ESPN's Jeff Borzello: "As of time of publish, it seems Ben Johnson is likely to get another year at Minnesota."

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Everyone saying Ben was our best option because there was no other interest conveniently forgets DUTCHER WAS INTERESTED and Coyle CANCELED the interview to hire Ben Johnson. Smith was interested. He didn't work out but he did get hired by another P5 team. Ben had zero P5 interest outside of anywhere he grew up. MN is not as bad as some want to make it out to be. We can do better.
 






If Coyle is going to bring Ben back he could just as well give him the Bill Self lifetime contract because apparently there is no level of suck that will lead to a coaching change.
 





Gilthorp57 said:
I need something to do in the winter is why we keep ours, also basketball junkies.
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Yep, I love hoop, so I follow. The Gophers are just completely irrelevant. I had a lot of buddies from HS who went to MIAC schools who were hardcore basketball fans, and I always thought it would be difficult to follow a sport but not really have a team. That’s what this feels like.

Btw- I was about as hardcore as it got. I had season tickets for years, kept them when I lived out of state because I thought it would be weird to not be a season ticket holder.

Now? I barely care.
 


Bad Gopher said:
You win with stars. He's going to have to replace a second-team all-conference forward and a shooting guard (Mitchell) who's performed at an all-conference level when at his best. Considering they might even lose Asuma, who Johnson stubbornly refused to start, this is looking bleak. Patterson was good, and Femi had his moments, but it's going to take way better than Patterson-level replacements to even get back to seven conference wins.
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Mitchell the shooting guard performed at an all-conference level in like 3 games this season. Replacing his production will not be that difficult.
 

GopherNuts said:
I would think this is a reflection of them not having the money to attract the quality of coach they want as much as anything. The reasons for firing him are obvious, that goes without saying. In the long run, change for change's sake doesn't benefit you either, just puts you on the hook for 4-5 years with someone else you got on the cheap that's a roll of the dice. They need to make a splash with their next hire, hiring Tauer or Medved isn't doing that.
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Amen to this. Neither of them would do much better than Ben if they get outbid for solid (but not superstar) players by schools like Texas Tech or A&M. It doesn’t matter who the coach is unless the NIL/revenue sharing is improved.
 



golfing18now said:
You aren't wrong but Pitino had an NCAA berth, an NIT championship, and NCAA consideration at some point in three of his first four years. This guy hasn't even been close in any of his first four years. So frustrating.
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You’re not wrong on this, but to be fair the major D1 college sports landscape has changed so suddenly in the last 5ish years that I don’t think that is comparing apples to apples.
 

Marcus working really hard to boost Ben in his game story in the Strib. I'm hoping it's just Marcus, but now am getting an uneasy feeling that he'll get another year.
 


Garyisawinner said:
Would Hawkins and Payne stayed if the NIL $ was there? This would have been a much different year.
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I don't think Payne was staying due to some issues with his usage etc. that were reported here. Ben didn't exactly excite the players with his style so I think we'd be in the same spot regardless. We're starting from scratch again with a new team next year so why not do it with a new coach and a new philosophy as well.
 

Spaulding!No! said:
Ben can’t recruit next year without an extension.
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Eh, players are pretty much only committed for a year now so that is a lot less important. One of the main reasons coaches are so against NIL/free transfers — the whole argument of “How am I supposed to recruit if I don’t have at least 4 years left on my contract” is now moot.
 

bizzle22 said:
You’re not wrong on this, but to be fair the major D1 college sports landscape has changed so suddenly in the last 5ish years that I don’t think that is comparing apples to apples.
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It's not apples to apples. True. But it has changed for everybody. You are competing against competition in the same landscape. So the results are still relevant. I'm not convinced that it is harder to turn around a program in this environment when you can recruit players to fill needs in a week's time. NIL matters too obviously but I don't believe success and NIL dollars are a linear relationship.

Ben Johnson may have been a good coach in a different era. He would probably prefer to be a program builder. He recruits good kids. But talk about "process" and "culture" and "time to gel" doesn't work in the year to year sprint that is college basketball now. Flipping the roster over every year doesn't benefit from prior year's results.
 

WoodburyTim said:
I kind of expect him to get another year now and that would have made me pretty mad a year or two ago. Now I just don’t care much anymore. The U and Coyle don’t care much about this program, seems silly that I should.
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You make a good point. Being a Gopher basketball fan isn't a sacred duty. It's just a habit, a choice. Maybe it's not just a matter of the university not caring enough. Maybe it's also a matter of some of us caring too much.
 

bizzle22 said:
Amen to this. Neither of them would do much better than Ben if they get outbid for solid (but not superstar) players by schools like Texas Tech or A&M. It doesn’t matter who the coach is unless the NIL/revenue sharing is improved.
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Well if that is true(and it absolutely isn't) then why are we even paying Ben what we are? What a waste. Then go find a D2 coach with moderate success pay him $375,000 a year and when the press asks what the heck we are doing? We'll just say hey Coyle and roughly 15% of our fanbase believes that it doesn't matter who your coach is just how much NIL you have.

At least save a couple million a year.
 

bizzle22 said:
Amen to this. Neither of them would do much better than Ben if they get outbid for solid (but not superstar) players by schools like Texas Tech or A&M. It doesn’t matter who the coach is unless the NIL/revenue sharing is improved.
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Both are far and away better coaches than Johnson and would outperform him by far with the same roster.
 

DanvilleGopher said:
I don't think Payne was staying due to some issues with his usage etc. that were reported here. Ben didn't exactly excite the players with his style so I think we'd be in the same spot regardless. We're starting from scratch again with a new team next year so why not do it with a new coach and a new philosophy as well.
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Payne has played fewer minutes per game this year than last and he's started a lower percentage of games. So I'm guessing it had little to do with usage.
 


Spaulding!No! said:
Ben can’t recruit next year without an extension.
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That's no big deal anymore. Players come for the year - playing time, money and coach for that year. No way on earth they should extend him unless the buyout is like 500k or something super small. If you fire him- you tell the fans we want to win and win big so we need a change. If you keep him, you tell the fans that you are putting all the resources on getting great players and that Ben will get the job done with a bigger budget. Then- either way- you have to deliver the funds.
 

50PoundHead said:
Payne has played fewer minutes per game this year than last and he's started a lower percentage of games. So I'm guessing it had little to do with usage.
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Payne is competing with Henry Coleman, a rebounding machine. He has gotten a slight edge over Coleman for more time over the 2nd half of the year. Payne is averaging 9pts, 5 bds and 1.1 blocks in 19.7 minutes.
He'd have been 13 and 8 in 28 minutes here and we would not have gone to the horrible 5 out offense we went to.
 

bga1 said:
Payne is competing with Henry Coleman, a rebounding machine. He has gotten a slight edge over Coleman for more time over the 2nd half of the year. Payne is averaging 9pts, 5 bds and 1.1 blocks in 19.7 minutes.
He'd have been 13 and 8 in 28 minutes here and we would not have gone to the horrible 5 out offense we went to.
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Would we still do the hard hedge on defense?
 

DanvilleGopher said:
We're starting from scratch again with a new team next year so why not do it with a new coach and a new philosophy as well.
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A new philosophy certainly would be refreshing to say the least but it's not just that.

We need to get out of the cycle of one-and-done seniors making up the substantial majority of the team. The 5th year seniors should dwindle considerably next season. There will still be a strong market for transfers but we need to get more guys in here that we hope will be around for at least two years. After four years, I don't think Ben Johnson has earned the goodwill for fans to have that kind of patience but a new coach with a fresh clock probably would.
 
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bga1 said:
Payne is competing with Henry Coleman, a rebounding machine. He has gotten a slight edge over Coleman for more time over the 2nd half of the year. Payne is averaging 9pts, 5 bds and 1.1 blocks in 19.7 minutes.
He'd have been 13 and 8 in 28 minutes here and we would not have gone to the horrible 5 out offense we went to.
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Frank Mitchell is not Payne but he's been doing well. Our genius coach refuses to start him over Parker Fox. For all we know, Payne might not start over Parker Fox either. He certainly might not play 28 minutes. Who can make sense of Ben's wisdom?
 


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