Ben Johnson says Gophers hoping for postseason after Big Ten Tournament (video)

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FinnGopher said:
Ben shows us here that he has no plan for what he will do going forward. He's so terribly generic and undefined regarding what he will do going forward. I watch this and think there is no way he can be given another year.
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You are not wrong. What I am saying is that he appears to believe that he is back next year. I assume he and Coyle meet regularly....
 


bga1 said:
You are not wrong. What I am saying is that he appears to believe that he is back next year. I assume he and Coyle meet regularly....
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No matter what he believes is or is not going to happen next year, he is going to try and project confidence during interviews. I could be mistaken but while Coyle doesn't seem inclined to fire coaches during the season I believe he has done extensions in season many times.

So the fact that there has been no indication either way makes me think there is still a very good chance a coaching change happens after the season.

Good news is we are only a few days away from finally knowing for sure.
 

I wouldn't be surprised if he's back, just disappointed, especially if there's an early exit from the BTT. I could only justify it if there's an NC State type of run in the BTT. But I'm not betting the farm on that.
There is no shortage of qualified candidates that would leap at the chance to coach a Big Ten team. Tired of miring in mediocrity.
 

JZABR said:
I wouldn't be surprised if he's back, just disappointed, especially if there's an early exit from the BTT. I could only justify it if there's an NC State type of run in the BTT. But I'm not betting the farm on that.
There is no shortage of qualified candidates that would leap at the chance to coach a Big Ten team. Tired of miring in mediocrity.
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If they do bring Johnson back for year 5 he will need some massive wins in the portal to get people excited about next year. I would expect to see season ticket renewals tank even worse then they already have been and the Barn will be a ghost town.

I would love to see Ben Johnson succeed here but there is no way to spin the current trajectory of the team in any sort of positive way given what we are losing and what we currently have coming back.

The good news about basketball is that you can change your fortunes quickly with a few players....I'm just not convinced that Johnson would be able to get those players.
 

JZABR said:
I wouldn't be surprised if he's back, just disappointed, especially if there's an early exit from the BTT. I could only justify it if there's an NC State type of run in the BTT. But I'm not betting the farm on that.
There is no shortage of qualified candidates that would leap at the chance to coach a Big Ten team. Tired of miring in mediocrity.
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Let me know when they improve to mediocrity.
 



mngolf said:
Let me know when they improve to mediocrity.
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I think the last 2 seasons have pretty much been the definition of mediocre. We weren't at the bottom of the standings but also weren't in contention to win the conference or to make the NCAA tournament. Good enough to beat some decent teams but inconsistent enough to lose to bad teams as well.
 


MNVCGUY said:
If they do bring Johnson back for year 5 he will need some massive wins in the portal to get people excited about next year. I would expect to see season ticket renewals tank even worse then they already have been and the Barn will be a ghost town.

I would love to see Ben Johnson succeed here but there is no way to spin the current trajectory of the team in any sort of positive way given what we are losing and what we currently have coming back.

The good news about basketball is that you can change your fortunes quickly with a few players....I'm just not convinced that Johnson would be able to get those players.
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No chance of big wins in the portal. He might strike lightning once then pile garbage around the one player and we get a season like this one again. Keeping Ben is just delaying the inevitable.
 

CentralGopher said:
No chance of big wins in the portal. He might strike lightning once then pile garbage around the one player and we get a season like this one again. Keeping Ben is just delaying the inevitable.
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There is always a chance. Revenue sharing could shift things as well. But it is tough to have any confidence that Johnson would be able to get the players needed for a big turnaround because his track record in doing so has not been good over the past 4 seasons.

He has been able to land some good players from the portal but not enough of them to take the team to the upper portion of the Big Ten.
 



MNVCGUY said:
There is always a chance. Revenue sharing could shift things as well. But it is tough to have any confidence that Johnson would be able to get the players needed for a big turnaround because his track record in doing so has not been good over the past 4 seasons.

He has been able to land some good players from the portal but not enough of them to take the team to the upper portion of the Big Ten.
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The only chance Coyle brings him back is if he has assessed that he can give Johnson what he believes are the resources Ben needs. While I am still not optimistic that it would work…I am confident that no coach will succeed here without competitive financial backing.
 



MNVCGUY said:
I think the last 2 seasons have pretty much been the definition of mediocre. We weren't at the bottom of the standings but also weren't in contention to win the conference or to make the NCAA tournament. Good enough to beat some decent teams but inconsistent enough to lose to bad teams as well.
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Mediocre is being generous.

bga1 said:
The only chance Coyle brings him back is if he has assessed that he can give Johnson what he believes are the resources Ben needs. While I am still not optimistic that it would work…I am confident that no coach will succeed here without competitive financial backing.
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This.
 


JZABR said:
I wouldn't be surprised if he's back, just disappointed, especially if there's an early exit from the BTT. I could only justify it if there's an NC State type of run in the BTT. But I'm not betting the farm on that.
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Smart non-betting strategy since we are a combined 2-7 against the top 7 teams in the league. Possibly could rise to the occasion to beat one of them but it's very difficult to imagine beating two of them.
 

When will we get another wave of planted stories that tell us "Ben tries hard and should be given another year"?
 


MNVCGUY said:
There is always a chance. Revenue sharing could shift things as well. But it is tough to have any confidence that Johnson would be able to get the players needed for a big turnaround because his track record in doing so has not been good over the past 4 seasons.

He has been able to land some good players from the portal but not enough of them to take the team to the upper portion of the Big Ten.
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Name these so called good players. He’s gotten players that are flawed or one dimensional for the most part and would be a better fit as a role player than starters.
 


USAF said:
Over the past 3 or 4 weeks I've become more and more convinced Johnson is staying.
I hope like hell I'm wrong.
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He's probably back, with conditions...the 5 High has to die being one.
 

CentralGopher said:
Name these so called good players. He’s gotten players that are flawed or one dimensional for the most part and would be a better fit as a role player than starters.
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Garcia is the obvious one. Battle, Hawkins, Odukale, Patterson, Willis, Cooper, M. Mitchell, Fox. The last two for sure would probably be better served as bench options on good teams but Johnson has brought in a number of good solid players.

All of his rosters have had clear flaws and the results haven't been good enough but that doesn't change the fact that he has brought in some good transfers. Just not enough of them to get the team to the point where it was competitive with the top of the conference.

It's the main reason I would make the change after this year knowing that the roster is going to need to be rebuilt again and to this point Johnson has not shown an ability to get the players he needs to take the team to the next level.
 

Spottedmuskie said:
Hawkins, Battle, Garcia, etc
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Those are good/really good players but he's kinda right- even those three were one dimensional- Hawkins had a tough time defending Big Ten guards and could not finish in traffic, Battle, also not a good defender and Garcia, the best of the 3 only became a better defender this year. Garcia was great this year, no doubt. Hawkins was huge as a play maker who made everyone else better and greatly missed this year

Ben just never seemed to get that guy who could just beat others at the 2 or 3 position both as a shooter and going to the hoop and then be a stopper at the other end.
 

Off-GridTNgopher said:
Everyteam in the b1g gets revenue sharing. So while our $$ increase so.does theirs. And nothing Ben has been able to do would attract anyone to come here...
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What you said there is mostly true. But.....the U will now have an edge over teams from other conferences which allows us to compete for better players- if the U properly funds basketball.

There are a lot of good players out there if you can afford them.
 

bga1 said:
Those are good/really good players but he's kinda right- even those three were one dimensional- Hawkins had a tough time defending Big Ten guards and could not finish in traffic, Battle, also not a good defender and Garcia, the best of the 3 only became a better defender this year. Garcia was great this year, no doubt. Hawkins was huge as a play maker who made everyone else better and greatly missed this year

Ben just never seemed to get that guy who could just beat others at the 2 or 3 position both as a shooter and going to the hoop and then be a stopper at the other end.
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Every player has flaws in their game outside of a very very select few. That was the point Spotted and I were trying to make to the poster who made it out that Johnson hadn't brought in any good players from the portal....that simply isn't true. He has brought in a number of good players but has failed to assemble a complete roster that can truly compete with the best in the conference.
 

MNVCGUY said:
If they do bring Johnson back for year 5 he will need some massive wins in the portal to get people excited about next year. I would expect to see season ticket renewals tank even worse then they already have been and the Barn will be a ghost town.

I would love to see Ben Johnson succeed here but there is no way to spin the current trajectory of the team in any sort of positive way given what we are losing and what we currently have coming back.

The good news about basketball is that you can change your fortunes quickly with a few players....I'm just not convinced that Johnson would be able to get those players.
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Agree with all of this.
Unless 2+ big names in portal and/OR big name teams in non conference home schedule…it will be (more) desolate next year
 

Gilthorp57 said:
He's probably back, with conditions...the 5 High has to die being one.
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Let's run it back, you're great. Now totally change your offense. Yeah, that should go well. Please pull the plug, Mark.
 

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