COYLE FIRES BEN JOHNSON!!!!!!

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A rather good time for Minnesota sports fans.
Vikes not messing around, Wolves seem to be putting things together, Twins favored to win the Central, and now hope for Gopher bb.
 

WindyCityGopher said:
But then Ben leaks it and starts shaping the narrative with his friendly local and national media guys. It’s PR 101 to control the message, and if that means the news is released at 1 am, then that’s what you do (I’m a longtime PR guy, with a local professional team, with agencies and large global corporations).
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Probably true. Either way the timing is a very small thing that some people are way too upset about.
 



Question for the legal minds:

Doesn't the buyout not decrease until April or May? To save money, do they not officially terminate until the exact buyout date? So, technically, will Ben be on the payroll until April/May? Just curious.
 


golf said:
A rather good time for Minnesota sports fans.
Vikes not messing around, Wolves seem to be putting things together, Twins favored to win the Central, and now hope for Gopher bb.
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Offseasons, when MN sports thrive 😆 we are nothing if not a hopeful group of sports fans
 

Ewert86PC said:
Then the inflection point was for all the teams in the BTT because that was a Conference/League decision.
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The latest numbers on Peacock suggest they reach 34 million subscribers but only pull in 1.4% of the viewing market. If we look at the tournament as a subset of that 1.4 percent, just how bad are the ratings?
 

topos said:
Question for the legal minds:

Doesn't the buyout not decrease until April or May? To save money, do they not officially terminate until the exact buyout date? So, technically, will Ben be on the payroll until April/May? Just curious.
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I don't think so. They negotiate it to be that late for a reason.
 

GopherPoke said:
The thought that this needed to wait until the workday starts is unreal. We all recognize a 24 hour news cycle. He was met when they arrived home, let go, notice was given. Why does it matter, at all, what the clock said when it was done?
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I got a notice from Reuters via Alexa about the firing five minutes ago. The news flow, of some outlets, seems to have a 7.5 hour cushion.
 



ShushPush said:
The latest numbers on Peacock suggest they reach 34 million subscribers but only pull in 1.4% of the viewing market. If we look at the tournament as a subset of that 1.4 percent, just how bad are the ratings?
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Well, we are talking about "Weakling Wednesday", aren't we. The rest of the BTT is on "traditional" sports channels.
 



GopherWeatherGuy said:
There’s plenty of local media complaining about it too.

But the media is made up of a bunch of mindless hacks who know very little about Gopher basketball anyways.
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And the NIL excuse is always used. Correct me if I'm wrong, but take away OSU, Mich, Penn St and we are middle of the pack with NIL.
Not ideal, but media makes it sound like we are last.
 



howeda7 said:
Probably could have held hitting send on the press release until 8 AM though.
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Once he has told Ben Ben is likely telling someone
So that risks it leaking early and he probably wanted his statement first

I personally would’ve waited to have the meeting this morning and would’ve released about 9-10am
 

NateDawgUM said:
Why is he doing this at 1 in the morning?

In the attention economy your goal is to get maximum press, this should have dropped around tip-off of the BTT today.

Everyone is going to wake up, see the news on their own schedule, then go on with their day.

Consistently feels like Coyle has zero understanding of the media landscape in 2025.
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Maybe that was when it was completed and he wants to get the news out ASAP. The firing of a B1G coach is big enough news to be a major talker during the B1G Tournament, no matter if it happens at 1 am!
 




GopherPoke said:
The thought that this needed to wait until the workday starts is unreal. We all recognize a 24 hour news cycle. He was met when they arrived home, let go, notice was given. Why does it matter, at all, what the clock said when it was done?
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Definitely better than when, if memory serves, Tubby heard about it through a media leak before he was told to his face.
 

alchemy2u said:
Maybe that was when it was completed and he wants to get the news out ASAP. The firing of a B1G coach is big enough news to be a major talker during the B1G Tournament, no matter if it happens at 1 am!
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I think that's right. Guessing Coyle met with Ben when they came home. Coyle says we gotta move on because we have lost the fans- program needs a restart. Ben says, I never had what I needed to compete. Coyle says I get how you feel, but we have to do it, and I will help you get your next gig.
 

CentralGopher said:
www.cbssports.com

Minnesota fires Ben Johnson: 'Ruthless' decision came overnight after first-round exit from Big Ten Tournament

The NIL-strapped Golden Gophers finished 15-17 on the season in Johnson's fourth year
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com

“Ruthless “ lol. I’d call it merciful.
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Could be wrong, but this to me screams that Coyle never wanted to hire him and was forced into it. So although I'm sure he wasn't "happy" to fire him, there might have been something in there were he got to make a statement that it's his choice.
 

Roland Brooks said:
Coyle will see Tauer tonight….
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They got to aim a little higher than that. Not to take anything away from Coach Tauer.

It is so obvious that in today's transfer protocol and NIL environment --- you need to not only find a person that can coach, but you need a coach that get the attention of players and draws them into the program. A coach that already has a reputation.
 

Bobek said:
I don’t really know if Johnson was a good coach or not because I’m not a coach. But I do know that lack of NIL funds cost them Hawkins and Payne. With those two guys they would be an NCAA tournament team. Seems like they will continue to struggle if they can’t raise more dollars beyond the new agreement allowing them to pay players, since everyone gets to do that.
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Regardless of the fact that they weren't a tourney team when they had them, I think it is pretty obvious they would have won the National Championship if those two had stayed.
 

WindyCityGopher said:
But then Ben leaks it and starts shaping the narrative with his friendly local and national media guys. It’s PR 101 to control the message, and if that means the news is released at 1 am, then that’s what you do (I’m a longtime PR guy, with a local professional team, with agencies and large global corporations).
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Yeah. In this day and age, once you tell the coach you have to get the public release out ASAP.
 

Some guy said:
Once he has told Ben Ben is likely telling someone
So that risks it leaking early and he probably wanted his statement first

I personally would’ve waited to have the meeting this morning and would’ve released about 9-10am
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I'm actually a little surprised that it didn't go down that way. Team got back late, setup a meeting for this morning, fire him and then go public with it.

For whatever reason, Coyle didn't want to wait around, wanted to get it done with as soon as the team got back.
 

The timing of the firing was fine. Its kinda sad this is the most nationally relevant the program has been in the last 4 years and it came at 1:19 in the morning.
 


Bobek said:
I don’t really know if Johnson was a good coach or not because I’m not a coach. But I do know that lack of NIL funds cost them Hawkins and Payne. With those two guys they would be an NCAA tournament team. Seems like they will continue to struggle if they can’t raise more dollars beyond the new agreement allowing them to pay players, since everyone gets to do that.
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I’ll take the other side, did you ever think they couldn’t raise the money because donors looked at the coach and said, “I’m not throwing any money down that rat hole until we find a coach who can actually coach?” It could very well have been that.
 

MNVCGUY said:
I'm actually a little surprised that it didn't go down that way. Team got back late, setup a meeting for this morning, fire him and then go public with it.

For whatever reason, Coyle didn't want to wait around, wanted to get it done with as soon as the team got back.
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Hes on the ncaa selection committee, they were/are meeting. Guessing he didn't have a lot of time on his schedule currently to make it convenient for everyone. Again people are way over reacting to this
 


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