Ben Johnson Post-Game Following Northwestern Loss

Donate To GopherHole
Ewert86PC said:
It's like he is afraid of what players will say about him. That not giving them enough playing time will come back to haunt him.

The tail is really wagging the dog.
Click to expand...
It is the same at the end of every season with Ben. There are a half dozen players that are effectively no longer part of the team.. What a garbage way to coach.. Notice that the game was lost and the bench is still not cleared. Good coaches always do that.
 

Minnesconsin fan said:
i coached enough basketball to TRY to not second guess coaches and their decisions. They are in practice every day, they are in the locker room, they are in the best position to make those decisions.
however- starting the 2nd half with the same group last night that started the game that poorly was less than ideal. I like Parker Fox, but he was giving up 6 inches and 40 pounds to the Northwestern player, - the only guy that matched up size-wise was Edmunds and he never got a minute. Frank gave his all but got gassed and still no Edmunds, so Ben tried to play small ball and gave up some more offensive rebounds
Rigsby still gets his trial minutes- if he makes a shot or does something well, he gets few more and that is it, but last night with Mitchell shooting poorly and also being just late on about 3 balls going out of bounds- try something new. More Rigsby or 2 minutes of Bettes, or 2 minutes of Williams with a green light-- try anything. Losing the same way is showing the fans that you are "stuck".

and i am by no means the guy to make decisions, because i admit until about mid-December i though Odukale didn't belong in the Big Ten either- but he has improved and proven me wrong.

Elijah Hawkins going into the portal late really cost this team and that happening late probably tied Coyle's hands on Johnson's job also.
The biggest question mark for me is how the U decides to allocate the $20 mil they have to spend on players-- are we a football and hockey school, with great olympic sports? or do we prop up the sports that need the most immediate help and have the biggest profiles?
Click to expand...

Great post! Doing the same things and failing with the same set of players who appear to be steadily running out of gas is very frustrating to watch. I tuned out after about 3 minutes into the second half yesterday. This team had earned some true goodwill after the LA trip but that was squandered completely in the two home games following. This team may still make the Big Ten tournament if they can win one more game but that might be due more to the weaknesses of the teams below them than anything else.

I guess my answer to your bolded question is: Yes, we are a football and hockey school and we should continue to assume that until we see some signs that the athletic department really does care about men's basketball.
 

bga1 said:
It is the same at the end of every season with Ben. There are a half dozen players that are effectively no longer part of the team.. What a garbage way to coach.. Notice that the game was lost and the bench is still not cleared. Good coaches always do that.
Click to expand...
Even if they weren't all seniors, half the team would transfer out and it would have little to do with NIL.
 

bga1 said:
It is the same at the end of every season with Ben. There are a half dozen players that are effectively no longer part of the team.. What a garbage way to coach.. Notice that the game was lost and the bench is still not cleared. Good coaches always do that.
Click to expand...
Only Garcia deserves an unconditional starting role and minutes. Everyone else should be on the table. No reason the 8, 9, 10 guys on the depth chart don't get at least a few minutes a game.
 

Minnesconsin fan said:
i coached enough basketball to TRY to not second guess coaches and their decisions. They are in practice every day, they are in the locker room, they are in the best position to make those decisions.
however- starting the 2nd half with the same group last night that started the game that poorly was less than ideal. I like Parker Fox, but he was giving up 6 inches and 40 pounds to the Northwestern player, - the only guy that matched up size-wise was Edmunds and he never got a minute. Frank gave his all but got gassed and still no Edmunds, so Ben tried to play small ball and gave up some more offensive rebounds
Rigsby still gets his trial minutes- if he makes a shot or does something well, he gets few more and that is it, but last night with Mitchell shooting poorly and also being just late on about 3 balls going out of bounds- try something new. More Rigsby or 2 minutes of Bettes, or 2 minutes of Williams with a green light-- try anything. Losing the same way is showing the fans that you are "stuck".

and i am by no means the guy to make decisions, because i admit until about mid-December i though Odukale didn't belong in the Big Ten either- but he has improved and proven me wrong.

Elijah Hawkins going into the portal late really cost this team and that happening late probably tied Coyle's hands on Johnson's job also.
The biggest question mark for me is how the U decides to allocate the $20 mil they have to spend on players-- are we a football and hockey school, with great olympic sports? or do we prop up the sports that need the most immediate help and have the biggest profiles?
Click to expand...
The predicted numbers for Big Ten schools are 78% to football, 15% to men's basketball, and the remaining 7% to all the non revenue teams. I haven't read or heard if individual schools will be allocating differently. I believe there is a slight variation from conference to conference.
 


I can understand criticism of the recruiting process, minus our lack of NIL money. Coaching is a different matter. This team simply is not athletically gifted enough to be competitive night in and night out. With the exception of Garcia it’s a team of role players. And the problem even with Garcia is you n eve know which Garcia will show up on any given day. He can b extremely passive at times.

Okaddale and Asuma are athletic, but Okadale can’t shoot and Asuma refuses to. The rest of the back court is slow, undersized and tentative. As for the front court it’s not much different. Garcia is the shortest 6’11” player in the league, and despite F. Mitchell and Fox’s best efforts neither can physically defend many centers, and neither has an offensive range that exceeds 3’.

While one can easily argue Johnson’s recruiting abilities, I don’t think his coaching is the issue here. No one could take this group and make it a top 5 of the conference contender. The talent just isn’t there.

Those calling for Rigsby, Williams, Bates et al to come to the rescue are being semi delusional. You are simply replacing one slow undersized BB player with another. You may find a very rare night where a Rigsby has a good game, but in the end, during g a long season a lack of talent is always exposed.

On a different level, I watched Cherry HS in the state tourney. I have never saw a team move the ball like they did at any level. Any BB coach must have been envious to watch it, and most would have tried to emulate it. While it can be taught, it can’t always be learned. That comes from not only the talent of the players, but from the mix of personalities. It remains a fact of the sporting life: Good players make good coaches. Or as we used to say on the farm, "you can’t make a silk purse out of a sows ear"!
 

Gopheritnow said:
I can understand criticism of the recruiting process, minus our lack of NIL money. Coaching is a different matter. This team simply is not athletically gifted enough to be competitive night in and night out. With the exception of Garcia it’s a team of role players. And the problem even with Garcia is you n eve know which Garcia will show up on any given day. He can b extremely passive at times.

Okaddale and Asuma are athletic, but Okadale can’t shoot and Asuma refuses to. The rest of the back court is slow, undersized and tentative. As for the front court it’s not much different. Garcia is the shortest 6’11” player in the league, and despite F. Mitchell and Fox’s best efforts neither can physically defend many centers, and neither has an offensive range that exceeds 3’.

While one can easily argue Johnson’s recruiting abilities, I don’t think his coaching is the issue here. No one could take this group and make it a top 5 of the conference contender. The talent just isn’t there.

Those calling for Rigsby, Williams, Bates et al to come to the rescue are being semi delusional. You are simply replacing one slow undersized BB player with another. You may find a very rare night where a Rigsby has a good game, but in the end, during g a long season a lack of talent is always exposed.

On a different level, I watched Cherry HS in the state tourney. I have never saw a team move the ball like they did at any level. Any BB coach must have been envious to watch it, and most would have tried to emulate it. While it can be taught, it can’t always be learned. That comes from not only the talent of the players, but from the mix of personalities. It remains a fact of the sporting life: Good players make good coaches. Or as we used to say on the farm, "you can’t make a silk purse out of a sows ear"!
Click to expand...
I agree with everything you're saying, but I've never seen a coach do a worse job at building some depth. It probably wouldn't matter this year, but we need to be able to find a way to steal some minutes with Williams, Rigsby, Betts, Edmonds, etc. Every single season we regress into a 7 man rotation.
 


Gopheritnow said:
Okaddale and Asuma are athletic, but Okadale can’t shoot and Asuma refuses to. The rest of the back court is slow, undersized and tentative. As for the front court it’s not much different. Garcia is the shortest 6’11” player in the league, and despite F. Mitchell and Fox’s best efforts neither can physically defend many centers, and neither has an offensive range that exceeds 3’.

On a different level, I watched Cherry HS in the state tourney. I have never saw a team move the ball like they did at any level. Any BB coach must have been envious to watch it, and most would have tried to emulate it. While it can be taught, it can’t always be learned. That comes from not only the talent of the players, but from the mix of personalities. It remains a fact of the sporting life: Good players make good coaches. Or as we used to say on the farm, "you can’t make a silk purse out of a sows ear"!
Click to expand...
Asuma is used to ball movement. That's why he doesn't shoot the ball right away. The Cherry offense might have been a product of the players but it most certainly was also a product of the coaching. Ben's offensive scheme- whatever it is....is terrible. There is no semblance of team play in it.
 



bga1 said:
Asuma is used to ball movement. That's why he doesn't shoot the ball right away. The Cherry offense might have been a product of the players but it most certainly was also a product of the coaching. Ben's offensive scheme- whatever it is....is terrible. There is no semblance of team play in it.
Click to expand...
Asuma will become more confident as he moves to upperclassman. He is surrounded by guys who are 5-8 years his senior and he looks to distribute first.
Every announcer raves about Asuma and his upward potential. If Asuma will stay around, the next coach has a solid point guard to build upon.
 

FinnGopher said:
Asuma will become more confident as he moves to upperclassman. He is surrounded by guys who are 5-8 years his senior and he looks to distribute first.
Every announcer raves about Asuma and his upward potential. If Asuma will stay around, the next coach has a solid point guard to build upon.
Click to expand...
We'll see. It does look like he's a freshman deferring to the upper classmen - deferring to the point of barely contributing. If he were distributing assists at a reasonable rate, that would be one thing, but he's not. He also turns it over too much for a supposed primary ballhandler. That's troubling because he has not really been asked to shoulder much of the ballhandling load and still turns it over.
 

FinnGopher said:
Asuma will become more confident as he moves to upperclassman. He is surrounded by guys who are 5-8 years his senior and he looks to distribute first.
Every announcer raves about Asuma and his upward potential. If Asuma will stay around, the next coach has a solid point guard to build upon.
Click to expand...
With or without Ben, I can't see a way Asuma is on this team next season.
 




Bob_Loblaw said:
I agree with everything you're saying, but I've never seen a coach do a worse job at building some depth. It probably wouldn't matter this year, but we need to be able to find a way to steal some minutes with Williams, Rigsby, Betts, Edmonds, etc. Every single season we regress into a 7 man rotation.
Click to expand...
Interestingly, Clem's bench and rotation increased as the season progressed and more and more players contributed, even in the post season tournaments. During the season bench guys improved and became contributors.
 


Gopheritnow said:
I can understand criticism of the recruiting process, minus our lack of NIL money. Coaching is a different matter. This team simply is not athletically gifted enough to be competitive night in and night out. With the exception of Garcia it’s a team of role players. And the problem even with Garcia is you n eve know which Garcia will show up on any given day. He can b extremely passive at times.

Okaddale and Asuma are athletic, but Okadale can’t shoot and Asuma refuses to. The rest of the back court is slow, undersized and tentative. As for the front court it’s not much different. Garcia is the shortest 6’11” player in the league, and despite F. Mitchell and Fox’s best efforts neither can physically defend many centers, and neither has an offensive range that exceeds 3’.

While one can easily argue Johnson’s recruiting abilities, I don’t think his coaching is the issue here. No one could take this group and make it a top 5 of the conference contender. The talent just isn’t there.

Those calling for Rigsby, Williams, Bates et al to come to the rescue are being semi delusional. You are simply replacing one slow undersized BB player with another. You may find a very rare night where a Rigsby has a good game, but in the end, during g a long season a lack of talent is always exposed.

On a different level, I watched Cherry HS in the state tourney. I have never saw a team move the ball like they did at any level. Any BB coach must have been envious to watch it, and most would have tried to emulate it. While it can be taught, it can’t always be learned. That comes from not only the talent of the players, but from the mix of personalities. It remains a fact of the sporting life: Good players make good coaches. Or as we used to say on the farm, "you can’t make a silk purse out of a sows ear"!
Click to expand...
It can be learned with effective coaching. You see all kinds of HS teams moving the ball extremely well and they do it year after year, even as the players change. Their athletic ability and skill level may vary so they don't make as many shots, defend as well, handle the ball, etc, but you see all kinds of programs where no matter who the players are they execute well year after year. It's simply coaching - teaching, drilling, and holding kids accountable to what you are doing.

Some coaches do it really well and experience success year after year even as the skill level of their players may vary. Yes, they adjust to the players they have, but the ability to teach concepts and implement those well doesn't change.
 

tikited said:
That has only worked with one player so far. Not sure they will pony up as much for Asuma.
Click to expand...
He won't get Garcia $$ but he will get a decent chunk. I also don't think the offers he gets from other schools will be blowing him away. I expect him to be back regardless of who the coach is.
 


bmb5270 said:
The predicted numbers for Big Ten schools are 78% to football, 15% to men's basketball, and the remaining 7% to all the non revenue teams. I haven't read or heard if individual schools will be allocating differently. I believe there is a slight variation from conference to conference.
Click to expand...
If it works the way it's been proposed and schools can't load up on NIL outside of the revenue sharing plan without a cap then things should even out. Schools like Texas A&M won't be able to pay players any more the Minnesota without breaking rules and doing it under the table. There won't be that much of a competitive advantage from one school to another and rosters should even out.
 

jovs said:
If it works the way it's been proposed and schools can't load up on NIL outside of the revenue sharing plan without a cap then things should even out. Schools like Texas A&M won't be able to pay players any more the Minnesota without breaking rules and doing it under the table. There won't be that much of a competitive advantage from one school to another and rosters should even out.
Click to expand...
I think you're being way too hopeful that schools won't be paying players under the table. If anything, there will be even more rule-breaking than before. A new culture has been established; and the NCAA's power has eroded.
 

Mulligan said:
I think you're being way too hopeful that schools won't be paying players under the table. If anything, there will be even more rule-breaking than before. A new culture has been established; and the NCAA's power has eroded.
Click to expand...
Yeah....especially in basketball....if they try and crack down they will just go back to the old way of paying guys under the table instead of the new way which allows it to be right out in the open.
 

jovs said:
If it works the way it's been proposed and schools can't load up on NIL outside of the revenue sharing plan without a cap then things should even out. Schools like Texas A&M won't be able to pay players any more the Minnesota without breaking rules and doing it under the table. There won't be that much of a competitive advantage from one school to another and rosters should even out.
Click to expand...
Revenue sharing is completely separate from NIL, no?
 

This season has once again become a long exercise in frustration, with moments of unbridled joy. The eye test from afar has MN transfers underperforming, inconsistent, and what was supposed to be a decent-to-good shooting team once again hasn't panned out. Not sure why CBJ hasn't given minutes to Betts, as he was praised incessantly for his skill, length, and work ethic. His loyalty to CBJ at this point seems misplaced. Edmond's minutes evaporated as well despite his decent physicality. Admittedly, he shoots 50% from 3-foot range and misses FTs, but so do others. The team performance thus far seems like a macrocosm of Odukale--moments of terrific effort followed by head-scratching blunders. I fully understand that we play opponents that also want to win, and coaches that scout, but underwhelming efforts at home have blown up my interest, and hopes of a strong finish of playing UNC in the NIT. ;)

This team was advertised as old, experienced, and would know how to win close games without the developmental curve that other teams had to overcome. Don't see much of that. At their worst, there is miscommunication, inconsistency, unnecessary technicals, missed coverages, free throw problems, short bench, fatigue, and general mental midgetry.

Thankfully, in today's climate, a team can be built from year to year. Hopefully MN basketball uses the addn'l $3-3.5M coming to bring in guys that can play at a consistent level. This season's game success/failures have been about 70% on the players skill/judgment, and 30% on the coaches in my peanut gallery opinion. Someone please bring a light of positivity to the remainder of this season... Beat Wisconsin?...
 

USAF said:
Revenue sharing is completely separate from NIL, no?
Click to expand...
I think the NCAA is trying to say this "cap" can apply to all compensation. But I also think they will lose in court when someone sues, which is inevitable.
 


MNVCGUY said:
Yeah....especially in basketball....if they try and crack down they will just go back to the old way of paying guys under the table instead of the new way which allows it to be right out in the open.
Click to expand...
Kentucky still has plenty of spare FedEx boxes to stuff with cash.
 

howeda7 said:
I think the NCAA is trying to say this "cap" can apply to all compensation. But I also think they will lose in court when someone sues, which is inevitable.
Click to expand...
Source?
NIL isn't derived from university revenues. I don't think it's connected to revenue sharing.
Nor, as you suggest, would such a connection be likely to withstand a legal challenge. Courts have determined college athletes are legally entitled to sell their name, image and likeness. I don't see how revenue sharing changes that.

I could be wrong, but I can't find anything that says NIL is going away. And for that matter, DTA seems to still be signing athletes for the 25-26 season, at least in football.
 

tikited said:
That has only worked with one player so far. Not sure they will pony up as much for Asuma.
Click to expand...
He's a rural Minnesota kid and comes from a community where loyalty and keeping commitments are still important. His brother is also on scholly to play baseball for the U and his cousin, who is a HS soph, will likely get a good look from the U. Isaac isn't going anywhere as long as he's getting compensated fairly, he won't bolt for the highest bidder. He's a high character kid.
I'm only a couple degrees of separation from his family, which is why I'm very confident he's not going anywhere. Especially considering his playing time should skyrocket next season.
 

USAF said:
Source?
NIL isn't derived from university revenues. I don't think it's connected to revenue sharing.
Nor, as you suggest, would such a connection be likely to withstand a legal challenge. Courts have determined college athletes are legally entitled to sell their name, image and likeness. I don't see how revenue sharing changes that.

I could be wrong, but I can't find anything that says NIL is going away. And for that matter, DTA seems to still be signing athletes for the 25-26 season, at least in football.
Click to expand...
Dan Patrick was talking about it today. Essentially schools would agree that the $$ they're "associated with" would be capped at this $21 million.

So NIL collectives could no longer be directed by the schools unless that $$ was part of the capped amount. As others have said it would essentially drive NIL back underground and coaches "coordinating" with NIL collectives would be cheating again etc. A poor attempt to put the horse back in the barn.

I also personally think there's no way this goes into effect on July 1st as planned. Just in the last two months the Department of Education (Biden's and then Trump's) issued conflicting statements about whether this is subject to title IX etc. There will be lawsuits. They'll be lucky to have it resolved for July 1, 2026, but 2025 is not happening IMO. That's also why this is zero excuse to kick the can one more year with Ben.
 
Last edited:

howeda7 said:
Dan Patrick was talking about it today. Essentially schools would agree that the $$ they're "associated with" would be capped at this $21 million.

So NIL collectives could no longer be directed by the schools unless that $$ was part of the capped amount. As others have said it would essentially drive NIL back underground and coaches "coordinating" with NIL collectives would be cheating again etc. A poor attempt to put the horse back in the barn.
Click to expand...
Yea, more like putting the toothpaste back in the tube!
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom