Ben Johnson is a Disaster

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GopherBlood777 said:
She replied to others commenting on her tweet and it felt like she was implying that the Barn is part of the problem and also the changing landscape of college basketball. Someone commented that winning will fill the barn again. Her reply was, "It's so much deeper than that. And the Gophers have only lost one game this year" As Spaulding says, once you start blaming the arena, the coach has got to go.
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Nadine's dug in because of the politics of the entire thing. She wants Ben to be successful to shove it in the faces of the people who thought he wasn't qualified (you know, because they were obviously racist for thinking that).

It's what has made this hire so unusual and is the reason for the CBJ's weird little group of apologists - not all of them - but many of them have just dug in politically.
 

Gophers1992 said:
That's so absurd I can't believe I'm even addressing it. Gopher fans love the barn. Win and it will fill up. It may or may not hamper our recruiting, but it is not driving away fans in significant numbers.
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Mmm, not all.
 



Bad Gopher said:
The broadcast said Ben is "starting to build it." That's what I'm going with. I'm buying the hype. That's all we have at this point, I think.
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The west coast announcers were incredibly kind to the Gophers.

I’d buy “he’s building it” if I could see in any small way what he’s building or even what he is trying to build.
 

The team continues to lose and doesn't draw at Williams Arena. Maybe the new president fires the AD and the basketball and football coach. We can only hope.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Nadine's dug in because of the politics of the entire thing. She wants Ben to be successful to shove it in the faces of the people who thought he wasn't qualified (you know, because they were obviously racist for thinking that).

It's what has made this hire so unusual and is the reason for the CBJ's weird little group of apologists - not all of them - but many of them have just dug in politically.
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In the case of media, though, it's partly needing to maintain good relations with who you're covering. That and genuinely liking the person you're covering, so it becomes a sweetheart situation.
 

Holy Man said:
The west coast announcers were incredibly kind to the Gophers.

I’d buy “he’s building it” if I could see in any small way what he’s building or even what he is trying to build.
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Obviously the program has been bombed back to the stone age, even compared to the previous regime, but the media narrative with someone who's shit the bed like this is always that he's rebuilding. I mean, hell, I remember 2 or 3 years into the Gutekunst regime, he was talking about how he's just now getting this thing built where he wanted it...and the media was eating it up. I know Holtz took some of his coaches and recruits with him, but that wasn't a rebuild.
 



Bad Gopher said:
In the case of media, though, it's partly needing to maintain good relations with who you're covering. That and genuinely liking the person you're covering, so it becomes a sweetheart situation.
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Yeah, it’s tough. There are just some people who treat Ben with kid gloves like I’ve never seen. The same media types didn’t have kid gloves with Brew and Brew was considerably more successful than Ben Johnson. But I do think you’re right with Ben being a good guy and that going a long way. I catch myself feeling bad for him and cheering for him personally even though I don’t want him to be our coach.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Yeah, it’s tough. There are just some people who treat Ben with kid gloves like I’ve never seen. The same media types didn’t have kid gloves with Brew and Brew was considerably more successful than Ben Johnson. But I do think you’re right with Ben being a good guy and that going a long way. I catch myself feeling bad for him and cheering for him personally even though I don’t want him to be our coach.
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A lot of us feel the exact same way. Terrific person. Was hoping beyond hope he could get it figured out, but I just don't see it happening. I would enthusiastically welcome having to eat a whole plate of crow if by some miracle this thing starts going in the right direction.
 

DarthGopher said:
A lot of us feel the exact same way. Terrific person. Was hoping beyond hope he could get it figured out, but I just don't see it happening. I would enthusiastically welcome having to eat a whole plate of crow if by some miracle this thing starts going in the right direction.
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I actually have spent a little time with Ben before he got this job and so was hopeful he could do it, albeit a little skeptical. Despite all that, I just don't know how you can argue with the results. That's the thing about sports, at the end of the day it's pretty easy to measure whether someone was successful.
 

GopherBlood777 said:
She replied to others commenting on her tweet and it felt like she was implying that the Barn is part of the problem and also the changing landscape of college basketball. Someone commented that winning will fill the barn again. Her reply was, "It's so much deeper than that. And the Gophers have only lost one game this year" As Spaulding says, once you start blaming the arena, the coach has got to go.
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This was posted 5 days ago.

Other than “it’s so much deeper than that”, she literally said none of that.
 



Holy Man said:
The west coast announcers were incredibly kind to the Gophers.

I’d buy “he’s building it” if I could see in any small way what he’s building or even what he is trying to build.
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Perhaps he’s “resetting“ it.
 

Gold Vision said:
This was posted 5 days ago.

Other than “it’s so much deeper than that”, she literally said none of that.
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I'm sick and tired of writers and reporters being vague and implying they have secret knowledge that they don't share. It's just another version of someone asserting to be the smartest person in the room.
 

Gold Vision said:
This was posted 5 days ago.

Other than “it’s so much deeper than that”, she literally said none of that.
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She absolutely blamed the changing landscape of college basketball instead of acknowledging the current coach has been completely underwhelming.



She also mentioned how she attempted 4 times to give away tickets for free to the most recent game. If you are not acknowledging the coach and product he provides are to blame for the low attendance, then what would be to blame? The only thing I can think of would be the arena that the games are played in. Please advise if you have a better idea on what could be implied.
 

GopherBlood777 said:
She absolutely blamed the changing landscape of college basketball instead of acknowledging the current coach has been completely underwhelming.



She also mentioned how she attempted 4 times to give away tickets for free to the most recent game. If you are not acknowledging the coach and product he provides are to blame for the low attendance, then what would be to blame? The only thing I can think of would be the arena that the games are played in. Please advise if you have a better idea on what could be implied.
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If they put out a decent product and played some compelling non-conference games, things would be different. We are not a competitive basketball program, it goes a long way. It goes a much longer way than any of the other things people are insinuating. Of course, she knows that, it's why she won't come out and say what those things are. It's like how so many scary movies become less scary when you see the monster.

I had TWolves season tickets for years - the brutal years. I could not give away tickets even when my pitch was "park at my place and by the second quarter you can walk down to the really good seats and see "Ray Allen" for free". I have friends who still have season tickets, they don't have that same kind of trouble.
 

We still have people defending Johnson?! Lmao. It has never been EASIER to have a quick turnaround in this day and age. Since Johnson was hired, here are the programs that have made the tournament in either year one or year two of a coaching tenure: Wyoming, Marquette, UAB, Loyola Chicago, Iowa State, Mississippi State, Missouri, Utah State, Kansas State, Xavier, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, FDU, Charleston and Penn State. Stop with the lame excuses of him taking over in the NIL/Portal era. All these programs had the same thing. Dude just isn't a good coach, unfortunately.
 

Bad Gopher said:
I'm sick and tired of writers and reporters being vague and implying they have secret knowledge that they don't share. It's just another version of someone asserting to be the smartest person in the room.
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Which could never be true if either you or I were in the room! 😂
 

In the Portal/NIL Era, the leash on coaches should be shorter, not longer.

In the old days, you should give a coach a full recruiting cycle (at least 4 years) to turn a team around. Now 3 should be the new minimum. You should be able to show that you can bring in and retain talent. Along with improving through the portal.

CBJ has done maybe one of the three.
 


I was never a Mike Lynn fan. The decline of the Vikings and the end of their first championship-contending era was on him 100 percent. But I did respect the courage he showed in firing Les Steckel after one season. There was no way that was going to work, and he and we all knew it, and there was no reason to continue with the charade, even if it meant admitting that he erred in hiring the guy.

I realize that college and pro are different, but the objective is the same when you make a coaching hire: find someone who will be in the hall of fame someday. Anything short of that is selling yourself short. The next Bo Ryan or Brian Dutcher is out there; you just have to find him or her. And once you've kissed a frog and realize that it's still a frog, you know what you're eventually going to have to do. Don't deceive yourself.
 

Bad Gopher said:
I was never a Mike Lynn fan. The decline of the Vikings and the end of their first championship-contending era was on him 100 percent. But I did respect the courage he showed in firing Les Steckel after one season. There was no way that was going to work, and he and we all knew it, and there was no reason to continue with the charade, even if it meant admitting that he erred in hiring the guy.

I realize that college and pro are different, but the objective is the same when you make a coaching hire: find someone who will be in the hall of fame someday. Anything short of that is selling yourself short. The next Bo Ryan or Brian Dutcher is out there; you just have to find him or her. And once you've kissed a frog and realize that it's still a frog, you know what you're eventually going to have to do. Don't deceive yourself.
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Spot on.

And the exact reason we should already be in year one of the next try at finding the right guy.
 

Gophers7633 said:
We still have people defending Johnson?! Lmao. It has never been EASIER to have a quick turnaround in this day and age. Since Johnson was hired, here are the programs that have made the tournament in either year one or year two of a coaching tenure: Wyoming, Marquette, UAB, Loyola Chicago, Iowa State, Mississippi State, Missouri, Utah State, Kansas State, Xavier, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, FDU, Charleston and Penn State. Stop with the lame excuses of him taking over in the NIL/Portal era. All these programs had the same thing. Dude just isn't a good coach, unfortunately.
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The CBJ Protection Detail has been in overdrive since it was announced he was the coach. Not going to ever change, right up until he is received of his duties.
 

Gophers7633 said:
We still have people defending Johnson?! Lmao. It has never been EASIER to have a quick turnaround in this day and age. Since Johnson was hired, here are the programs that have made the tournament in either year one or year two of a coaching tenure: Wyoming, Marquette, UAB, Loyola Chicago, Iowa State, Mississippi State, Missouri, Utah State, Kansas State, Xavier, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, FDU, Charleston and Penn State. Stop with the lame excuses of him taking over in the NIL/Portal era. All these programs had the same thing. Dude just isn't a good coach, unfortunately.
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As mentioned above, I think Johnson has to go, but it's not fair to include auto bids in low major conferences to what it takes to get to the Tournament in the Big Ten. But the Power 5 examples are good ones.
 

justthefacts said:
As mentioned above, I think Johnson has to go, but it's not fair to include auto bids in low major conferences to what it takes to get to the Tournament in the Big Ten. But the Power 5 examples are good ones.
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OK, that eliminates Loyola, TAMU-CC, FDU and Charleston.

I would keep Wyoming & Utah State. The MWC is a Multi-bid conferences.

Xavier is in the Big East, which is the 6th power conference for BB purposes.
 

justthefacts said:
As mentioned above, I think Johnson has to go, but it's not fair to include auto bids in low major conferences to what it takes to get to the Tournament in the Big Ten. But the Power 5 examples are good ones.
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It absolutely is fair given what those coaches took over. FDU was a 4 win team the year before Anderson took over. That's impressive and he beat Purdue, when we got run out of the gym by them. Texas A&M-CC was a 5 win team, got a new coach won 23 games and made the tournament. Charleston was a 9 win team, two years later they were at 31 and made the tournament.
 

Gophers7633 said:
It absolutely is fair given what those coaches took over. FDU was a 4 win team the year before Anderson took over. That's impressive and he beat Purdue, when we got run out of the gym by them. Texas A&M-CC was a 5 win team, got a new coach won 23 games and made the tournament. Charleston was a 9 win team, two years later they were at 31 and made the tournament.
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Charleston has a new coach. The guy was one of the hottest coaches in America. He came from Winthrop where he had a long track record of huge winning.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/coaches/pat-kelsey-1.html

Side note on Pat Kelsey, he recently signed a 5 year extension and he only makes ~1.1M a year with a 1M buyout...go get him Coyle! https://www.espn.com/mens-college-b...signs-hoops-coach-pat-kelsey-5-year-extension

Charleston really screwed up by taking a guy with a proven track record....what were they thinking!
 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
Charleston has a new coach. The guy was one of the hottest coaches in America. He came from Winthrop where he had a long track record of huge winning.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/coaches/pat-kelsey-1.html

Side note on Pat Kelsey, he recently signed a 5 year extension and he only makes ~1.1M a year with a 1M buyout...go get him Coyle! https://www.espn.com/mens-college-b...signs-hoops-coach-pat-kelsey-5-year-extension

Charleston really screwed up by taking a guy with a proven track record....what were they thinking!
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There are about 250 D1 coaches that would be an upgrade over CBJ. He's one of the many.
 


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