GOPHERS HIRING BEN JOHNSON

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Some Day...Maybe said:
What a kick reading this thread.

Minnesota kid.
Played for the Gophers.
By all accounts a great person and very intelligent.
Well liked.
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Seen a lot of these reasons along with recruiting ability and local connections as why people like this hire.

Funny thing about that is not one thing I have read about the Johnson hire mentions his coaching ability. I guess you would think coaching ability might be a consideration when hiring a coach. Based on AD Coyle’s basketball hires coaching ability is not a requirement.
 

Some Day...Maybe said:
What a kick reading this thread.

Minnesota kid.
Played for the Gophers.
By all accounts a great person and very intelligent.
Well liked.

I’m excited. Excited to see what he can do. Coyle obviously does his due diligence and talks to a lot of people and then makes the decision he thinks is best. Don’t for a second think he doesn’t talk to boosters, alumni, and coaches (and in this case probably the AAU community).

Two of the best players the Gophers have had in how long say it’s a great hire. I’m behind him 100%! Hope he turns out to be the best coach we’ve ever had. Go Ben Johnson! Ski U Mah! Shove it up all the naysayers asses.
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Lets HOPE.
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
I guess it wasn’t a cheap hire

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Wow. This is really depressing. Would Craig Smith have declined that offer? This is such an embarrassing hire.

I will cheer for him to succeed and I hope that he proves me wrong. I just don’t even understand the local angle. He didn’t even do a good job recruiting MN when he was here before. What makes us think it will magically be different?

I digress...
 



bga1 said:
He is way under qualified and he is a diversity hire.
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If he was brought here to recruit, he's more than qualified...

If Coyle was just worried about needing a diversity hire, there were/are many other coaches available that would have been "safer" hires. He could have easily caved in to the Strip crowd and hired Sam Mitchell.

Coyle hired who HE wanted...
 


SomeGopherFan said:
One box this hiring definitely does not check is the fan excitement box.
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I don't think Coyle is concerned at all about this... He knows that everyone will get right back on the bandwagon with even the remotest, tiniest amount of success.
 




Gopher Teeth said:
...and you can at least sell recruits on the fact you were an NBA guy; player and coach.
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Yep. If we were going to hire a young alum, why not Ryan Saunders? At least he’s been a head coach and could say “I know what it takes to get you to the show.”

I do not understand this hire.
 

TheBarnyard said:
Wow. This is really depressing. Would Craig Smith have declined that offer? This is such an embarrassing hire.

I will cheer for him to succeed and I hope that he proves me wrong. I just don’t even understand the local angle. He didn’t even do a good job recruiting MN when he was here before. What makes us think it will magically be different?

I digress...
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Don't think Smith declined that offer, he was supposed to interview this week...if so, that means Johnson was offered before Smith was even considered. And that thought makes me wanna puke a little.
 

I’ll take Ben Johnson over Anthony Grant.
I agree
 




laazrakit said:
If he was brought here to recruit, he's more than qualified...

If Coyle was just worried about needing a diversity hire, there were/are many other coaches available that would have been "safer" hires. He could have easily caved in to the Strip crowd and hired Sam Mitchell.

Coyle hired who HE wanted...
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Why wasn’t he brought here to coach? If he was actually brought here to coach which you would think is a huge part of the job I haven’t seen anyone mention it.
 

GoldenUMNGopher said:
You are insane if you believe that
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Coyle jumped right out and made the hire... he didn't even bother to see if the bobo's that everyone in here wanted him to hire were interested or not. He did a video-interview with Ben Johnson and was sold on him. Didn't even interview the others... Smith...? No thanks. Medved...? Nope, no need to call us. Muss...? Sorry, Eric.

You're either being silly or.... Well, whatever you are, you're wrong.
 

Holy Man said:
God bless you for your loyalty. Only a few have suggested abandoning the program and tickets. We need to unload on an administration that went on the cheap and overpaid for it. It’s insulting but most of us will get over it. But not tonight.

Again venom is at Coyle not Ben.
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It’s a little over the top IMHO.
 

Passing on Craig Smith just gives me a sharp pain in the chest/heart area. Yes I will be all in on Ben Johnson. It's just hard for my mind to wrap around the idea that Ben was a better candidate. It hurts.

A big time transfer/recruit or two will help ease the pain.
 

I’ve been lurking on this board since the Jason Groth era but I haven’t posted in a number of years (I lost my original account). This hire has triggered me to post. I like that he has some MN ties and has had some experience recruiting MN, but beyond that I don’t think I’ve ever been so underwhelmed. Can he coach, how is he at x/os, can he coach defense, can he learn quickly enough on the job as a head coach, can he sell tickets? I’ll say I’m not optimistic but wish him the best.
 

HopHead said:
I bet we are the only team in the Big 10 with a coach that doesn't even have a Wikipedia page. lol
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I posted a couple weeks back that I could not shake the feeling that despite all the names being thrown around, they were going to hire someone who I'd have to look up on Wikipedia to find out about him.
Guess I'm S.O.L.
 

Coyle did a great job on the PR side when he fired Lil' Richard; he did a terrible job on the PR side when he hired Johnson. At a minimum, he should have authorized people to post "leaks" starting yesterday about how great Johnson is at recruiting, the Wikipedia page should have been edited and put together, and with the announcement, there should have been more of a blitz from his past Gopher teammates saying how great of a coach he will be. Tomorrow's press conference is going to be on the defense from the start. I don't blame Johnson for any of that. Coyle just isn't very good at public relations and it hurts the Gophers. Coyle has put Johnson in a difficult position on day zero of his head coaching career. Let's see how Johnson handles it. Hopefully he's got better PR skills than Coyle.
 

Go4Broke said:

NCAA college basketball: Xavier Musketeers' Recruiting Tracker​


2019 (Top 25)

Since Travis Steele took over as the men's basketball head coach at Xavier University in the spring of 2018, he hired a young staff of assistants in Jonas Hayes, Ben Johnson and Dante Jackson, and together, they've cast a wide net in the upcoming recruiting races.

The first class they compiled in 2019 was ranked top-25 nationally by 247Sports, but that original five-member class is now down to three players because Dahmir Bishop entered the transfer portal after Xavier's trip to Villanova and big man Dieonte Miles has been redshirted for this season.

2020 (Top 15)

When Travis Steele took over as head coach of Xavier, he did so with the reputation as a great recruiter. The 2019 class went a long way toward confirming that, the 2020 class has cemented it. In locking down CJ Wilcher, Dwan Odom, and Colby Jones, Steele has landed a class that easily top 15 and even hits the top 10 on some lists.

2021

After back-to-back successful recruiting classes, the 2021 class was going to be a smaller class that focused on forwards and centers. The 2021 recruiting process was different because coaches had to do almost all of their scouting online since in-person recruiting was not allowed due to COVID-19. This also meant a lot of players had to decide where to spend their college careers without ever stepping on a college campus.

College coaches were forced to get creative to find ways to get commits. This meant a lot of Zoom discussions and FaceTime tours of campus and athletic facilities. Xavier’s first commit in the class of 2021 was Cesare Edwards out of Hartsville, S.C., where he attends Hartsville High School. Edwards is 6-foot-10, 205 pounds, and ranked the 91st best player overall and the 17th best center in the class. Xavier was chosen over a list of other schools, including Florida, Florida State, Clemson and many others.

The second commit in Xavier’s 2021 class is Elijah Tucker. Tucker is from Canton, Ga. where he attends Cherokee high school. Tucker is 6-foot-7, 190 pounds and ranked as the 144th overall and the 25th best power forward in the class. He chose Xavier over St. Johns, Iowa, Georgia Tech and others.

https://xaviernewswire.com/2020/11/23/xavier-hitting-recruiting-trail-sign-two-2021-recruits/
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247 rates the class as 2019 - 27th, 2020 - 24th.
 


ethomasp31 said:
Dean Smith's first head coaching job was at North Carolina....

Roy Williams first head coaching job was at Kansas....

Jim Boeheim's first head coaching job was at Syracuse....

John Thompson's first college head coaching experience was at Georgetown....

Tom Izzo's first head coaching experience was at Michigan State....

Mark Few's first head coaching job was at Gonzaga....

Juwan Howards first head coaching job was at Michigan....

Phil Jackson's first head coaching experience was for the Chicago Bulls....

Steve Kerr's first head coaching experience was for the Warriors....

Tubby Smith had 14 straight NCAA Tournament Appearances....14 straight 20 win seasons........one national championship....3 more Elite 8's....5 more Sweet 16's....and 4 more round of 32 appearances in the NCAA Tournament.

I don't know if Ben Johnson will homerun hire or a bust....and neither does anyone else. But I'm over the resume talk. We weren't in the interview room. We don't know what his players have said about him (other than the glowing reports and congratulations for him that he has gotten today). The negativity in this room sucks and I'm just so over it.
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Thank you for proving my point!

Dean Smith was a coach in the Army. I know that might sound strange but it was pretty high level basketball 60 years ago. You know, cause Dean Smith was hired 60 Fing years ago.
Roy Williams was a top assistant for one of the nations top programs for 10 seasons. He was also hired 33 years ago.
Jim Boehim was hired 45 F'ing years ago. He was also an assistant AT Syracuse where their coach left for another job. He was promoted from within.
John Thompson was hired 49 F'ing years ago. He was a prominent HS coach in DC for years and a former NBA player.
Tom Izzo - Again, you are (i hope intentionally) not differentiating the difference of promoting a long time assistant to HC. He was an assistant coach at Michigan State for 12 years prior to becoming a HC. He coached for another legend at Michigan State.
Mark Few - Great coach. He was a strong assistant for a successful coach. Gonzaga was a slightly good mid-major job when he took it (the kind of job that would have made sense for Ben Johnson).
Juwan Howard - Huge name recognition and a 6 year NBA assistant.
Phil Jackson - You're wrong
Steve Kerr - He was an NBA General Manager before becoming a coach. LOL.
Tubby Smith- Yeah, he had a great career. I'm not sure what your point is here. By the way, Tubby went from an assistant coach, to a coach of a mid-major (Tulsa), to a coach of P6 type program (Georgia), to a blue blood (Kentucky). You know. . . the expected trajectory of a successful coaching career.

I don't care if you're over the resume talk. It's THE issue with Ben Johnson. He doesn't have the resume you would look for. What an idiotic comment. You're over people talking about the qualifications (resume) of the person who was hired. LOL.

Look at how you had to squint to try to find examples to prove your point. People who were GMs in the NBA, longtime assistants at their school, and people you were flat-out wrong about.

I have no idea if Ben Johnson will be good or not. I am genuinely stoked to hear that people like him. But make no mistake, that excitement is DESPITE THE FACT that he doesn't have the requisite resume. The resume isn't the only thing that matters.
 

Flipper1a said:
Are you sure Gates is a better coach? I am not. Can Gates recruit better than Ben in MN.....I don't think so. Ben has a ton of MN connections.
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Well, one has an actual record as a head coach, the other does not.
 

Would like to know exactly how Johnson "blew him away" for Coyle. Not hating, just honestly would like to know what exactly Coyle saw that nobody else here does.
 

NDGopher69420 said:
Just saw this now catching up on the thread so someone might have addressed this already but... This is incorrect.
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Was Smith ever a realistic target or candidate we could have afforded to hire? They didn't talk to his agent or make any real contract offer.
 

CentralGopher said:
Would like to know exactly how Johnson "blew him away" for Coyle. Not hating, just honestly would like to know what exactly Coyle saw that nobody else here does.
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There is one question that I desperately hope Coyle asked him and that Johnson had a great answer for:

What went wrong with the Pitino era, and how can you fix it?
 



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