Do you have proof now? You hadn't been able to produce any in the past, so looking for an update on your investigation.
You're not going to find evidence that explicitly says that. But it's not difficult to connect the dots. There were multiple articles from the Strib and PP that came out prior to Ben's hiring that Coyle had only hired white coaches, and needed to hire a person of color for basketball because it had been 14 years since the last time they hired a person of color as a head coach (Tubby). Gabel has caved to the mob quickly before (defunding the Minneapolis police being the prominent example).
There's also mention of Gabel's support and sign off here when she left -
https://gopherhole.com/boards/threa...ng-supporter-in-departing-u-president.110998/
They reached out to Gates first and he declined an interview. Then Ben Johnson came out of nowhere, was interviewed and immediately hired, less than a week after Pitino was fired.
There were discussions about Dutcher, Smith, and Medved being interviewed, but they never did. They mention this, and Musselman as a potential candidate in this article, but Musselman was never coming here so people need to let that dream die.
Why start with Gates and move to hire Johnson so quickly when other experienced coaches with Minnesota connections were interested in the job? What do Gates and Johnson have in common compared to the others? Johnson wasn't a candidate anywhere else, why the rush? Why not give it more than 1 week?
On top of this I have connections to college basketball/football, the NBA, and NFL that were also baffled at this hire and came to the same conclusion. They knew Smith and Medved were interested, and knew Gates and Musselmen were not. They've also been spot on with other hires like PJ being a success, and Frost being a flop at Nebraska, which shocked me because I thought Frost was going to be successful there.