Gopher Coaching Staff Questions

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60's Guy

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Where do you land on our coaching staff? 4 wins, 2 wins...same staff. Gotta know this is a critical year if you are the head coach? Nobody fired.

Gotta know it won't look good on the resume if year 3 is like 1 and 2 as an assistant coach.
Did they stay because nobody would hire them? Or because we are about to rise up?
 

ZERO info but just being logical this is my guess. And yes I'm excited to hear about how this is negative 🤷‍♂️

Thorson-lead asst, supposed defense guru, local guy with history. Never getting the ax.

Jenkins/Kemp- I can see Coyle going to CBJ and asking if a shake up would be good. Now in my opinion, CBJ seems like an awesome human. Nice guy, thoughtful, cares about people. He says, nope this is not their battle to lose, I brought them here they stay.

From Kemp/Jenkins end, I'd assume since they don't have long resumes that their only options were to stay at a B1G school or drop down a level. At this point that makes no sense, stay here, get a higher salary, if CBJ gets canned next year then you go from there and can accept a lower job.

That to me seems like a logical timeliness of what MIGHT have happened, none of us obviously know.

That said, I agree with the OP, I think we needed a shake up. I think CBJ needs to find an edge. Being the nice guy in a cut throat industry doesn't work. Sometimes you need to cuss out a ref, sometimes you need to bench your star player who isn't playing defense, or maybe you need a new asst coach. Again he seems like a great human, and this sounds harsh but frankly I don't care if the coach is a nice guy, hes not marrying my daughter he's trying to win games in an ultra competitive job.
 


60's Guy said:
Where do you land on our coaching staff? 4 wins, 2 wins...same staff. Gotta know this is a critical year if you are the head coach? Nobody fired.

Gotta know it won't look good on the resume if year 3 is like 1 and 2 as an assistant coach.
Did they stay because nobody would hire them? Or because we are about to rise up?
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Assistant coaches in college basketball don't really get that much attention. I'm honestly not sure I could name any of the assistant coaches on any of the other teams in the Big Ten. No clue if shaking things up here would have had any impact on the first 2 years or not.

Maybe others pay much more attention to stuff like this.....but in football you will hear about assistant coaching changes in order to shake things up, especially as it pertains to coordinators. But I can't really come up with examples of the same thing happening in basketball. Coaching moves in basketball always seem to be focused on the head coach.
 

The assistant coaches are often the lead recruiters for the program. They're out watching AAU tournaments and often making first contact with recruits. And at a school like MN with no NIL and no recent success, it's a tough gig.

I hold to this opinion - the coaches may be part of the problem at MN, but they are far from the only problem.
 


I think its odd that all 4 coaches remain after back to back last place finishes. Not sure it matters. I cannot name a single coach they should have hired instead of one of the three assistants. But I struggle to believe it makes sense to not change anything. Definition of insanity and all that.
 


A-Town Owl said:
Let's say they finish last this season. What do you think they should do?
They avoid Wednesday B1G tournament - what do you think they should do?
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lol....gonna be waiting a long time to get answers to those questions from Spaulding.....his game is just one liners....sometimes they are funny....most of the time they aren't. :)
 




UpAndUnder43 said:
I think its odd that all 4 coaches remain after back to back last place finishes. Not sure it matters. I cannot name a single coach they should have hired instead of one of the three assistants. But I struggle to believe it makes sense to not change anything. Definition of insanity and all that.
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100% aligned. I am very surprised that there wasn't a new assistant brought in for new ideas, new recruiting relationship, new blood, etc.

Go Gophers!!
 

howeda7 said:
I don't have a specific opinion on Kemp/Jenkins but a staff shake-up sure seemed in order. If Ben was going to stay, he really needed his Phil Martelli, a coach on staff with D-1 head coaching experience.
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Jenkins is a keeper. He’s been the contact on most of the out of town recruits. Kemp would be the first to go. I thought Thorson was supposed to be the equivalent Martelli?
 

Ben had difficulties filling out his staff when he was first hired. I highly doubt a quality assistant would be willing to come here and work for him after two last place finishes in what may likely be his final season as a head coach.
 

It's not always easy to fill out a staff when you're on (or perceived to be on) the hot seat.
 



GopherWeatherGuy said:
Ben had difficulties filling out his staff when he was first hired. I highly doubt a quality assistant would be willing to come here and work for him after two last place finishes in what may likely be his final season as a head coach.
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No he didn't.
 



MNVCGUY said:
lol....gonna be waiting a long time to get answers to those questions from Spaulding.....his game is just one liners....sometimes they are funny....most of the time they aren't. :)
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Waiting a long time for you to answer the same questions. Unreal.
 





60's Guy said:
Where do you land on our coaching staff? 4 wins, 2 wins...same staff. Gotta know this is a critical year if you are the head coach? Nobody fired.

Gotta know it won't look good on the resume if year 3 is like 1 and 2 as an assistant coach.
Did they stay because nobody would hire them? Or because we are about to rise up?
Click to expand...
10 wins
 


Not sure it was the coach that turned him down or the administration that wouldn’t approve the hire, but the coach from Texas (can’t remember if it was Tech or A&M) who was expected to bring a couple good players with him disappeared without a trace. My impression at the time was that building his staff was a little disjointed.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Assistant coaches in college basketball don't really get that much attention. I'm honestly not sure I could name any of the assistant coaches on any of the other teams in the Big Ten. No clue if shaking things up here would have had any impact on the first 2 years or not.

Maybe others pay much more attention to stuff like this.....but in football you will hear about assistant coaching changes in order to shake things up, especially as it pertains to coordinators. But I can't really come up with examples of the same thing happening in basketball. Coaching moves in basketball always seem to be focused on the head coach.
Click to expand...
I think that's all very true for fans. But if you are a coach you know who can and who can't coach. You are talking to coaches all the time. On the road recruiting. On the phone scheduling, asking for background on people, asking for scouting reports on opponents. You have a network you talk to and discuss how to handle locker room turmoil, things your team struggles with results in asking for drills or new philosophy how they approach it. Coaches share information. They talk a lot. They talk at the Final Four, on recruiting weekends and on the phone constantly.
If you are immersed in your job...by accident you will hear about other coaches from different people you talk to being good or bad at their job. You file it away. You build a list.

You should know what you are not good at and who is good at it if you are actively networking.
I would think we would realize we are not elite at defense. Hire an assistant to be your defensive coordinator, so to speak, in basketball. It's done without titles but it happens, Dan Monson won at Gonzaga, left and hasn't won since, Mark Few was his assistant and took over and has won ever since. Chris Beard took Texas Tech up the ladder to the Final Four. Mark Anderson was his defensive coordinator and together they were successful. Anderson took over when Beard left and went to the sweet 16 his first year with the portal and defense. Got fired for preaching. (different issue)

Point is there are assistants who could transform your team. Obviously, we don't have that guy on staff.
I promise there is a guy who could transform our defense....finding him, interviewing him, (talk to a couple-find a fit) I don't think would take that much leg work.
 


goldenboy said:
Not sure it was the coach that turned him down or the administration that wouldn’t approve the hire, but the coach from Texas (can’t remember if it was Tech or A&M) who was expected to bring a couple good players with him disappeared without a trace. My impression at the time was that building his staff was a little disjointed.
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I recently listened to some of Ben's introductory press conference. Ben thought everybody player wise was coming back and wanted them. Obviously didn't happen. Not hiring the assistant to keep Liam was a poor choice. You could always replace him if you felt the need after Liam left...he had head coaching experience...probably helpful in many ways....other players staying?

Definitely, while we don't know the names, at least not any more....lots of guys said no.
 

60's Guy said:
I recently listened to some of Ben's introductory press conference. Ben thought everybody player wise was coming back and wanted them. Obviously didn't happen. Not hiring the assistant to keep Liam was a poor choice. You could always replace him if you felt the need after Liam left...he had head coaching experience...probably helpful in many ways....other players staying?

Definitely, while we don't know the names, at least not any more....lots of guys said no.
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Really the dumbest move he made was to cut loose with Liam's uncle. That first team might have been bubble material with Liam. That would have built his credibility instantly.
 

bga1 said:
Really the dumbest move he made was to cut loose with Liam's uncle. That first team might have been bubble material with Liam. That would have built his credibility instantly.
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He missed basically the entire year that year.
 


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