Fire Ben Johnson

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Firing Ben in December is unlikely to happen: 1) New president doesn’t want the distraction; 2) No suitable (no Coach Mo) interim on the staff; and to a lesser extent 3) a fairly high caliber recruit (Cochran) who hasn’t had a chance to play yet—it would be breaking faith with him. That said, after one-sided losses on the February USC/UCLA trip with a one-win team it will—like Joe Salem in 1983—be time to announce his resignation at season’s end. That will clear the way for the future without making an awful season worse with internal program chaos.
 

drewhaus7 said:
If there is any chance Coyle would make any move midseason, it should be now, as on a break a bit, then two non conference games 21 and 29th with time before big ten season starts back after the new year with Purdue coming into the barn. My question is thinking of who would be interim coach? Would John Beilein maybe be interested??
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Long term maybe....short term, no. We have one shooter.
 

Married@SiebertField said:
Firing Ben in December is unlikely to happen: 1) New president doesn’t want the distraction; 2) No suitable (no Coach Mo) interim on the staff; and to a lesser extent 3) a fairly high caliber recruit (Cochran) who hasn’t had a chance to play yet—it would be breaking faith with him. That said, after one-sided losses on the February USC/UCLA trip with a one-win team it will—like Joe Salem in 1983—be time to announce his resignation at season’s end. That will clear the way for the future without making an awful season worse with internal program chaos.
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I do agree it's unlikely but it should happen. A distraction to who? The general public won't even notice. The few remaining fans will be relieved. For the players it's at worst a wash. If everyone knows he's dead coach walking, that's MORE distracting than just pulling the band-aid off.

I think Thorson could handle the interim job fine. Or perhaps one of the other assistants. It can't really get any worse.
 





I’m with you 100% howeda7. I’ve not watched a game in almost 2 years and won’t until he’s fired and we get a new coach. I’ll continue to check back here periodically hoping to one day see he’s been canned.

Here’s to hoping we get a new coach who can turn this dumpster fire around.
 

You know what's bad about this situation? I'm getting excited anticipating another ineffective coach getting fired.
 

howeda7 said:
Thorson.
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Nada. He is part of the problem.

If Coyle pulls the plug on BJ, ask the players who they have the most confidence in with the assistants. Then go back to the drawing board and we will find out if the UM is committed to fielding a competitive BIG hoops squad.

In the meantime, the players can decide if they want to continue to play for an interim or pack it for the season. The UM would probably save lots of bucks.

This hire is a huge fiasco. My initial response when they hired Ben was "really"! What? Are you kidding me?
 



60's Guy said:
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So, I think there is your answer...AFTER his fourth season his buyout is 50% of the remaining base salary. I am guessing nothing happens until that point.
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I don't believe the buyout drops until April 30. They can't wait until then to make a move. So now or March 10th makes no difference.
 
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Bayfield Gopher said:
Nada. He is part of the problem.

If Coyle pulls the plug on BJ, ask the players who they have the most confidence in with the assistants. Then go back to the drawing board and we will find out if the UM is committed to fielding a competitive BIG hoops squad.

In the meantime, the players can decide if they want to continue to play for an interim or pack it for the season. The UM would probably save lots of bucks.

This hire is a huge fiasco. My initial response when they hired Ben was "really"! What? Are you kidding me?
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You mean you were really excited?
 

Hey Coyle! You don’t need to fire Ben before you bring in a new coach. Ohio State let Urban hire an entire staff while the previous staff was getting ready to play in a bowl game.

Lock up our new coach as soon as you find him. Fire Ben later.
 




WAGopher said:
Hey Coyle! You don’t need to fire Ben before you bring in a new coach. Ohio State let Urban hire an entire staff while the previous staff was getting ready to play in a bowl game.

Lock up our new coach as soon as you find him. Fire Ben later.
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Dan Hurley, Scott Drew and Eric Musselman will fight a steel cage match for the right to be the next Gopher coach. Live on Netflix. Proceeds to Dinkytown Athletics.
 

Look, Nadine and the other folks who run this site are blind to the fact that the Gophers made a DEI hire and it didn't work out. This post will get deleted and banned for saying so. But if you think you're able to make a fair post on this site you are kidding yourself. Many of us have been saying for years this was simply a diversity hire who literally no one else wanted, which was the truth, but it will be silenced here. There isn't a program other than Minnesota in the entire country who thought Ben Johnson was a viable hire. He applied for multiple other low level D1 jobs and was turned down. If anyone here knew how the hiring process went down and the coaches that Minnesota turned down to hire Ben they would throw up. Happy to provide all my sources if this isn't instantly deleted (it will be). This program will never be successful again as long as the interest of the program don't align with the diversity equity and inclusion of the univeristy.
 

howeda7 said:
Dan Hurley, Scott Drew and Eric Musselman will fight a steel cage match for the right to be the next Gopher coach. Live on Netflix. Proceeds to Dinkytown Athletics.
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I like the cage match idea and would pay to see it!
 


He (CBJ) was who we thought he was.

Do what Glen Taylor did when McHale fired Flip Saunders by making Coyle coach for the rest of the season. Although McHale wasn't fired until a few years later Coyle could be fired after the season in a new tradition of firing coaches for not winning before they've coached 4+ years.
 
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We will see if it happens, but I think it's the best possible move that can be made now. Miami (OH) was more competitive with Indiana a couple nights ago than the Gophers were tonight. I am skeptical of the assistants on this staff, but the ugly performances have piled up to the point where I feel you can't let him finish out the season.
 

NDGopher69420 said:
Look, Nadine and the other folks who run this site are blind to the fact that the Gophers made a DEI hire and it didn't work out. This post will get deleted and banned for saying so. But if you think you're able to make a fair post on this site you are kidding yourself. Many of us have been saying for years this was simply a diversity hire who literally no one else wanted, which was the truth, but it will be silenced here. There isn't a program other than Minnesota in the entire country who thought Ben Johnson was a viable hire. He applied for multiple other low level D1 jobs and was turned down. If anyone here knew how the hiring process went down and the coaches that Minnesota turned down to hire Ben they would throw up. Happy to provide all my sources if this isn't instantly deleted (it will be). This program will never be successful again as long as the interest of the program don't align with the diversity equity and inclusion of the univeristy.
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GI is worse. Deleting everything that is the least bit contrary to James or Burns is common.

Your other point is spot on.
 

Gophers7633 said:
Run off the court in back to back games. Not even competitive. Has not had one year better than Pitino's last year, has not beaten a top 25 team, 24-58 record against Q1-Q3 teams, 25% winning percentage in B1G play, attendance at an all time low, terrible in-game decision making, doesn't get the best out of his talent. Did I miss anything?
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Hasn't beaten our two hated rivals Iowa and Wisconsin
 
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NDGopher69420 said:
Look, Nadine and the other folks who run this site are blind to the fact that the Gophers made a DEI hire and it didn't work out. This post will get deleted and banned for saying so. But if you think you're able to make a fair post on this site you are kidding yourself. Many of us have been saying for years this was simply a diversity hire who literally no one else wanted, which was the truth, but it will be silenced here. There isn't a program other than Minnesota in the entire country who thought Ben Johnson was a viable hire. He applied for multiple other low level D1 jobs and was turned down. If anyone here knew how the hiring process went down and the coaches that Minnesota turned down to hire Ben they would throw up. Happy to provide all my sources if this isn't instantly deleted (it will be). This program will never be successful again as long as the interest of the program don't align with the diversity equity and inclusion of the univeristy.
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was it DEI or was DEI a bonus on top of hiring a cheap coach who played here and was an assistant here for a sport the university doesn't care about that some local people would maybe be on board with? he is and was an awful hire but there were multiple reasons his name even came up in the first place and it wasn't like we just made a list of any Black coaches in the country and started from there.
 

Gophers7633 said:
Run off the court in back to back games. Not even competitive. Has not had one year better than Pitino's last year, has not beaten a top 25 team, 24-58 record against Q1-Q3 teams, 25% winning percentage in B1G play, attendance at an all time low, terrible in-game decision making, doesn't get the best out of his talent. Did I miss anything?
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Hasn't beaten Iowa or Wisconsin even once, continually puts out horrid non conference schedules
 

I’ll cheer the gophs each game and not cheer for Ben’s dismissal. Still hoping we can get it back to last years record. Simply bad karma cheering for a persons dismissal.
 

JZABR said:
Goddamn it, I just want this team to be good.

Good players, poor execution, poor game plan. Ben is an adequate recruiter, and a good guy, but this is agonizingly frustrating. Betts not playing hardly at all is my biggest pet peeve.
We started solid in this game, then IU adjusted and we didn't for the rest of the game. When we got 19 wins last year and won an NIT game, I thought Ben was a pretty good coach with too small of a rotation. Now this year is a completely different story. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we're tired of inadequacy.
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Good Players?
 


I said this in the other thread but we need to fire him and bring in an established coach as an interim just to stabilize things. Beilein, Monson (I know I know but he's been a long time coach) Jarod haase Stanford coach the last few years. They're are names out there just for a few months stop gap, it literally can't get worse even with someone totally fresh for 4 months.
 

leib0039 said:
I said this in the other thread but we need to fire him and bring in an established coach as an interim just to stabilize things. Beilein, Monson (I know I know but he's been a long time coach) Jarod haase Stanford coach the last few years. They're are names out there just for a few months stop gap, it literally can't get worse even with someone totally fresh for 4 months.
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I like the idea in theory, but why would an established coach like Beilein or Monson want to do that?
 

leib0039 said:
I said this in the other thread but we need to fire him and bring in an established coach as an interim just to stabilize things. Beilein, Monson (I know I know but he's been a long time coach) Jarod haase Stanford coach the last few years. They're are names out there just for a few months stop gap, it literally can't get worse even with someone totally fresh for 4 months.
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Monson already has a job.
 

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