Ben Johnson is NOT a disaster....

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Bob_Loblaw said:
I'm going to be irrationally optimistic. They look good. The guards look genuinely good. We aren't beating teams just because we "got hot" and even our loss to Missouri felt like we were the much better team.
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I'm not irrationally optimistic but the rest I agree with and why I was particularly happy with the win last night. If it's one of those games DG or someone has 38 points you could chalk that up to a bit of luck. I didn't think anyone played way above their head last night and we won, that for me is a plus. A guy can have a bad night and we can still win.

Side note, I will enjoy this year even more if Iowa continues to be terrible and has like a 2-18 conference record! It annoys me to no end that they've been pretty good for this long.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Why not? Season is underway, nothing going to happen with the job right now. Will say this, think Payne can get better, Christie can get better, Ola-Joseph can get a lot better, Carrington can get better, maybe Ihnen.
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If it goes south, i'll have the rest of the year to sulk and complain. Everything else aside, when the Gophers are winning, I'm happy.
 



MNVCGUY said:
Lot of season left and things could go sideways....but from what I have seen to this point I don't see Johnson getting canned at the end of this season. I don't know if he will prove to be the guy but maybe.....just maybe.....he isn't the disaster that some have him pegged to be.
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Consider the following comments made during/after the win in Ann Arbor.....

"Still a long way to go, but this Gopher team is so very well coached and fundamentally sound."

"I need to see more apology threads regarding the Ben Johnson thread. Glad I had an open mind and gave him a shot"

"might lose, but this Johnson led team seems different than other gopher teams, kind of like Fleck teams have changed football"

"Coach Ben! A shrewd hire by Coyle!"

“They’re bigger, faster, stronger, more experienced and on paper, they’re just better. And they know it too. But I wanna tell you one thing that they don’t know. They don’t know your heart. I do. I’ve seen it.”

"Are we for real yet haters?"

The comments went on and on. These were comments made after the Michigan win two years ago. It becomes too easy to overreact to a single win or a single loss. We now know he lost 32 of the next 37 conference games. I don't think it is a particularly indefensible position to want to see a few more wins before declaring we have arrived given the overall track record. I'm happy with the way they are playing and hope it continues. But having this viewpoint does not make a person a "joyless asshat" as another poster cited in this thread. The "joyless asshats" are the posters that can't listen to other viewpoints.

EDIT: my comment is not really directed at you MNVCGUIY.
 



golfing18now said:
Consider the following comments made during/after the win in Ann Arbor.....

"Still a long way to go, but this Gopher team is so very well coached and fundamentally sound."

"I need to see more apology threads regarding the Ben Johnson thread. Glad I had an open mind and gave him a shot"

"might lose, but this Johnson led team seems different than other gopher teams, kind of like Fleck teams have changed football"

"Coach Ben! A shrewd hire by Coyle!"

“They’re bigger, faster, stronger, more experienced and on paper, they’re just better. And they know it too. But I wanna tell you one thing that they don’t know. They don’t know your heart. I do. I’ve seen it.”

"Are we for real yet haters?"

The comments went on and on. These were comments made after the Michigan win two years ago. It becomes too easy to overreact to a single win or a single loss. We now know he lost 32 of the next 37 conference games. I don't think it is a particularly indefensible position to want to see a few more wins before declaring we have arrived given the overall track record. I'm happy with the way they are playing and hope it continues. But having this viewpoint does not make a person a "joyless asshat" as another poster cited in this thread. The "joyless asshats" are the posters that can't listen to other viewpoints.

EDIT: my comment is not really directed at you MNVCGUIY.
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Thanks you joyless 🫏 🎩
🥳🥸🤓😀😃😄😁🤗
 


GopherBlood777 said:
I'm good with pithy comments, plenty others here with good insight. Let Spaulding do what he does best, we wouldn't want Payne taking 3's would we?
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I forgot, you’re the President of his fan club.

I’m a team poster , whose trying to coach him up, by stoking his competitive 🔥.

He’s wafting into diffidence.
 



golfing18now said:
Consider the following comments made during/after the win in Ann Arbor.....

"Still a long way to go, but this Gopher team is so very well coached and fundamentally sound."

"I need to see more apology threads regarding the Ben Johnson thread. Glad I had an open mind and gave him a shot"

"might lose, but this Johnson led team seems different than other gopher teams, kind of like Fleck teams have changed football"

"Coach Ben! A shrewd hire by Coyle!"

“They’re bigger, faster, stronger, more experienced and on paper, they’re just better. And they know it too. But I wanna tell you one thing that they don’t know. They don’t know your heart. I do. I’ve seen it.”

"Are we for real yet haters?"

The comments went on and on. These were comments made after the Michigan win two years ago. It becomes too easy to overreact to a single win or a single loss. We now know he lost 32 of the next 37 conference games. I don't think it is a particularly indefensible position to want to see a few more wins before declaring we have arrived given the overall track record. I'm happy with the way they are playing and hope it continues. But having this viewpoint does not make a person a "joyless asshat" as another poster cited in this thread. The "joyless asshats" are the posters that can't listen to other viewpoints.

EDIT: my comment is not really directed at you MNVCGUIY.
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No worries.....

In some ways this season does kind of resemble the way the 21-22 started before injuries and the complete lack of any talented size caught up with them and they fell apart.

But the teams themselves are totally different. That 21-22 team had some good guard play and Battle had a great year but the front court depth and talent was a nightmare. In the Big Ten they just didn't have the bodies to compete. It was pretty easy to see a collapse coming for that team once conference play really got going.

Fast forward to this year and we have a team with the size and skill up front to compete and although we are a little thin on guards so health will be key, the guys we have are playing really well.

If Hawkins and Mitchell can continue to play at a really high level this team is going to surprise some people. An NCAA tournament berth isn't out of the question although it is probably a longshot still.
 


Spaulding!No! said:
I don’t recall you touting Mitchell early in the season? Take care and enjoy the season.
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And you did?

I don’t recall a positive comment about CBJ and the program from you - if you did in that instance regarding Mitchell (bravo and you were right), then why not try to look for more positive examples?

I said from the beginning that I didn’t understand the hire, but regardless I would support him and the players, until he was no longer the coach.

I’m a fan of University of Minnesota athletics and all which thst entails; the good, bad and the ugly. I’m not sure what this season will amount to at this juncture, but it don’t look ugly to me thus far. It’s okay to be wrong. I am frequently and it’s also okay to celebrate the Ws when the come as well. 🤗
 
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A long time ago - probably in the other thread - I posted that I thought a modest threshold to show improvement was to be top 100 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. Going by t-rank, they were:

2021-22: 96th O, 143 D
2022-23: 216th O, 193 D

So far this year, they are 74th O, 103rd D.

Hats off. It's the right direction. Long ways to go to be actually good, but this is what I wanted to see.

ETA: I decided to go back and look at non-con only - it tells me there was false optimism built up in year 1 - changed dramatically in the conference season:

2021-22: 104th, 30th
2022-23: 308th, 122nd
2023-24: 86th, 92nd
 
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forever a gopher said:
LOL at the thread title. Yee of little memory. CBJ is 8-34 in B1G play. He will need to win 26 straight games just to get to .500.
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I always hate this argument. Holding the first 2 seasons against a coach who inherited a dumpster fire. A lot of guys quote overall record with no regard to how it's trending trending...I don't like that.

The 3rd season is when you start to get an idea.

Haskins, Fleck, etc.
 
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Bob_Loblaw said:
I'm going to be irrationally optimistic. They look good. The guards look genuinely good. We aren't beating teams just because we "got hot" and even our loss to Missouri felt like we were the much better team.
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What is overlooked is that we played 30 minutes of excellent basketball against Missouri. Both players and coaches collapsed under pressure to blow a 21-point lead. Everybody learned from that.
 


formerlybis said:
A long time ago - probably in the other thread - I posted that I thought a modest threshold to show improvement was to be top 100 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. Going by t-rank, they were:

2021-22: 96th O, 143 D
2022-23: 216th O, 193 D

So far this year, they are 74th O, 103rd D.

Hats off. It's the right direction. Long ways to go to be actually good, but this is what I wanted to see.

ETA: I decided to go back and look at non-con only - it tells me there was false optimism built up in year 1 - changed dramatically in the conference season:

2021-22: 104th, 30th
2022-23: 308th, 122nd
2023-24: 86th, 92nd
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This is the one thing that still gives me reserve going forward. And I am not saying this in any way to deminish the current progress or the outlook. This team is clearly better than anyone thought.

But having a defense that is only 103 in TR and 96 in KP while playing one of the softest schedules is what still gives me pause. A lot of the BIG10 is pretty blah so it may not matter. But its still a concern as the opponents keep getting consistently better.

Play to my comment in the Hawkins thread, hes objectively a massive upgrade. But him guarding bigger guards is part of that defensive concern. Along with most of our guys guarding big 10 MEN.
 

GopherBlood777 said:
I'm good with pithy comments, plenty others here with good insight. Let Spaulding do what he does best, we wouldn't want Payne taking 3's would we?
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It would be more like wishing Fox would take a three, get fouled and shoot three free throws.
 

golfing18now said:
Consider the following comments made during/after the win in Ann Arbor.....

"Still a long way to go, but this Gopher team is so very well coached and fundamentally sound."

"I need to see more apology threads regarding the Ben Johnson thread. Glad I had an open mind and gave him a shot"

"might lose, but this Johnson led team seems different than other gopher teams, kind of like Fleck teams have changed football"

"Coach Ben! A shrewd hire by Coyle!"

“They’re bigger, faster, stronger, more experienced and on paper, they’re just better. And they know it too. But I wanna tell you one thing that they don’t know. They don’t know your heart. I do. I’ve seen it.”

"Are we for real yet haters?"

The comments went on and on. These were comments made after the Michigan win two years ago. It becomes too easy to overreact to a single win or a single loss. We now know he lost 32 of the next 37 conference games. I don't think it is a particularly indefensible position to want to see a few more wins before declaring we have arrived given the overall track record. I'm happy with the way they are playing and hope it continues. But having this viewpoint does not make a person a "joyless asshat" as another poster cited in this thread. The "joyless asshats" are the posters that can't listen to other viewpoints.

EDIT: my comment is not really directed at you MNVCGUIY.
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You sound like a joyless asshat.
 






USAF said:
In the same post.

Ell-oh-ell
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Obviously you didn't understand the meaning. If you were a decent human being I'd explain it to you and maybe apologize for the lack of clarity in my writing but since you're a repellent piece of shit, I owe you nothing.
 
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golfing18now said:
Consider the following comments made during/after the win in Ann Arbor.....

"Still a long way to go, but this Gopher team is so very well coached and fundamentally sound."

"I need to see more apology threads regarding the Ben Johnson thread. Glad I had an open mind and gave him a shot"

"might lose, but this Johnson led team seems different than other gopher teams, kind of like Fleck teams have changed football"

"Coach Ben! A shrewd hire by Coyle!"

“They’re bigger, faster, stronger, more experienced and on paper, they’re just better. And they know it too. But I wanna tell you one thing that they don’t know. They don’t know your heart. I do. I’ve seen it.”

"Are we for real yet haters?"

The comments went on and on. These were comments made after the Michigan win two years ago. It becomes too easy to overreact to a single win or a single loss. We now know he lost 32 of the next 37 conference games. I don't think it is a particularly indefensible position to want to see a few more wins before declaring we have arrived given the overall track record. I'm happy with the way they are playing and hope it continues. But having this viewpoint does not make a person a "joyless asshat" as another poster cited in this thread. The "joyless asshats" are the posters that can't listen to other viewpoints.

EDIT: my comment is not really directed at you MNVCGUIY.
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Interesting data. Not the least bit surprising, honestly. Your point is taken.

That said, the way I see it, there are indeed a few “joyless asshats” here. These are the ones that are blatantly or thinly veiled-ly (?) rooting for failure, all in the name of — so they can assert they were right and “you” (generic) were wrong. As someone above said, they are dug in and it doesn’t matter that they actually want success. They have to root for failure.

It’s not unlike politics. You’ll see the same posting pattern on the off-topic board. Not incidentally, by many of the same posters……..🙁

Beat Maryland!! (But if we do, BJ still sucks, because Maryland sucks!) (Go Gophers!!!)
 
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TwistingMyMelon said:
Obviously you didn't understand the meaning. If you were a decent human being I'd explain it to you and maybe apologize for the lack of clarity in my writing but since you're a repellent piece of shit, I owe you nothing.
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Is there another kind?
 


stocker08 said:
Notice some of the 'Ben Johnson is a disaster' people shamelessly attempting to change their tune? A couple are "optimistic" now! lol.

:LOL:
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That’s a good sign that people will change their minds if given a reason to. Some still cling to insisting they are right, despite the team trending in a winning direction. Hopefully a successful January and February gives them the chance to grudgingly admit they were wrong.
 

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