Of course, when you hire someone who's never been a head coach or a top assistant and interviewed unsuccessfully for multiple head-coaching jobs in lower leagues, the concern is going to be that you're going to experience the worst two-year stretch in program history in his first two years. The Gophers would have to fail to win a game the rest of the way to achieve that dubious mark, but unless they figure some things out and go on a little run here, it's safe to say this is bad enough.
When people who know I'm a fan ask me what I think of the current predicament, the first thing I always bring up is the day Ben was hired and the reaction here on GH. In all my days--over 20,000 days now--I don't know if I've ever observed the expression of shock and horror as there was here when it became obvious that he was the guy...and I've seen the fan reactions of the 1975 Hail Mary and the 1998 and 2009 seasons NFC title game losses. Most of us were in disbelief then, and most of us, I think, still are. Much hope was expressed then that it wouldn't end up being very bad, but we feared that it would. I can only speak for myself, but, as low as my expectations were in that moment, what's happened since has somehow managed to slip under them. Something this historically bad in the open portal era is almost impossible to believe, but here we are.
Weirdly, as difficult as this is to believe, it can't be seen as very surprising. The shock and horror of two years ago was accurately intuitive, just as I remember my stomach turning over on my drive to work when I heard about the 1999 academic scandal on the radio. As much as I hoped it wouldn't amount to much, I knew it was bad; my stomach told me so. My same stomach had the same reaction two years ago. When you know, you know. I hoped I and my stomach were wrong, and I've been hoping against hope ever since, but it's played out as I feared.
At this point, we're being fed hopium by the spoonful from a number of sources including the mainstream media. There's no rational reason to believe this thing is going to turn around, even with the young talent coming in next year. This is not Clem Haskins, who had Western Kentucky in the top 20 before coming here. Nor is this anyone who was hired anywhere with estimable qualifications. This isn't even Gerry Faust, who'd been a successful head coach in high school.
We were all impressed with Ben's coaching job when he was miked up against OSU. He may be a competent game-day coach, but that doesn't mean he's an overall good coach or a program builder. In fact, he presents as a program destroyer at this point. In Pitino's last year here, there were ups and downs, but they were nationally ranked for a while before things wen't south, including a blowout win over Michigan. Most of us were ready to move on from the ups and the downs under Richard, but if you'd have told me that it would result in the program being blasted back to the stone age and we had to rebuild civilization from the ground up, I'd have said to keep your nukes in their silos. This has been horrific. The Barn is nearly empty, and the program is now a joke. A disaster indeed. It didn't have to be this way.
