Ben Johnson - SI's Coach of the Year for the Non-Con Season 🏀😊🏀😊

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Full Speed Ahead

Full Speed Ahead

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We're rolling and making some noise. Here's a blub from the Sports Illustrated article, Nonconference Superlatives: The Best and Worst of College Hoops So Far​

Best coach: Ben Johnson, Minnesota​

I expected nothing from Minnesota in Year 1 under Johnson, who surprisingly got the head job at his alma mater directly from being an assistant at Xavier. Handing a first-time head coach the least talented roster in the Big Ten felt like a recipe for disaster. Instead, Johnson has done a remarkable job getting the most out of a roster with clear limitations. The Golden Gophers have little to no depth, lack size up front and didn’t have a proven starting-caliber Big Ten player on their roster in the preseason. What he has gotten out of transfers Payton Willis (College of Charleston) and Jamison Battle (George Washington) has been incredibly impressive, and Johnson has done a great job game-planning around his team’s limitations to put a disciplined group that never beats itself on the floor. In the preseason, I would have been slightly surprised if Minnesota won 10 games all season. For it to have 10 wins before Christmas and be in position to go dancing? That’s Coach of the Year material.
 
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Full Speed Ahead said:

We're rolling and making some noise. Here's a blub from the Sports Illustrated article, Nonconference Superlatives: The Best and Worst of College Hoops So Far​

Best coach: Ben Johnson, Minnesota​

I expected nothing from Minnesota in Year 1 under Johnson, who surprisingly got the head job at his alma mater directly from being an assistant at Xavier. Handing a first-time head coach the least talented roster in the Big Ten felt like a recipe for disaster. Instead, Johnson has done a remarkable job getting the most out of a roster with clear limitations. The Golden Gophers have little to no depth, lack size up front and didn’t have a proven starting-caliber Big Ten player on their roster in the preseason. What he has gotten out of transfers Payton Willis (College of Charleston) and Jamison Battle (George Washington) has been incredibly impressive, and Johnson has done a great job game-planning around his team’s limitations to put a disciplined group that never beats itself on the floor. In the preseason, I would have been slightly surprised if Minnesota won 10 games all season. For it to have 10 wins before Christmas and be in position to go dancing? That’s Coach of the Year material.
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More ELITE than the hack whose our FB coach!
 

Perhaps splitting a couple of hairs, but the article suggests he was handed the roster. We know of course that a big part of his success was identifying guys who would work in his system in this situation. That may be Bens greatest success so far and they either don’t know or ignore it. He wasn’t handed a roster. He chose it.
 

Holy Man said:
Perhaps splitting a couple of hairs, but the article suggests he was handed the roster. We know of course that a big part of his success was identifying guys who would work in his system in this situation. That may be Bens greatest success so far and they either don’t know or ignore it. He wasn’t handed a roster. He chose it.
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Fair point. One thing the early season has proven is that Johnson knew what he was looking for in the portal and went out and got it for the most part. Shame we don't get to see the roster he created at full strength with Fox/Ihnen, but the returns on a group of players from lower level schools has been impressive to say the least.
 


This is high praise considering what Otzelberger has done at ISU.
 

Holy Man said:
Perhaps splitting a couple of hairs, but the article suggests he was handed the roster. We know of course that a big part of his success was identifying guys who would work in his system in this situation. That may be Bens greatest success so far and they either don’t know or ignore it. He wasn’t handed a roster. He chose it.
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think it was a figure of speech more than anything
 

Maybe some day he will be Big Ten Coach of the Year!
 
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