CBJ on Coyle: He knows we've done it the right way. He knows we took the right step last year. I told him we're trying to move the needle every day.

[BleedGopher]

Per Marcus' Q&A:

Q: What have your conversations with athletics director Mark Coyle been like this offseason after a 10-win improvement in Year 3?

A: Mark and I obviously talk all of the time and have a great relationship. I'm just really appreciative of his leadership, especially through this new NIL space and through the expansion of the Big Ten. I consume myself with doing the best job he hired me to do. He understands that. He's been very supportive and appreciates the steps we've taken. He knows we've done it the right way. He knows we took the right step last year. I just told him we're just trying to move the needle every day.

Q: Will your primary point guards be Mitchell, transfer Lu'Cye Patterson and freshman Isaac Asuma?

A: Yes. But then you have Brennan [Rigsby] who is off the ball but can handle it. Caleb [Williams] and Femi [Odukale] can handle it. We've got a lot more ballhandlers. Femi with his size [6-6 and 205 pounds] reminds me of a player I had at Xavier named Naji Marshall [now plays in the NBA]. He's a bigger guard who can play in a big or small lineup. He can play in pick-and-rolls because he's an unselfish passer and has [vision]. We're dynamic at a lot of places. We can put five guys on the court who can dribble, pass, and shoot. We're looking to get back to being an offensive team with skill all over the place.

More:

Ben Johnson Q&A: Sizing up a remade Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball roster

With summer practice starting next week, Gophers men's basketball coach Ben Johnson is preparing a team that went through big changes, including several new transfers.

www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[Spaulding!No!]

‘Mark and I obviously talk all the time.’ Please hear what I am not saying.

 

[TwistingMyMelon]

"We can put five guys on the court who can dribble, pass, and shoot."

Can he put five guys on the court who can shoot free throws?

 

[TwistingMyMelon]

‘Mark and I obviously talk all the time.’ Please hear what I am not saying.

What do you expect him to say?

 

[Spaulding!No!]

St

What do you expect him to say?

The statement is a touch on the nose

 

[WCGopher]

Found this snippet in an article about Hurley and the Lakers. Talking about the importance of coaches in college basketball:

“College basketball is and always will be about its coaches. Players win games. Coaches win titles. Fit, culture and all of those words people love to throw around have nothing to do with the brick and mortar of a place and everything to do with the guy in charge. That’s why you rarely see outliers winning titles. Aside from Kevin Ollie, the list of championship-winning coaches in the past 20 years reads: Hurley, Bill Self, Scott Drew, Tony Bennett, Jay Wright, Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski, Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Jim Calhoun, Billy Donovan, Jim Boeheim.”

 

[EasyThere Pilgrim]

Found this snippet in an article about Hurley and the Lakers. Talking about the importance of coaches in college basketball:

“College basketball is and always will be about its coaches. Players win games. Coaches win titles. Fit, culture and all of those words people love to throw around have nothing to do with the brick and mortar of a place and everything to do with the guy in charge. That’s why you rarely see outliers winning titles. Aside from Kevin Ollie, the list of championship-winning coaches in the past 20 years reads: Hurley, Bill Self, Scott Drew, Tony Bennett, Jay Wright, Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski, Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Jim Calhoun, Billy Donovan, Jim Boeheim.”

Absolute rubbish.

 

[Costa Rican Gopher]

Q: Will your primary point guards be Mitchell, transfer Lu'Cye Patterson and freshman Isaac Asuma?

A: Yes. But then you have Brennan [Rigsby] who is off the ball but can handle it. Caleb [Williams] and Femi [Odukale] can handle it. We've got a lot more ballhandlers. Femi with his size [6-6 and 205 pounds] reminds me of a player I had at Xavier named Naji Marshall [now plays in the NBA]. He's a bigger guard who can play in a big or small lineup. He can play in pick-and-rolls because he's an unselfish passer and has [vision]. We're dynamic at a lot of places. We can put five guys on the court who can dribble, pass, and shoot. We're looking to get back to being an offensive team with skill all over the place.

Point guard by committee. Pretty much what most of us imagined. The million dollar question is who guards the other team's PG?

Sounds like he's very high on Odukale!

 

[Gopherbbdude]

‘Mark and I obviously talk all the time.’ Please hear what I am not saying.

Good lord insert eye roll

 

[Gopherbbdude]

Found this snippet in an article about Hurley and the Lakers. Talking about the importance of coaches in college basketball:

“College basketball is and always will be about its coaches. Players win games. Coaches win titles. Fit, culture and all of those words people love to throw around have nothing to do with the brick and mortar of a place and everything to do with the guy in charge. That’s why you rarely see outliers winning titles. Aside from Kevin Ollie, the list of championship-winning coaches in the past 20 years reads: Hurley, Bill Self, Scott Drew, Tony Bennett, Jay Wright, Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski, Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Jim Calhoun, Billy Donovan, Jim Boeheim.”

was the case...not anymore. all about the $$$

 

[Spaulding!No!]

Ben having his best year and no raise or extension was given speaks volumes. The boss has told him - this is it.

 

[Sane24]

Ben having his best year and no raise or extension was given speaks volumes. The boss has told him - this is it.

The boss figured that if he DID give Ben a raise or extension, he would be putting HIS OWN job on the line.

 

[Gopher_In_NYC]

Ben having his best year and no raise or extension was given speaks volumes. The boss has told him - this is it.

Good point.

The landscape has changed, but such is life.

Real Tourney or New Coach!!
I’m giving us about 33% chance to make it. I think if he makes it, more NIL cash will come in.

 

[EasyThere Pilgrim]

Ben having his best year and no raise or extension was given speaks volumes. The boss has told him - this is it.

Can you imagine this conversation.

Ben pleading with Coyle to find a way to at least make an offer in the ballpark to keep Payne, Hawkins, & Christie.

Coyle saying no. Making an offer of less than half of what other teams are. And denying any money for new replacements.

And then Coyle saying "Oh, and by the way...you're fired if you don't improve this year."

 

[EasyThere Pilgrim]

Real Tourney or New Coach!!
I’m giving us about 33% chance to make it. I think if he makes it, more NIL cash will come in.

So first....win big with a farm-team.

And second....start paying keep good players on the team??

This seems like backwards logic to me.

But if it works...it's Final Four time!!! Imagine how good our NCAA farm-team will be when we actually start paying!!

 

[short ornery norwegian]

Can you imagine this conversation.

Ben pleading with Coyle to find a way to at least make an offer in the ballpark to keep Payne, Hawkins, & Christie.

Coyle saying no. Making an offer of less than half of what other teams are. And denying any money for new replacements.

And then Coyle saying "Oh, and by the way...you're fired if you don't improve this year."

that is not Coyle's job - at least not if you care about trying to follow the rules. Coyle cannot make direct NIL offers to players or recruits. the offer has to come from Dinkytown Athletes.

Coyle can play a role in helping attract donors who give to Dinkytown Athletes, but he cannot directly solicit donations and he cannot make decisions about which players receive money - and how much money.

if Ben was pleading with anyone, it would have been with Burns and Gag who run DA to see if they could find the money.

the U of MN has made a policy decision that they are going to play by the rules. you make think the rules are silly, and the Gophers should just ignore the rules, but you'll have to take that up with the Administration.

 

[bga1]

that is not Coyle's job - at least not if you care about trying to follow the rules. Coyle cannot make direct NIL offers to players or recruits. the offer has to come from Dinkytown Athletes.

What are you smoking? The school definitely coordinates with DTA on who to offer money to.

Coyle can play a role in helping attract donors who give to Dinkytown Athletes, but he cannot directly solicit donations and he cannot make decisions about which players receive money - and how much money.

The coach makes the decisions about which players he wants to get money. The AD is very likely involved in oversight.

if Ben was pleading with anyone, it would have been with Burns and Gag who run DA to see if they could find the money.

The athletic department was making phone calls to solicit......

the U of MN has made a policy decision that they are going to play by the rules. you make think the rules are silly, and the Gophers should just ignore the rules, but you'll have to take that up with the Administration.

The rules are gray. When the rules are gray you have to play it aggressively or you lose.

 

[Off-GridTNgopher]

What are you smoking? The school definitely coordinates with DTA on who to offer money to.

The coach makes the decisions about which players he wants to get money. The AD is very likely involved in oversight.

The athletic department was making phone calls to solicit......

The rules are gray. When the rules are gray you have to play it aggressively or you lose.

And what have you seen that says the u is being aggressive

 

[bga1]

And what have you seen that says the u is being aggressive

Nothing

 

[Slim Tubby]

It's hard to move a needle every day when it's lost in a haystack.

Rebuilding every year will put our ceiling around 8-10 Conference wins and that simply won't be enough to sustain this program with the fans. Attendance is going to continue to plummet, and with it, so will our revenue.

Ben's fault? Absolutely not...but he never should've been hired to begin with. Also not Ben's fault.

 

[Spaulding!No!]

It's hard to move a needle every day when it's lost in a haystack.

Rebuilding every year will put our ceiling around 8-10 Conference wins and that simply won't be enough to sustain this program with the fans. Attendance is going to continue to plummet, and with it, so will our revenue.

Ben's fault? Absolutely not...but he never should've been hired to begin with. Also not Ben's fault.

He got a raise after his first season and a last place finish.

 

[GoodasGold]

It's hard to move a needle every day when it's lost in a haystack.

Rebuilding every year will put our ceiling around 8-10 Conference wins and that simply won't be enough to sustain this program with the fans. Attendance is going to continue to plummet, and with it, so will our revenue.

Ben's fault? Absolutely not...but he never should've been hired to begin with. Also not Ben's fault.

At least we’ll have the Barn; a beautiful venue for college hoops.

 

[EasyThere Pilgrim]

It's hard to move a needle every day when it's lost in a haystack.

Rebuilding every year will put our ceiling around 8-10 Conference wins and that simply won't be enough to sustain this program with the fans. Attendance is going to continue to plummet, and with it, so will our revenue.

Ben's fault? Absolutely not...but he never should've been hired to begin with. Also not Ben's fault.

I agree...but then you had to add that Ben should have never been hired. As if a new coach will do better in rebuilding every year with inexpensive players.

How will a new coach do this? Find 1-year diamonds-in-the-rough better than Hawkins & Christie?

 

[disco]

They're not doing it the right way. The right way would be winning games.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

They're not doing it the right way. The right way would be winning games.

I'm going to take that as sarcasm.

but underlying that comment is the same issue that gets kicked around a lot on this board - the U of MN's overall approach to athletics.

MN for better or worse has made a decision - likely an administrative decision - that MN is going to play by the rules - even when the rules are murky and hard to understand. MN is going to do things "the right way." at some level, the big-wigs at MN would rather have the moral high ground as opposed to being a "sports factory."

WI went through this same issue when they hired Barry Alvarez, and he and Donna Shalala decided that they were going to make sports an emphasis, even if that mean bending a few rules or blurring the lines, if that is what it took to be a winning program.

In a perfect world, MN should be able to win games without selling its soul to the sports devil. but in the real world, MN does put itself at a disadvantage by insisting that the school should be above reproach, like Caesar's wife.

 

[GopherGuy82]

I'm going to take that as sarcasm.

but underlying that comment is the same issue that gets kicked around a lot on this board - the U of MN's overall approach to athletics.

MN for better or worse has made a decision - likely an administrative decision - that MN is going to play by the rules - even when the rules are murky and hard to understand. MN is going to do things "the right way." at some level, the big-wigs at MN would rather have the moral high ground as opposed to being a "sports factory."

WI went through this same issue when they hired Barry Alvarez, and he and Donna Shalala decided that they were going to make sports an emphasis, even if that mean bending a few rules or blurring the lines, if that is what it took to be a winning program.

In a perfect world, MN should be able to win games without selling its soul to the sports devil. but in the real world, MN does put itself at a disadvantage by insisting that the school should be above reproach, like Caesar's wife.

I've always been curious about people's opinion when they say the U doesn't care about sports and what caring about sports looks like to different people. I think you laid out some examples here. Is it hiring big name coaches, sweeping issues under the rug, admitting academic risky kids, cheating on schoolwork? What does caring about winning in sports look like to everyone?

 

[60's Guy]

At least we’ll have the Barn; a beautiful venue for college hoops.

Oh, we're not sure about that...we need to spend a couple million dollars to decide if we should remodel it or build something new. Then, we'll spend several million more to actually design the remodel.

 

[TwistingMyMelon]

I've always been curious about people's opinion when they say the U doesn't care about sports and what caring about sports looks like to different people. I think you laid out some examples here. Is it hiring big name coaches, sweeping issues under the rug, admitting academic risky kids, cheating on schoolwork? What does caring about winning in sports look like to everyone?

Good question that probably can't be defined precisely. I won't say that the U doesn't care about sports because I think they care about football and hockey. In terms of investments and fundraising, I don't think men's basketball is as high of a priority.

 

[disco]

I've always been curious about people's opinion when they say the U doesn't care about sports and what caring about sports looks like to different people. I think you laid out some examples here. Is it hiring big name coaches, sweeping issues under the rug, admitting academic risky kids, cheating on schoolwork? What does caring about winning in sports look like to everyone?

I've said it many times.
I came to the conclusion years ago that college sports is just a form of big time, big money entertainment. It's not some noble pursuit of rah rah school spirit or anything else. The goal is to win. Period. End of story. If they aren't willing to commit to that at the level their competitors are, why are they in the business at all?

 

[disco]

I'm going to take that as sarcasm...

In a perfect world, MN should be able to win games without selling its soul to the sports devil. but in the real world, MN does put itself at a disadvantage by insisting that the school should be above reproach, like Caesar's wife.

Sarcasm, somewhat, but not totally.

And the notion that the U can win without selling its soul probably left the station in the early 1970's at the lates.