Big Ten basketball: Power ranking the league's coaches (14. Ben Johnson, Minnesota)

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per Saturday Tradition:

14. Ben Johnson, Minnesota​

In his 1st season in Minneapolis, Ben Johnson energized a program that was in need of a boost, having plateaued under former coach Richard Pitino. After a great non-conference run, although against lesser competition, Minnesota saw challenges during Big Ten play. Now in Year 2, Johnson will see if he can start to build a program that can once again compete day in and day out.

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Big Ten basketball: Power ranking the league's coaches

From No. 14 down to No. 1, we rank the B1G hoops coaches heading into the 2022-23 season.
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Go Gophers!!
 


14 or lower is about right. While last night is one game and we were missing Battle and Carrington, the fact is we are not a great team. This will be a long season, again...
 





cheeseheadgophfan said:
It's actually hard to argue.....B10 is loaded with experienced, successful coaches. They only two that you could even make an argument with are Collins and perhaps Hoiberg.
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Head to head in our only opportunities we lost to Nebraska and split with NW, so not much steam to get higher.
It seemed like it was too low but this year may make it “lower” in perception. Whole season to surprise. We are undefeated.
 

60's Guy said:
Head to head in our only opportunities we lost to Nebraska and split with NW, so not much steam to get higher.
It seemed like it was too low but this year may make it “lower” in perception. Whole season to surprise. We are undefeated.
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Losing to Penn State as well made this ranking easy '
 




fan of Ray Williams said:
Lower than 14 in a 14 team league? That is Spinal Tap territory.
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Indeed.
The ranking is fair. Last night showed that we presently don't have players who value each possession like we had last year.
We have more athleticism, but it's raw and inexperienced. Treyton Thompson showed us fools gold, hitting the first basket and then disappearing the rest of the night. He is still a defensive liability.
We simply have little depth and no margin for error. 14 is correct.
(I had 16 in my mind. I blame USC and UCLA for that. 🤯 I do appreciate the Spinal Tap reference. It made me laugh and hit my forehead at the same time.)
 

I really think that Johnson is a good coach, and they need to give him time to build a program. There are no shortcuts to building a program that is consistently competitive.
 

Spottedmuskie said:
Losing to Penn State as well made this ranking easy '
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You can't necessarily rank a coach based on a team's on-the-court performance... especially a first-year coach in a single throw away year.

I've said this once and I will say this one thousand times, a coaching staff of Coach K, Dean Smith, Bobby Knight, and the legendary John Wooden would not have done more with last year's roster than Johnson and company. Should their Hall of Fame credentials be revoked because of the win-loss record of one team?

Johnson doesn't deserve a higher ranking than #14 solely because of his limited period of performance. I think that last year's team punched above their weight and he has recruited well so far which leads me to believe that Johnson has some potential. However, I would give him an incomplete until we see what he can coax out of this team and how he incorporates the new level of talent next season.
 

Spaulding!No! said:
Ben got an extension.
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Yep... in his first year, he and the coaching staff took a roster of marginal talent and got them to work together as a team. It led to an undefeated non-conf record and a team that ran out of gas in the B1G.
 



ecoperson said:
You can't necessarily rank a coach based on a team's on-the-court performance... especially a first-year coach in a single throw away year.

I've said this once and I will say this one thousand times, a coaching staff of Coach K, Dean Smith, Bobby Knight, and the legendary John Wooden would not have done more with last year's roster than Johnson and company. Should their Hall of Fame credentials be revoked because of the win-loss record of one team?

Johnson doesn't deserve a higher ranking than #14 solely because of his limited period of performance. I think that last year's team punched above their weight and he has recruited well so far which leads me to believe that Johnson has some potential. However, I would give him an incomplete until we see what he can coax out of this team and how he incorporates the new level of talent next season.
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The only thing that matters for Johnson right now is that he has a vision for the type of basketball he wants his team to play and that he's able to recruit and develop players that fit into that system. Want to know why Wisconsin has been successful? Because of that. Ryan (and Gard) have had a consistent vision for the program and they've been successful in finding and developing players to execute that vision.
 

ecoperson said:
You can't necessarily rank a coach based on a team's on-the-court performance... especially a first-year coach in a single throw away year.

I've said this once and I will say this one thousand times, a coaching staff of Coach K, Dean Smith, Bobby Knight, and the legendary John Wooden would not have done more with last year's roster than Johnson and company. Should their Hall of Fame credentials be revoked because of the win-loss record of one team?

Johnson doesn't deserve a higher ranking than #14 solely because of his limited period of performance. I think that last year's team punched above their weight and he has recruited well so far which leads me to believe that Johnson has some potential. However, I would give him an incomplete until we see what he can coax out of this team and how he incorporates the new level of talent next season.
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I'm obviously biased, but I would have put Johnson infront of Hoiberg and Collins, perhaps in Penn State's guy too.
 

Even with the worst coach in the Big Ten, we can sign west-coast 5-stars. That's a good sign.
 

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