GOPHERS HIRING BEN JOHNSON

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ethomasp31 said:
Give the guy a chance....I trust Coyle more than anyone on GopherHole. I had a feeling that is who the hire would be when I read both JG and Doogie's Tweets yesterday....even though all the people with "inside sources" said it would be Gates or Smith.
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I think it would’ve been Gates if not for Marquette or DePaul opening
 


DarrenTheGreek said:
I try to have the mindset of not overreacting and letting people have a chance. Go get 'em coach!

I mean, can it get much worse? We were 13th seed out of 14 this year. People seem to think we are on the cusp of being a perennial sweet 16 team.

Good luck Coach Johnson!
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100 percent Darren the Greek, the Gopher men's basketball program isn't that great a program right now. A lot lacking in talent and discipline defensively on the court.
 

gopherdudepart2 said:
I didn't say anything about Criag Smith at Utah State. I think Smith has proved a lot, but he didn't even take the job, so that say's a lot about how tough it is to attract a coach to a program like Minnesota. I think a lot of people turned this down and this may work out in our favor. I like to gamble, and gambling on a smart guy is less risky than a Richard Pitino hire who only got the job because of who is dad was and Teague connections to Billy Donovan. Coyle is taking a bit of a risk, I like it, if he is wrong this will likely cost him his job. I never thought Richard Pitino had the chops or the desire to coach at Minnesota. He was mailing it in from the beginning and just soaking us for a paycheck.
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So Smith interviewed and turned down an offer?
 

forever a gopher said:
While I agree with you, if you have to rely on the assistants to judge whether this will be merely a smoldering fire or a complete dumpster fire, you've probably hired the wrong guy to be the head coach.
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correct....i mean i would have been interested in who the assitants were for whomever the coach that was hired
 


GophersInIowa said:
OMG, you're being obtuse. I just posted a tweet from someone that is very in tuned with local recruiting. I'm sorry it wasn't obvious that I wasn't saying Murphy was also local. But the other two guys were local. So it gave an example of what the other person was asking.
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Obtuse is a great word. I’m just having fun. Have to laugh so I don’t drink.
 






NDGopher69420 said:
I hate to break it to you but there is a 0% chance that anything changes with the AAU programs and where they send their kids. Johnson has never been able to land MN kids and most teams he has been associated with have gotten worse.
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Maybe you should consider the possibility that the MN kids may have liked Ben Johnson but didn't want to play for Pitino.
 

tmvander said:
This is EXACCTLY what i was going to post...5 years under our just fired coach and was then an assistant at a very mediocre program. He helped land Amir Coffey and missed on all the other in state guys so where is the draw there?

This is beyond a reach.
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Look at Ryan James tweet on who he played a big part of bringing to Minnesota...
 








graydon said:
Is it possible we are overlooking current events; i.e., Minneapolis' reputation around the country. Established coaches may not want to bring their families to a half burned out downtown, or recruit to a city that may have months of riots if the Floyd trial turns out the "wrong" way.
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Half burned out downtown? I must have driven through the other half when I visited this past weekend.
 






graydon said:
Is it possible we are overlooking current events; i.e., Minneapolis' reputation around the country. Established coaches may not want to bring their families to a half burned out downtown, or recruit to a city that may have months of riots if the Floyd trial turns out the "wrong" way.
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Why is Floyd on trial? You mean Chauvin et al, right?
 

bonin21 said:
Love how one of the big stories is the big role he played in bringing the only 2 out of the last 19 4+ stars from MN on campus. To Pitino's team. Who just got fired after being mediocre for years and years. And now hiring his assistant. Lmao
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A lot of local coaches and players hated Richard Pitinio, the guy was a monster douche.
 

not super excited about this hire. Hope Coyle knows what he is doing... I just don't see high level recruits jumping on the first time head coach bandwagon. Maybe Chet commits during the introductory news conference and changes my viewpoint...
 

Really disappointed in the hire, but here's my take:

The budget problems at the U are real. Coyle needed to either make a home run hire that could justify the big contract or a budget hire that satisfied some of the concerns about the program--local ties, diversity, etc. Nobody who was a home run wanted the job. I wish Ben well and, as a fan, will be rooting for his success, but my guess is that his contract will be one that costs the U relatively little over the next few years and is easy to move on from if things don't improve markedly. In 2-3 years, Coyle (or whomever has the job then) will be in a better position financially and administratively to pay to hire a much bigger name.
 

graydon said:
Is it possible we are overlooking current events; i.e., Minneapolis' reputation around the country. Established coaches may not want to bring their families to a half burned out downtown, or recruit to a city that may have months of riots if the Floyd trial turns out the "wrong" way.
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We’re not allowed to think that or we’re closet bigots.
 


This is really, really disappointing but maybe he gets traction locally and hires GREAT assistants.
If this is true then I will be a Ben Johnson fan going forward and pulling hard for him to do the unexpected!
 

graydon said:
Is it possible we are overlooking current events; i.e., Minneapolis' reputation around the country. Established coaches may not want to bring their families to a half burned out downtown, or recruit to a city that may have months of riots if the Floyd trial turns out the "wrong" way.
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Dumbest post ever. Coaches and their famiilies are smarter than thinking Mpls is half burned down, or that there will be months of riots, or that George Floyd is on trial. U of Washington, Louisville, and on and on will never be able to recruit or find a coach given the protests of the past year based on your thinking.
 

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