Ben Johnson is a Disaster

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This forum is in mid summer form, just crazy. Right in the middle of B1G season and nobody cares.
 
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goldengophers said:
Right in the middle of B1G season and nobody cares.
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This speaks, actually SCREAMS, volumes about where people think the state of the program is right now. After the last season and a half, most of the fans aren't even upset or angry anymore...

They just don't care anymore. And good luck coming back from that, unfortunately.
 


mentioned this in the Northwestern Game thread.

Reusse has a column in the Strib.

this is how the column ends:

Johnson didn't bring this up, but it came from a media source and was confirmed elsewhere:

The NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) funding for Gophers men's basketball stands at $0.00. Richard Pitino's better off in Lobo Land, I'm guessing.

that is hard to believe. I know the Dinkytown Athletes group is more football-oriented, but geez, you think they could come up with a couple of bucks for men's hoops.
 

goldengophers said:
This forum is in mid summer form, just crazy. Right in the middle of B1G season and nobody cares.
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Shit, we've been told to wait another two years for decent basketball. The summer is when message boards for real programs spend their time on this stupid sh!t, unfortunately, we have 2-3 more full years. It beats talking about hoops.
 





short ornery norwegian said:
mentioned this in the Northwestern Game thread.

Reusse has a column in the Strib.

this is how the column ends:

Johnson didn't bring this up, but it came from a media source and was confirmed elsewhere:

The NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) funding for Gophers men's basketball stands at $0.00. Richard Pitino's better off in Lobo Land, I'm guessing.

that is hard to believe. I know the Dinkytown Athletes group is more football-oriented, but geez, you think they could come up with a couple of bucks for men's hoops.
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And Northwestern was the last program to launch a NIL collective as of a few weeks ago and it isn't operational yet.

More terrible excuses for this program...
 

short ornery norwegian said:
mentioned this in the Northwestern Game thread.

Reusse has a column in the Strib.

this is how the column ends:

Johnson didn't bring this up, but it came from a media source and was confirmed elsewhere:

The NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) funding for Gophers men's basketball stands at $0.00. Richard Pitino's better off in Lobo Land, I'm guessing.

that is hard to believe. I know the Dinkytown Athletes group is more football-oriented, but geez, you think they could come up with a couple of bucks for men's hoops.
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I don’t know what goes into funding the NIL, but this is on Coyle and the admin. Just stacked the deck so badly against Ben Johnson. Probably the worst time to hire a completely unproven coach in the history of college athletics. Players were granted the freedom to transfer at will and they can now earn money if they are in a place that cares about basketball.

This is not meant as a knock on BJ or commentary on his abilities… but Bfan, Dennis Evans, and Dennis Evans’s dad are probably the only three people alive that believe he can get this done.
 


Reusse weighs in -- need to read article at link.

www.startribune.com

Gophers basketball coach Ben Johnson playing it slow and steady amid dismal season

Dealing with a depleted roster and an ongoing reset, Johnson is staying calm and aiming for a sustainable program.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com


""He's up against it more than any coach in Gophers modern history, even Clem Haskins... inheritance was worse than that in 2021...

"When talking with [athletic director] Mark Coyle, I said, 'Judge me in Year 4,' " Johnson said. "...have to do a reset in Year 2; with our recruits,' and this is it.

"The goal is to build something sustainable.... We haven't had that here for a long time."

And if Johnson can show signs of sustainability by Year 4, it will be up to Ben and his coaching staff, because the outside help appears to be almost nonexistent....

Johnson didn't bring this up, but it came from a media source and was confirmed elsewhere:

The NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) funding for Gophers men's basketball stands at $0.00."
 



If ever a program needed to pull out the checkbook and make a big hire it was this one in 2021. But they didn't. It's now as dead as a Power 5 college basketball program can be. And they don't appear to have any intention of doing anything about it. So what can you say?, And why would anyone donate to an NIL fund of such a program?
 

Dinkytown Athletes is an NIL. Men's basketball players are among the athletes it supports. It may not be much, but it means that there is some NIL money.
dinkytownathletes.com

OUR ATHLETES - Dinkytown Athletes

OUR ATHLETES You can search our athletes by name or by sport All All Football Women's Gymnastics Men's Basketball Women's Volleyball Women's Basketball Women's Golf Softball Women's Hockey Wrestling Men's Hockey Women's Soccer Sophia Barjesteh > View Sophia’s Profile Amaya Battle > View Amaya’s...
dinkytownathletes.com dinkytownathletes.com
 

The only rebuild CBJ should be in charge of is the Washington Generals. Think of the leash he would have and low expectations. It would be great
 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
The only rebuild CBJ should be in charge of is the Washington Generals. Think of the leash he would have and low expectations. It would be great
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Tommie boy, go back across the River and hangout on Cleveland Avenue.
 

howeda7 said:
If ever a program needed to pull out the checkbook and make a big hire it was this one in 2021. But they didn't. It's now as dead as a Power 5 college basketball program can be. And they don't appear to have any intention of doing anything about it. So what can you say?, And why would anyone donate to an NIL fund of such a program?
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I feel like a dupe being expected to pony up big money for season tickets, cheer hard at the games, and hope against hope they make the next few throw knowing I'd have a better chance than them. This is so uphill and so exhausting.
 

Bad Gopher said:
I feel like a dupe being expected to pony up big money for season tickets, cheer hard at the games, and hope against hope they make the next few throw knowing I'd have a better chance than them. This is so uphill and so exhausting.
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Our family finally gave up our season tickets this year after 52 years. A combination of logistics and desire led to the decision. I certainly miss going to 15ish games a year but it was starting to feel more and more like a chore to go to the games and the gameday experience is just not what it once was like.
 

golfing18now said:
Our family finally gave up our season tickets this year after 52 years. A combination of logistics and desire led to the decision. I certainly miss going to 15ish games a year but it was starting to feel more and more like a chore to go to the games and the gameday experience is just not what it once was like.
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I’m leaning toward one last go-round in 2023-24, but in all honesty the main reason I’m renewing is because Minneapolis hosts the Big Ten Tournament next season. Want to retain first crack access to BTT tickets that season ticket holders get.
 

howeda7 said:
If ever a program needed to pull out the checkbook and make a big hire it was this one in 2021. But they didn't. It's now as dead as a Power 5 college basketball program can be. And they don't appear to have any intention of doing anything about it. So what can you say?, And why would anyone donate to an NIL fund of such a program?
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The administration treated this like Caltech for no apparent reason, in one of the best states for college basketball talent.
 

golfing18now said:
Our family finally gave up our season tickets this year after 52 years. A combination of logistics and desire led to the decision. I certainly miss going to 15ish games a year but it was starting to feel more and more like a chore to go to the games and the gameday experience is just not what it once was like.
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We debated this year and kept the 6 tickets we have had since Clem arrived. Next year? Probably not.
 

howeda7 said:
If ever a program needed to pull out the checkbook and make a big hire it was this one in 2021. But they didn't. It's now as dead as a Power 5 college basketball program can be. And they don't appear to have any intention of doing anything about it. So what can you say?, And why would anyone donate to an NIL fund of such a program?
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Could not agree more.
 

Obviously we will improve some next year but I am tempering my expectations. The freshmen will improve and the new freshmen can help depth as well but I don’t see how the two injured forwards make us that much better next year. Neither one has shown a thing in their career so far at this level.
 


goldengophers said:
The administration treated this like Caltech for no apparent reason, in one of the best states for college basketball talent.
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I love the state talent, but it’s not even top 15 for basketball talent. So I don’t think I’d say it’s one of the best. There is some that can certainly be good foundational pieces
 

goldengophers said:
The administration treated this like Caltech for no apparent reason, in one of the best states for college basketball talent.
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I’m not so sure this is “one of the best states”

There has been a lot of high end talent in this state the past few years but there simply aren’t as many power 5 type players as many other states


In terms of players in the nba entering 2022 Minnesota was tied for 16th
Closer to 23rd than 9th
Equal distance from Delaware as Indiana in terms of number of players produced.
 
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Some guy said:
I’m not so sure this is “one of the best states”

There has been a lot of high end talent in this state the past few years but there simply aren’t as many power 5 type players as many other states


In terms of players in the nba entering 2022 Minnesota was tied for 16th
Closer to 23rd than 9th
Equal distance from Delaware as Indiana in terms of number of players produced.
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What the state is good for is the amount of talent locally versus the number of D1 schools in the state. Otherwise we are well down the list.
 

CentralGopher said:
Obviously we will improve some next year but I am tempering my expectations. The freshmen will improve and the new freshmen can help depth as well but I don’t see how the two injured forwards make us that much better next year. Neither one has shown a thing in their career so far at this level.
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You are an optimist.
 

I realize this is impossible, but -

It would be interesting to know what percentage of people are criticizing Ben Johnson strictly on his coaching performance, vs people who are criticizing Johnson because they see him as a "diversity hire" who didn't deserve the job.

to put it another way -
if you don't like Ben Johnson because you think he's a bad coach, well, that goes with the game.

but, if you don't like Ben Johnson because he's black - or you think the only reason he was hired is because he's black - that is a very different situation.

But, it's impossible to know that.
 

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