Ben Johnson is a Disaster

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The biggest concern I have is how poor the basic fundamental skills are for our younger players.

Things like decision making and ability to play come with experience. We don’t have that right now. So a pass from me on that.

But we have too many players without the fundamental skills needed to compete. Guys pivoting on the wrong feet. Shooting with the poor release points. Shooting off the wrong foot. Not blocking out. Turning their heads on defense.

Ben recruited these guys. Did he not see those problems? Ben had a summer, with individual training sessions. many of these things should have been corrected. Ben had pre-season practices. Again, time to correct it. Is Ben and his staff doing the right things?

Certainly the players have responsibilities to improve on their own. From experience, D1 athletes get lots of training guides for the off season to work on skills. Did the kids do it? Doesn’t seem like it. But then that’s a recruiting evaluation issue as to the players work ethic

I’m not suggesting Ben be fired now. But just like Lindsay, I think Ben needs a serious, experienced player development assistant on staff next year. Or it could implode quickly.
 

Crappie said:
Who gave out the scholarships to the current players? Only 2? So.
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Understand the context of the reply. He wanted more to next years class, no way to add more as he has only those scholarships available . Climb back in your hole and shut it.
 

Outsider said:
Understand the context of the reply. He wanted more to next years class, no way to add more as he has only those scholarships available . Climb back in your hole and shut it.
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Ben can do whatever he wants. Have a nice night.
 




Crappie said:
It's called roster management. It's bens job to manage it. If he makes poor decisions, he has choices to make.
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Answer the question, are you advocating he run someone off? Yes or no, it’s a simple question to answer.
 

leib0039 said:
Yep totally agree, should be zero criticism leveled again CBJ. I mean he has no control of the offense, no control of the defense, certainly didn't have the ability to comb through 1000+ transfers for 2 years, and was not in charge of the freshman he recruited!

Wait...I'm being told he actually has 100% total control of everything including the guys he recruits and the plays ran.

This guy takes the cake as the worst poster on this entire board. If the team is terrible (and they are) it is 100% on the person who is the GM and Coa
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TNGophfan said:
I will be patient to a degree but watching Mizzou tonight with their 1st year coach, Dennis Gates, makes me jealous.
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And they only returned 3 players from last year…7 hit the portal
 



Outsider said:
Answer the question, are you advocating he run someone off? Yes or no, it’s a simple question to answer.
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Short answer: yes. He needs to run off the poor performers with little to no upside. They can play d1 basketball at a worse program (non-P5)
 

MNJay said:
Haskins started 2-16 & 4-14 in conference play.

Shouldn't we at least see if Ben can follow-up on his excellent recruiting class that isn't even on the team yet?
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Gophers might not win a Big Ten team period this year, inexcusable regardless of years in.

I get it Rick jr. wasn't exactly winning Big Ten titles, but even in an off year we should beat Chicago State by 20 points no?
 


kix4kix said:
Gophers might not win a Big Ten team period this year, inexcusable regardless of years in.

I get it Rick jr. wasn't exactly winning Big Ten titles, but even in an off year we should beat Chicago State by 20 points no?
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Our guy Pitino lost to both South Dakota schools in 2015.
 



Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
Short answer: yes. He needs to run off the poor performers with little to no upside. They can play d1 basketball at a worse program (non-P5)
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I understand why some are turned off by "running off players". But honestly now I could care less, these kids are very clearly NOT student athletes, they are paid athletes who happen to be in college. This is a business, that's part of life, if you aren't cutting it then cya we will find someone who will. The Vikings wouldn't keep a 4th qb who has no shot at adding value to the team, why should we keep a 4th C in the sane spot. Again, I understand the optics can look tough for a kid, but once they opened the pandoras box of NIL, they now have to deal with the negative side too.
 


Just wanted to mention that Xavier (currently ranked #22) is now good again. It’s funny, they were terrible when CBJ was there as an assistant (one of his main resume highlights), yet as soon as he leaves, along with the rest of the coaching staff, Sean Miller comes back home and turns it around quickly.
 

Johnnyboy18 said:
Our guy Pitino lost to both South Dakota schools in 2015.
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.......and this board was very negative at that time too. Ironically, the Gophers beat Chicago State (of all teams) that year by 18 after losing to the South Dakota schools. They played a number of teams tough in conference before finally breaking through against Maryland late in the year. It's pretty easy to search on here and find a number of anti-Pitino threads in year three. Reusse wrote an article in January 2016 that read "In Three Short Years, Pitino has Turned the Gophers Into a Joke".

I felt then Pitino deserved another year and he had his best year finishing 24-10 (11-7 in conference) in year four that culminated in an NCAA berth. Ben Johnson will get another year barring a complete meltdown. Will he deliver a similar bounce as Pitino?
 


Spaulding!No! said:
If there are no wins The rest of the way Ben is fired.
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If our freshmen (Ben's first recruits) don't improve by the end of the year...then I will start getting concerned.

But the conference season hasn't even started yet. I'm hopeful that the freshmen play well in the last 5 games of the regular season. And then next year we add even better recruits.
 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
Just wanted to mention that Xavier (currently ranked #22) is now good again. It’s funny, they were terrible when CBJ was there as an assistant (one of his main resume highlights), yet as soon as he leaves, along with the rest of the coaching staff, Sean Miller comes back home and turns it around quickly.
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You completely ignore that CBJ just recruited a 5-star here. And other good recruits. But you say he's terrible because Sean Miller is doing well.

Brilliant !!
 

MNJay said:
You completely ignore that CBJ just recruited a 5-star here. And other good recruits. But you say he's terrible because Sean Miller is doing well.

Brilliant !!
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Recruiting is only 1 part of coaching. And Payne is the only stud / rotation guy on a top 6 big10 team…

Plus, I have numerous posts detailing why I’m not a believer in CBJ… it’s not just Sean Miller, that’s just a fresh data point.
 

golfing18now said:
.......and this board was very negative at that time too. Ironically, the Gophers beat Chicago State (of all teams) that year by 18 after losing to the South Dakota schools. They played a number of teams tough in conference before finally breaking through against Maryland late in the year. It's pretty easy to search on here and find a number of anti-Pitino threads in year three. Reusse wrote an article in January 2016 that read "In Three Short Years, Pitino has Turned the Gophers Into a Joke".

I felt then Pitino deserved another year and he had his best year finishing 24-10 (11-7 in conference) in year four that culminated in an NCAA berth. Ben Johnson will get another year barring a complete meltdown. Will he deliver a similar bounce as Pitino?
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Plus with that team, their two best players were Nate Mason who was a sophomore, and Jordan Murphy who was a freshman. Both of those players were really good the minute they stepped on the court. The main thing that team was missing was a defensive presence in the middle, and they had that in Lynch who had to sit out due to transfer rules that season. Despite the losses, there was plenty of reason for optimism the next season, which turned out to be Pitino's best team.

They weren't led by two SRs and a JR like this team is.
 

Outsider said:
Answer the question, are you advocating he run someone off? Yes or no, it’s a simple question to answer.
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I'm stating roster management is a big part of cbj job, and if he makes poor choices he will need to make other, perhaps more difficult choices in the future.
Btw no need for the attitude.
 

Outsider said:
Answer the question, are you advocating he run someone off? Yes or no, it’s a simple question to answer.
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as much as it sucks....i am absolutely advocating they run someone off to get more help......
next year is a do or die year for Ben
 

MNJay said:
You completely ignore that CBJ just recruited a 5-star here. And other good recruits. But you say he's terrible because Sean Miller is doing well.

Brilliant !!
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Xavier was AWFUL while Ben was there. Awful. Which is the point. We hired an assistant, from a program that is usually a top 25 program, only while the guy we hired was there, they went through their worst stretch in 40 years! Ben was a FAILURE at Xavier. He'd be an assistant at Miami(Oh) making $100K per year if we didn't hire him. Instead we're blowing over $2 Million per year on him.
 

For those of you who are too young to remember the Brewster football years, you’re getting a sneak peak at what it was like with the basketball team. Except that Brewster actually won 6 games his 2nd year.
 

Bad Gopher said:
I hope we don't find out. Hypothetically, though, I don't think he'd be fired. He's Coyle's guy.
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1) If CBJ really is Coyle's guy, he should be fired along with Ben, if Gophers go 0-20 in B1G play.

2} If CBJ is Gabel's guy, let Coyle fire Ben & hire a real coach.

I admit that I am curious to see if Ben can pull off winless B1G seasons as both a player and a coach.
 

Roster management is Johnson’s biggest issue imo. He needed to retain at least a few players besides Ihnen after he got here to create some level of continuity. Because he didn’t or couldn’t, he was forced to add a bunch of 1 year grad transfers last year. Last year’s team was composed of some hard-nosed smart basketball players, but it was basically a waste because everyone other than Battle is now gone. So year 2 is now worse than year 1. We’re forced to play 4 freshman 20-30 minutes per game, when they aren’t top recruits and are the type of players that should be getting 5-10 minutes a game and will need a few years to develop. Compound that with Garcia being a shell of his former self, Battle not playing as well as last year, season ending injuries to Fox and Ihnen, and a hot mess at the PG position, and this is what you get.
 

MNJay said:
You completely ignore that CBJ just recruited a 5-star here. And other good recruits. But you say he's terrible because Sean Miller is doing well.

Brilliant !!
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Yep, the portal has changed the game.
 

Mikie S said:
1) If CBJ really is Coyle's guy, he should be fired along with Ben, if Gophers go 0-20 in B1G play.

2} If CBJ is Gabel's guy, let Coyle fire Ben & hire a real coach.

I admit that I am curious to see if Ben can pull off winless B1G seasons as both a player and a coach.
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I think it is safe to say this is what Spaulding is living for at this moment. Historically good or biblically bad!
 

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