Ben Johnson is a Disaster

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Can we hire the chicago state coach...he clearly out coached Ben with far less talent... I bet we could throw maybe 2.5 or 3M his way since he has a resume as a Head coach
 

it looked so good for about 6 minutes there today!
 






MNJay said:
Cue the temper tantrums.
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meh...lackluster performance against a bad team. no real tantrums.
gonna be hard to look at this with any sort of positivity! so you better bring us some!
 




MennoSota said:
He was originally going to go play basketball for the Citadel, but Fleck got him to walk on for football. I haven't seen him play so I don't know why he wasn't on the Gopher basketball radar.
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goldengophers said:
Hate to say this after a win but I would move to fire.
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Agreed. Pull the trigger and move on.
 

Today's rotations were mind boggling. I like TT, but he gets buried on the bench and then is brought in for the last 10 minutes in a very close game. If you find he adds that much value, why is he not playing the rest of the game? Payne and JOJ were killing it in the 1st half every time they touched it in the paint, and in the second half did they get more than like 2 combined paint touches? I thought the first half was rough but we led by 8 so can't complain. Why did they go away from what worked in the second half? We have stacked up players with length and size, but we only ever seem to occasionally take advantage of mismatches that provides us. A lack of identity is making it more difficult for the players to carve out a role and thrive.
 

GopherBlood666 said:
Today's rotations were mind boggling. I like TT, but he gets buried on the bench and then is brought in for the last 10 minutes in a very close game. If you find he adds that much value, why is he not playing the rest of the game? Payne and JOJ were killing it in the 1st half every time they touched it in the paint, and in the second half did they get more than like 2 combined paint touches? I thought the first half was rough but we led by 8 so can't complain. Why did they go away from what worked in the second half? We have stacked up players with length and size, but we only ever seem to occasionally take advantage of mismatches that provides us. A lack of identity is making it more difficult for the players to carve out a role and thrive.
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Did you watch JOJ and Payne? They rightfully got benched for turning the ball over and missing free throws. They had 3 each which is impressive.

No reason Ben should play the 4 freshman together ever again. He put a similar line up last game with Samuels, Henley, JOJ, Payne, Thompson. That lineup was awful too. Needs to shorten the rotation.
 



If you’re going to fire, you have to fire now. They will most likely go winless or have less than 2 wins in big10 regardless. Get in front of it. Give the interim coach a chance (about a week and a half) to talk to team. Then spend the next few months hunting the coach and and attempting to reconfirm next years recruits.

But it will not get better with Ben…change now. His buyout will be offset with huge big10 revenue sharing.
 

They arent firing him, that isnt a thing. I still dont think we win over 2 B1G games but he isnt getting fired in year 2.

That said, if Coyle is not already in the process of getting things set up behind the scenes to pay the buyout and hire an actual coach with some chops for the next year, well then he needs to have his job looked at too. You simply can't have this level of incompetence running the program for long.
 


Johnnyboy18 said:
Did you watch JOJ and Payne? They rightfully got benched for turning the ball over and missing free throws. They had 3 each which is impressive.

No reason Ben should play the 4 freshman together ever again. He put a similar line up last game with Samuels, Henley, JOJ, Payne, Thompson. That lineup was awful too. Needs to shorten the rotation.
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These are non-B1G games. These are the games where you tinker. Rotations will change with Wisconsin. Until then, on to Alcorn State.
 

leib0039 said:
They arent firing him, that isnt a thing. I still dont think we win over 2 B1G games but he isnt getting fired in year 2.

That said, if Coyle is not already in the process of getting things set up behind the scenes to pay the buyout and hire an actual coach with some chops for the next year, well then he needs to have his job looked at too. You simply can't have this level of incompetence running the program for long.
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Apparently you're to young to remember Calvin Griffith... 😏
 

This firing talk is way premature. Not that we're in a decision-making capacity, but we have to let this play out and see where it goes. Some really, really good talent coming in next year, and it would be a shame to not see that through and give this staff a chance to work with the nice class they recruited.
 

Johnnyboy18 said:
Did you watch JOJ and Payne? They rightfully got benched for turning the ball over and missing free throws. They had 3 each which is impressive.

No reason Ben should play the 4 freshman together ever again. He put a similar line up last game with Samuels, Henley, JOJ, Payne, Thompson. That lineup was awful too. Needs to shorten the rotation.
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I agree with limiting minutes on joj/Payne for making dumb mistakes, but to yank them for the rest of the game? Why is joj starting if his rope is that short? Payne is still our most dominant inside player and CSU was weak at defending inside. Agree 💯 on not having all freshman on court at the same time. Like I said, the rotations today were mind boggling.
 

Bad Gopher said:
This firing talk is way premature. Not that we're in a decision-making capacity, but we have to let this play out and see where it goes. Some really, really good talent coming in next year, and it would be a shame to not see that through and give this staff a chance to work with the nice class they recruited.
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They have pieces now and it's atrocious, this was coaching hire malpractice. This was a training wheels hire meant for a St. Thomas.
 

Today's close win over a bad team was a low point.

I don't know who or why.
 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
If you’re going to fire, you have to fire now. They will most likely go winless or have less than 2 wins in big10 regardless. Get in front of it. Give the interim coach a chance (about a week and a half) to talk to team. Then spend the next few months hunting the coach and and attempting to reconfirm next years recruits.

But it will not get better with Ben…change now. His buyout will be offset with huge big10 revenue sharing.
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Dude, for real?
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Dude, for real?
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Are you watching the same games I am? What gives you hope? There has been no progress…one could argue regression in the way the team has looked. Would the gophers be worse off with a fresh start (assuming a quantity hire this time)?
 

To Chicago State's credit, they have been a horrendous team historically but have a new coach this year that has done some solid 'crootin. They start two former 4 stars. Elijah Weaver was #45, coming out of high school in 2018. Cardet Jr. was #78 in the class of 2021. That tandem kept them in the game, and they scored 60% of their points.

That said, there is no excuse for how we played today. These are supposed to be confidence builders before the big ten gauntlet starts. After this game, I am more confused about the team's identity and how we will compete against better competition.

Ben needs to shake it up with the PG play. I don't know the answer, but Cooper isn't it. Even if he averages seven assists per game, he can't consistently initiate the offense and cannot stay in front of his defensive assignment. It honestly looks like he's hurt or nursing something. Sprinting looks painful. Maybe there's more to the story?

Assuming Cooper isn't hurt, I'd rather see Henley get more minutes as the primary ball handler. While he's been horrendous this year, he has the quickness and a handle to develop. It would be ugly and beyond frustrating. I can't deny the floor of poor play would be much lower with Henley logging PG minutes.

However, I've seen the team's ceiling with Cooper playing 40 minutes, which is equally depressing. I'd go young and let Cooper bomb threes (he's 50%+ on the season) in an off-guard role and save some energy for defensive possessions. There's nothing to lose.
 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
Are you watching the same games I am? What gives you hope? There has been no progress…one could argue regression in the way the team has looked. Would the gophers be worse off with a fresh start (assuming a quantity hire this time)?
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The U isn’t run by George Steinbrenner. Most likely you will be right and they will run him off. In the meantime, you have to use common sense in regards to hire/fire. That’s my suggestion to you.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
The U isn’t run by George Steinbrenner. Most likely you will be right and they will run him off. In the meantime, you have to use common sense in regards to hire/fire. That’s my suggestion to you.
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So we will overtake NW with the in season bt loss streak. In many ways it is fitting.
 


Bad Gopher said:
This firing talk is way premature. Not that we're in a decision-making capacity, but we have to let this play out and see where it goes. Some really, really good talent coming in next year, and it would be a shame to not see that through and give this staff a chance to work with the nice class they recruited.
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Not all highly ranked prospects pan out. Hopefully they do, but many don't; here is a recent list of busts.

I'd rather have a coach who can coach than put all hope on a program savor who has to be paired with a terrible coach.

cbbreview.com

Each College Basketball Recruiting “Bust” Since 2000 | CBB Review (College Basketball Review)

Since 1998, RCSI has released high school recruiting rankings for basketball, and since then, Rivals, 247Sports, and ESPN have followed suit. Usually, players
cbbreview.com cbbreview.com
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
The U isn’t run by George Steinbrenner. Most likely you will be right and they will run him off. In the meantime, you have to use common sense in regards to hire/fire. That’s my suggestion to you.
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The common sense would be to cut the losses on the poor hire before it goes another 2 or 3 years down the tracks, only to rebuild then. Eat the buyout. Heck, I would rather have Johnny Tauer (UST coach) running the Gopher Program. He was the head coach of MN Heat (AAU program) for years, which means local AAU ties *which is one of the main reasons Ben was hired*, he clearly can coach as he wins with typically less talent than his opponents, and he has a vision for what the style of play can be at least. (honestly he may turn the job down as he could be a UST lifer).

Other than him as an example: get a coach with at least a resume of success as a head coach at some point in his career (look at Mississippi State - they hired a proven winner from Mexico State, the guy is from Iowa...he has turned that program around in a year)
 

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