroughly impressed this year. MNJay is on-point. Stop watching for wins and losses. Look at what is developing, not whether the team is constructed to win now - it isn't. Ben is getting young guys - who have talent galore - experience. Period. That's this entire year. Now relax and enjoy.
Click to expand...

You’re high.
 

MNJay said:
I'm at the top in bashing our administration. They've sabotaged our 3 best teams (all Final Four contenders) over the last 25 years.

But as for coach Johnson...the only thing that matters is our 4 freshmen this year and our 2 incoming recruits next year.
Click to expand...
Fair enough but you are in a distinct minority. You may be right about the up and coming talent. But they have to be given some direction and identity, which is clearly lacking right now. As I said before, optimism based on a future two years out is not worth what it once was.
 


Bdrizzle said:
You think the two incoming freshman will fix this team? You think any legit transfers are gonna want to come to Minnesota after watching games like this? And you’re assuming our freshman are gonna stick around for 2 years of sucking to hope the team can compete their 3rd year.
Click to expand...
Yes. 2 incoming great recruits...to go along with 4 freshmen who are playing a lot and developing this year...will fix this team. But we won't win big until the year-after-next.
 



MNJay said:
Yes. 2 incoming great recruits...to go along with 4 freshmen who are playing a lot and developing this year...will fix this team. But we won't win big until the year-after-next.
Click to expand...

And it helps that no other BT has freshmen who will also develop and who are also getting minutes this season. 😉

Go Gophers!!
 



MNJay said:
You guys don't know anything about college basketball. Or you're closeted Badger fans. If you listen to what I say, you might learn something.

The ONLY thing that matters this year is getting our freshmen experience. Then next year we add 2 more good recruits. Then the year after is when we should look to win big.

Don't watch the games and get all emotional.

Last night was another good result. Ola-Joseph once again did well...11 points on 4/7 shooting and 5 rebounds. And Payne had 15 points on 6/6 shooting in 21 minutes. These are very good results at this early point. (Carrington did well last game...so it was nice to see Payne do well this game.)
Click to expand...
I know a ton about college basketball. Lots of freshman get better but not the amount of better that we will need. I saw a hell of a lot more out of the Michigan freshman last night than I did ours.

The thought that everything becomes good when they aren't freshman is a risky game, sir!

Also, you put up a few offensive numbers, but these guys can't defend a potted plant right now. I'd worry more about that.
 

howeda7 said:
Hiring Ben over Craig Smith seems likely to go down as one of the stupidest/inept decisions in Gopher athletics in a long time.

I'm certainly not on board with "4 years no matter what." He needs a massive turnaround next year or he needs to go. No sense dragging it out. Yes getting talent can take time, but the lack of hustle, discipline and plan on offense is unacceptable. This team will not reach 10 wins this season.
Click to expand...
Craig Smith was the beyond obvious choice, Coyle tried to get cute and as a result has decimated this program.
 

justthefacts said:
Why do we think Michigan is a lower-division team?
Click to expand...
I felt they were middle of the pack and then they lost their PG in the Kentucky game. Maybe they are better than lower division, not sure. They certainly looked killer good last night! But then we made UNLV, Virginia Tech and Depaul look darn good as well.
 

bga1 said:
I felt they were middle of the pack and then they lost their PG in the Kentucky game. Maybe they are better than lower division, not sure. They certainly looked killer good last night! But then we made UNLV, Virginia Tech and Depaul look darn good as well.
Click to expand...
But Virginia Tech is really good. UNLV pretty good. DePaul not good at all. And that was at home.
 



Holy Man said:
Fair enough but you are in a distinct minority. You may be right about the up and coming talent. But they have to be given some direction and identity, which is clearly lacking right now. As I said before, optimism based on a future two years out is not worth what it once was.
Click to expand...
Right now...I'm happy if 2 out of 4 of our freshmen put up decent numbers. Like about 10 points.

I'll be looking for "direction and identity"...and better numbers and hopefully a few wins...starting in about the last 5 regular-season games.
 

MNJay said:
Right now...I'm happy if 2 out of 4 of our freshmen put up decent numbers. Like about 10 points.

I'll be looking for "direction and identity"...and better numbers and hopefully a few wins...starting in about the last 5 regular-season games.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your specific markers. That’s credible to me. You’re more patient than I am but if they hit them it bodes well for actually keeping the quality players in the program.
 


Holy Man said:
What is the defensive scheme?
Click to expand...
Good point. Whatever it is, the staff needs to get basic with things. Straight man to man or zone. The hard hedge is killing them. Opposing teams are putting them on a hamster wheel and getting wide open shots as we attempt to recover. Just play straight up, with good principles, guard your guy, block out.

On offense- post up Payne get him the ball every possible possession and teach him to pass the ball back out and reposition. We just are not getting open looks from 3 point range because we don't get the ball inside. When we are getting into the paint it is usually off the dribble and we are turning it over too often because our guards don't have the quickness to blow by opposing guards and bigs.
 

MNJay said:
Yes. 2 incoming great recruits...to go along with 4 freshmen who are playing a lot and developing this year...will fix this team. But we won't win big until the year-after-next.
Click to expand...
Do you know how much material you give Spaulding with comments like this? : )
 


bga1 said:
Good point. Whatever it is, the staff needs to get basic with things. Straight man to man or zone. The hard hedge is killing them. Opposing teams are putting them on a hamster wheel and getting wide open shots as we attempt to recover. Just play straight up, with good principles, guard your guy, block out.

On offense- post up Payne get him the ball every possible possession and teach him to pass the ball back out and reposition. We just are not getting open looks from 3 point range because we don't get the ball inside. When we are getting into the paint it is usually off the dribble and we are turning it over too often because our guards don't have the quickness to blow by opposing guards and bigs.
Click to expand...
Exactly this. If we are young and inexperienced, then why are we trying to run concepts beyond the means of our roster? Keep it simple and play hard!
 

BleedGopher said:
And it helps that no other BT has freshmen who will also develop and who are also getting minutes this season. 😉

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
There is a reason for that. Other teams have sophomores, and juniors who can play…or they will reload with actual talent in the transfer portal (aka Illinois)
 

MNJay said:
You guys don't know anything about college basketball. Or you're closeted Badger fans. If you listen to what I say, you might learn something.

The ONLY thing that matters this year is getting our freshmen experience. Then next year we add 2 more good recruits. Then the year after is when we should look to win big.

Don't watch the games and get all emotional.

Last night was another good result. Ola-Joseph once again did well...11 points on 4/7 shooting and 5 rebounds. And Payne had 15 points on 6/6 shooting in 21 minutes. These are very good results at this early point. (Carrington did well last game...so it was nice to see Payne do well this game.)
Click to expand...

This. People calling for CBJs head this early don't deserve an opinion. What I'm seeing is a team void of experience. We're missing a leader on the team and that's because we have a bunch of freshman. Neither Garcia nor Battle are stepping up to fill the spot. I think Cooper will progressively play himself into that role. Hopefully he sticks around next year. But there are a lot of nice pieces on this team. And even more talent coming in. Going to need better guard play though.
 

I'm still not a fan of this hire, but it's still way too early to give up on Ben Johnson. On paper this is very similar to Richard Pitino's 3rd year. The sky was falling then too. But the following year was a dramatic step forward. Johnson will have a handful of talented freshman and three or four experienced players to do the same. Is he up to the task is the question.

Arguing against my own logic for a second......I don't understand the rationale behind waiting three/four years to even see a couple wins against good competition? We have too many examples of coaches making progress in a far shorter time horizon (Iowa State, Penn State, Utah, Maryland, to name a few). If it takes four years to get back to the level of a bad Richard Pitino team, you have made the wrong hire.
 


touchdownvikings said:
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!

I loved last night, and have been thoroughly impressed this year. MNJay is on-point. Stop watching for wins and losses. Look at what is developing, not whether the team is constructed to win now - it isn't. Ben is getting young guys - who have talent galore - experience. Period. That's this entire year. Now relax and enjoy.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Some of these posters have zero patience. They'd rather trade in all the promise of our freshman class for a few more upper classmen transfers and finish 12th or 13th in the conference rather than build from the ground up with a roster of players that were recruited by some of the more successful programs in the nation.
 

If the 2015-2016 team is the comparison, there are a couple problems.

That team was competitive in most games with several close losses. Certainty there were a handful of ugly blowouts, especially to Northwestern and Nebraska, but they were not the norm before the suspensions. This team is failing to make these games remotely competitive or interesting. Wins and losses don't mean everything but how you play matters.

Second, this is the transfer portal era. The idea that we can go 9-22, 2-18 and everyone will return and keep rowing is naive. I would put the over/under on transfers out at 1.5 and bet the over. I will be surprised if at least one of Battle / Garcia/ Payne/Cooper do not go elsewhere.
 

MNJay said:
Right now...I'm happy if 2 out of 4 of our freshmen put up decent numbers. Like about 10 points.

I'll be looking for "direction and identity"...and better numbers and hopefully a few wins...starting in about the last 5 regular-season games.
Click to expand...
I agree in concept about focusing on how the freshman improve, although I had hoped battle and Garcia would have provided a lot more consistency. But Ola looks way ahead of schedule and a building block. Payne is raw but will be an asset against most big ten post matchups in 1-2 years. Lots of people had expectations for Carrington, and I just don’t see it yet - he looks poised but I don’t know where he is dangerous. I’ll check in on Henley when hes an upper classman.

What sucks is that our team looks like we are coached by the least paid guy in the big ten. BJ may have a bright future, he’s certainly been able to sell himself into a job and signed a 5 star recruit without any real pedigree, but the cumulative product and strategy sucks.

The way we defended the pick and roll last night was laughable. We chased the guards on the perimeter and tried to cut off passing lanes, but didn’t have the foot speed to apply pressure, and ultimately left Dickenson with all the time in the world to get to his spot, get big, and wait for the ball to rotate. Michigan and Minnesota use the pick and roll most out of all big ten teams, you’d think we’d come with a more effective strategy, or be prepared with a back up plan.

The start of the second half was a disaster. I think we had a nice set piece in the first possession, then got embarrassed on both sides of the ball that we we called a timeout with 1830 left. I know we play a lot of freshman, but holy shit one team looked like it was fired up and the other was in a beer league.
 

stocker08 said:
Exactly. Some of these posters have zero patience. They'd rather trade in all the promise of our freshman class for a few more upper classmen transfers and finish 12th or 13th in the conference rather than build from the ground up with a roster of players that were recruited by some of the more successful programs in the nation.
Click to expand...
I'm a little impatient right now because it shouldn't be this bad.

Remember when we were going to lose Garcia and Battle after one year? Remember when the length on the perimeter was going to make our defense better?

I'm a little concerned as nothing is happening the way it was supposed to happen. We should be playing better. We were down 30 last night at home, to an average at best Michigan team.

We should be better than this gawd awful mess we are seeing.
 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
This is what the it must be like to be a Cleveland browns fan. The suck for twenty years straight but after every game you tell yourself, there was some good our new new roster and new new starting quarterback completed more than 1 pass tonight…so that’s a good game.
Click to expand...
At least it's not Detroit.
 

In this day and age, it's never been EASIER to turn a trainwreck into something really good. Just look at some of the coaches in their first or 2nd years, and we should not look this awful.

Craig Smith - year two with Utah and currently has them in the top 20 of the NET, with a blowout win over AZ. Looking like a single digit seed for the tournament

TJ Otzelberger - took over a TWO win team, had his team in the S16 last year, and looks poised to be a single digit seed this year.

Mike Woodson - Yeah, it's IU, but he took over a program that hadn't made the tournament since 2016. TJD is very good, but he's not an NBA talent or anything. Woodson brought in good pieces in the portal, got them to the tournament and now they are a top 10 team in the NET.

Ryan Odom - Has Utah State in the top 20 of the NET in year 2. Made the NIT last year, has basically a brand new roster from what was inherited, which wasn't a lot due to transfers.

Kevin Kruger - Yeah, UNLV has a great tradition, but they haven't made the tournament since 2013, and he's got them in the top 40 of the NET and looking like a tournament team.

Hell, even Micah Shrewsbury has Penn State in a much better state than us, and that's Penn State! And Pitino is undefeated at New Mexico and top 30 in NET!

First-year coaches:

Kevin Willard at MD
Chris Jans at Miss State
Jerome Tang at Kansas State
Dennis Gates at Missouri

I'm sure there are some others that I'm missing, but the point remains, we shouldn't look this bad a third of the way through year 2. I mean come on, we're sandwiched between Tennessee Martin and Western Illinois in the NET. That's fucking terrible. And yes, Michigan in theory, should be a lot better, but they have been performing like the 2nd worst B1G team this season, and they ran us off the court.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom