Do you want Ben back for a fourth year?

Do you want Ben back for a fourth year?

  • Yes, Ben deserves to return next season for Year 4.

    Votes: 129 59.4%

  • No, we need a new coach for next season.

    Votes: 88 40.6%
  • Total voters
    217
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I’m with Tom Izzo assessment on BJ more than the great thinkers on this board! I believe he knows a hell of a lot more than anyone of us!!!
 


Lutefisk guy said:
I’m with Tom Izzo assessment on BJ more than the great thinkers on this board! I believe he knows a hell of a lot more than anyone of us!!!
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Tom Izzo is a wolf in sheep’s clothing! He comes to Minnesota and recruits our best players away. Of course he wants Ben Jonson to remain the head coach so we continue to be the door mat of the Big. Wake up!
 

Ben surges to a double digit as things wrap up on my watch go Saturday evening.

makes me wonder how many posters kept the Disaster Thread humming along into perpetuity🧐?
 



leib0039 said:
On 2, I don't know if I explained it well. I would say for a coach with 0 HC experience and his overall record. I'd hazard a guess in more than 50% of schools he'd be fired. Can you find exceptions, sure you can, but that was my point. I think we'd all agree with coaches who have some track record of success it'd be easier to swallow a few lean years.
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How does a guy who has been a head coach in the Big Ten three years have 0 HC experience?
 

WindyCityGopher said:
Only if the team backslides? What if they’re no better or no worse than this year? Is failing to finish above .500 in conference and not making the tournament again grounds for firing him next year? It is for me.
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Let us know when you get the job.
 

Gopher Ally said:
We are a bottom feeder, if the core doesn’t come back, spend some fucking money and get a big time coach! Enough is enough!
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So many big time coaches just itching to prove themselves by taking over a bottom feeder and rebuilding.
 



Lutefisk guy said:
Man we have such great fans in Minnesota! Everyone wants their coach fired in every sport! Girls hockey just lost in four OT’S and the great thinkers out there want Frost fired! What a great society we live in! I’m gonna say this Ben Johnson stays, and piss on the rest of you!
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Of course he is here next year. That was decided in January when the team was playing competitive basketball in conference play. These clowns have spewed forth hundreds of thousands of meaningless words pretending they have something to say about who coaches the team.
 

Dakota2 said:
So many big time coaches just itching to prove themselves by taking over a bottom feeder and rebuilding.
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Keep in mind the boards preferred candidate from last cycle hasn't won anything in 3 years in a weak conference with a 1st team all conference carryover.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
Ben surges to a double digit as things wrap up on my watch go Saturday evening.

makes me wonder how many posters kept the Disaster Thread humming along into perpetuity🧐?
Click to expand...
Translate to English for us!
Dakota2 said:
So many big time coaches just itching to prove themselves by taking over a bottom feeder and rebuilding.
Click to expand...
t
Dakota2 said:
So many big time coaches just itching to prove themselves by taking over a bottom feeder and rebuilding.
Click to expand...
ok, let’s roll with losing for decades and having a crowd of 5000 in a 15000 seat stadium
 




Dakota2 said:
Of course he is here next year. That was decided in January when the team was playing competitive basketball in conference play. These clowns have spewed forth hundreds of thousands of meaningless words pretending they have something to say about who coaches the team.
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Hmmmm… I don’t know. There isn’t much left to defend.
 

Clowns want a basketball team that isn't irrelevant when playing Big 10 basketball tournaments in their hometown!
 

Gopher Ally said:
Tom Izzo is a wolf in sheep’s clothing! He comes to Minnesota and recruits our best players away. Of course he wants Ben Jonson to remain the head coach so we continue to be the door mat of the Big. Wake up!
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Izzo couldn't care less who coaches at Minnesota. He just rode 14 losses into the NCAA tournament. Probably kicking himself they didn't have five more quality losses to get a higher seed.
 

Gopher Ally said:
Translate to English for us!

t

ok, let’s roll with losing for decades and having a crowd of 5000 in a 15000 seat stadium
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Better yet, how about you list all the big time coaches with great jobs who are dying to risk their reputations on building a program at Minnesota. I know it's probably a long list but we've got time.
 


Dakota2 said:
Izzo couldn't care less who coaches at Minnesota. He just rode 14 losses into the NCAA tournament. Probably kicking himself they didn't have five more quality losses to get a higher
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Dakota2 said:
Better yet, how about you list all the big time coaches with great jobs who are dying to risk their reputations on building a program at Minnesota. I know it's probably a long list but we've got time.
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Our AD went out and found a bonified winning coach in Dawn Plitzuweit and are paying her 800,000 dollars per year, 26th in the nation for women’s basketball. They are recruiting well and will win. Let’s invest in men’s basketball too!
 

Dakota2 said:
Better yet, how about you list all the big time coaches with great jobs who are dying to risk their reputations on building a program at Minnesota. I know it's probably a long list but we've got time.
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That's the problem right there. Nobody has done it here in 25 years and before that it wasn't easy for Clem- who went out in scandal, before that Dutcher, who went out in scandal and before that it was Musselman who went out in scandal. It has been a rough 50 years.
 

Dakota2 said:
Of course he is here next year. That was decided in January when the team was playing competitive basketball in conference play. These clowns have spewed forth hundreds of thousands of meaningless words pretending they have something to say about who coaches the team.
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I think it's fair to give Ben the 4th year - But I don't think the qualification should be "playing competitive basketball in conference play in January"

The bar has gotta be higher than that.
 

I hope our new president from Michigan will bring a winning attitude, academically and athletically
 

WindyCityGopher said:
Only if the team backslides? What if they’re no better or no worse than this year? Is failing to finish above .500 in conference and not making the tournament again grounds for firing him next year? It is for me.
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If the team is treading water and not showing signs of growth I think Johnson gets let go after next season. No post season play would for sure get him fired and the team most likely has to make the NCAA tournament for him to get a 5th year.
 

These results are shocking to me. Hopefully it's some Badger and Hawkeye fans coming over and "Izzoing" the poll results.

In Selection Sunday's final field of 68, I count THIRTEEN coaches who started at their new job at the same time or after Ben Johnson. If you go through the next 8 teams considered there are 4 more in St John's, Seton Hall, Oklahoma, and Kansas State and a fifth with an interim coach who turned a bottom of the conference team around in season at Ohio State.

Ben Johnson is 15-44 in the Big Ten. I saw a post in this thread that compared his start to Pickell, Hoiberg and someone else as reason for more time. One, this is a new era and as demonstrated above things don't work that way anymore. Second, if people are going to use past results as a gauge for things (ex comparing a Minnesota coach to past failed Minnesota coaches as opposed to how they are doing competing with their peers- a line of thinking I vastly disagree with) then you cannot use programs like Nebraska (has never won an NCAA tournament game in the history of its program) and Rutgers (historically awful B1G program that was awful in smaller conferences before joining the B1G too) as examples as to why Ben should get more time. Shrewsberry at Penn State took over a worse job at the same time as Ben...and won 17 conference games in TWO years. The guy Penn State hired to replace him had a total rebuild and finished tied with Ben Johnson in the Big Ten and ahead of him in the NET and KenPom.

When Ben was hired he was supposed to be an excellent recruiter who would get most, if not all, the top Minnesota talent. That hasn't come close to happening. If you look at the composite rankings for the incoming 2024 class on 247, the Gophers are 16th in an 18 team league. We're ahead of UCLA because they only have 1 commit (rated higher than both of ours) and Indiana who had their only commitment decommit.

On the court, two of the things that were mentioned by tons of posters here during the end of the Pitino era and the coaching search were prioritizing defense and being a team that gets better as the season goes on. Defense was 128th on KenPom this year, 188 last year, and 153 in his first year. Then we've had a team that two of three years has absolutely cratered down the stretch just as a lot of Pitino's (and Tubby's to be fair) teams did before them. The one year this didn't happen was the worst year in program history so there really wasn't a new bottom to reach.

A simple way to look at this is who in the Big Ten would be willing to trade coaches with us tomorrow? Not Wisconsin, Iowa, Northwestern, Nebraska, Rutgers, or Penn State. Certainly not Michigan State, Illinois, or Purdue. Indiana fans are really angry at Woodson, but I highly doubt they would rather have Ben Johnson. Even the recently fired Juwan Howard has a conference championship, an Elite Eight, and a Sweet 16 to his name in 5 seasons. This is the same spot we were in the with Pitino, but the gulf between where Pitino was as 14/14 in the B1G has only gotten wider as guys like Hoiberg and Collins have added to their resumes. We are tyring to win (allegedly) with a guy who has no prior experience as a head coach, has no history of on court success in over a decade as an assistant coach, and has shown an inability to be the dynamic recruiter he was made out to be.
 

EG#9 said:
These results are shocking to me. Hopefully it's some Badger and Hawkeye fans coming over and "Izzoing" the poll results.

In Selection Sunday's final field of 68, I count THIRTEEN coaches who started at their new job at the same time or after Ben Johnson. If you go through the next 8 teams considered there are 4 more in St John's, Seton Hall, Oklahoma, and Kansas State and a fifth with an interim coach who turned a bottom of the conference team around in season at Ohio State.

Ben Johnson is 15-44 in the Big Ten. I saw a post in this thread that compared his start to Pickell, Hoiberg and someone else as reason for more time. One, this is a new era and as demonstrated above things don't work that way anymore. Second, if people are going to use past results as a gauge for things (ex comparing a Minnesota coach to past failed Minnesota coaches as opposed to how they are doing competing with their peers- a line of thinking I vastly disagree with) then you cannot use programs like Nebraska (has never won an NCAA tournament game in the history of its program) and Rutgers (historically awful B1G program that was awful in smaller conferences before joining the B1G too) as examples as to why Ben should get more time. Shrewsberry at Penn State took over a worse job at the same time as Ben...and won 17 conference games in TWO years. The guy Penn State hired to replace him had a total rebuild and finished tied with Ben Johnson in the Big Ten and ahead of him in the NET and KenPom.

When Ben was hired he was supposed to be an excellent recruiter who would get most, if not all, the top Minnesota talent. That hasn't come close to happening. If you look at the composite rankings for the incoming 2024 class on 247, the Gophers are 16th in an 18 team league. We're ahead of UCLA because they only have 1 commit (rated higher than both of ours) and Indiana who had their only commitment decommit.

On the court, two of the things that were mentioned by tons of posters here during the end of the Pitino era and the coaching search were prioritizing defense and being a team that gets better as the season goes on. Defense was 128th on KenPom this year, 188 last year, and 153 in his first year. Then we've had a team that two of three years has absolutely cratered down the stretch just as a lot of Pitino's (and Tubby's to be fair) teams did before them. The one year this didn't happen was the worst year in program history so there really wasn't a new bottom to reach.

A simple way to look at this is who in the Big Ten would be willing to trade coaches with us tomorrow? Not Wisconsin, Iowa, Northwestern, Nebraska, Rutgers, or Penn State. Certainly not Michigan State, Illinois, or Purdue. Indiana fans are really angry at Woodson, but I highly doubt they would rather have Ben Johnson. Even the recently fired Juwan Howard has a conference championship, an Elite Eight, and a Sweet 16 to his name in 5 seasons. This is the same spot we were in the with Pitino, but the gulf between where Pitino was as 14/14 in the B1G has only gotten wider as guys like Hoiberg and Collins have added to their resumes. We are tyring to win (allegedly) with a guy who has no prior experience as a head coach, has no history of on court success in over a decade as an assistant coach, and has shown an inability to be the dynamic recruiter he was made out to be.
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But improvement and fear of the unknown makes me want to give him a 4th year.
 

EG#9 said:
These results are shocking to me. Hopefully it's some Badger and Hawkeye fans coming over and "Izzoing" the poll results.

In Selection Sunday's final field of 68, I count THIRTEEN coaches who started at their new job at the same time or after Ben Johnson. If you go through the next 8 teams considered there are 4 more in St John's, Seton Hall, Oklahoma, and Kansas State and a fifth with an interim coach who turned a bottom of the conference team around in season at Ohio State.

Ben Johnson is 15-44 in the Big Ten. I saw a post in this thread that compared his start to Pickell, Hoiberg and someone else as reason for more time. One, this is a new era and as demonstrated above things don't work that way anymore. Second, if people are going to use past results as a gauge for things (ex comparing a Minnesota coach to past failed Minnesota coaches as opposed to how they are doing competing with their peers- a line of thinking I vastly disagree with) then you cannot use programs like Nebraska (has never won an NCAA tournament game in the history of its program) and Rutgers (historically awful B1G program that was awful in smaller conferences before joining the B1G too) as examples as to why Ben should get more time. Shrewsberry at Penn State took over a worse job at the same time as Ben...and won 17 conference games in TWO years. The guy Penn State hired to replace him had a total rebuild and finished tied with Ben Johnson in the Big Ten and ahead of him in the NET and KenPom.

When Ben was hired he was supposed to be an excellent recruiter who would get most, if not all, the top Minnesota talent. That hasn't come close to happening. If you look at the composite rankings for the incoming 2024 class on 247, the Gophers are 16th in an 18 team league. We're ahead of UCLA because they only have 1 commit (rated higher than both of ours) and Indiana who had their only commitment decommit.

On the court, two of the things that were mentioned by tons of posters here during the end of the Pitino era and the coaching search were prioritizing defense and being a team that gets better as the season goes on. Defense was 128th on KenPom this year, 188 last year, and 153 in his first year. Then we've had a team that two of three years has absolutely cratered down the stretch just as a lot of Pitino's (and Tubby's to be fair) teams did before them. The one year this didn't happen was the worst year in program history so there really wasn't a new bottom to reach.

A simple way to look at this is who in the Big Ten would be willing to trade coaches with us tomorrow? Not Wisconsin, Iowa, Northwestern, Nebraska, Rutgers, or Penn State. Certainly not Michigan State, Illinois, or Purdue. Indiana fans are really angry at Woodson, but I highly doubt they would rather have Ben Johnson. Even the recently fired Juwan Howard has a conference championship, an Elite Eight, and a Sweet 16 to his name in 5 seasons. This is the same spot we were in the with Pitino, but the gulf between where Pitino was as 14/14 in the B1G has only gotten wider as guys like Hoiberg and Collins have added to their resumes. We are tyring to win (allegedly) with a guy who has no prior experience as a head coach, has no history of on court success in over a decade as an assistant coach, and has shown an inability to be the dynamic recruiter he was made out to be.
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That's all well reasoned. However, the improvement was there and most everyone on the board predicted that this would be a 6-7 win or less team. This is NIL world and Minnesota is not set up to be competitive (yet). We have a team that appears to like each other and wants to come back (we'll see) and there is the possibility of losing no crucial pieces. If Ben leaves that's likely gone and we start again, hoping that 3 years from now we are good with a new coach.

Do you really believe that this administration is going to run out and get a high end coach who is ready to roll? We had a shot at Dutcher, at Musselman (twice) and others and have passed in favor of Pitino and then Ben.
 

Super frustrating to watch basketball powerhouses like Iowa State, Penn State, and New Mexico turn programs around in short time frames with new coaches despite the NIL, portal, and administration boogeymen. Our chief rival buys up ad space downtown and makes a run to the conference final in our backyard. Our team's signature moment is the AD declaring "Hey, look at us. We will be a top 25 team next preseason" which sadly means nothing. But of course the declaration comes with the qualifiers "if" and "as long as".

Ben Johnson will get another year and probably the year after that. Maybe he should as firing coaches year after year isn't always the answer either. But this fanbase is so conditioned to losing. You need to look no further than many of the comments in this thread.
 



goldengophers said:
Somehow Pitino winning a MWC title makes Ben look better?
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I didn’t get that at all.

He is just saying that it’s really hard to win here.


Other than Rutgers, every other Big Ten program has some kind of advantage over us.

“How do you figure that for Nebraska and Penn State??” Simply that, because of their football success and their location, they have a fairly large, rabidly loyal fan base that is captive. No pro teams. NIL support and fan support.


Now the one that should really baffle us is Iowa State. But it is also a bit similar in no pro competition. Of course they have competition from Iowa.
 

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