GOPHERS HIRING BEN JOHNSON

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Holy Man said:
Possible but I don’t see it. You don’t tell successful and experienced head coaches who to hire. That would a major red flag for the candidate. You can, however, tell an unproven low profile candidate that there are parameters to work in for hiring. A lot easier to tell Ben who to hire than
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I wonder if conroy hanging on now for 1 more year
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
Someone with head coaching experience. Pretty low bar.

I guess we can give the U some credit, calling the bluff of the MN AAU programs. Wonder what those programs will say when their players still go else where? Probably blame Ben for not being good enough
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He has 15 years of Assistant coaching experience.....you will see the difference real quick. Pitino's best teams were when he had graduate transfers brought in. They only guys he coached up didn't need his help (Coffey, Oturu).

I looked at the last 6 games where 4 wins prob get us in the tourney:


All losses. Pitino wore out his welcome with his players. Need someone that is refreshing. There isn't a Fleck in the list I saw.....maybe Johnson is that guy?
 


JimmyJamesMD said:
Someone with head coaching experience. Pretty low bar.

I guess we can give the U some credit, calling the bluff of the MN AAU programs. Wonder what those programs will say when their players still go else where? Probably blame Ben for not being good enough
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Exactly...good point.

The kids are the ones making the decisions not the coaches. The coaches could love to Ben to death but that doesn't mean anything when it comes to the kids playing here. If he can't coach, if we continue to lose, or they just want a change of scenery we'll continue to not get local high end recruits.
 

bmb5270 said:
I wonder how many experts on this board will say what a visionary hire this was if Ben starts locking down some in state talent and gets this program turned around. I for one am tired of getting my hopes up every year for talented Minnesota recruits only to be disappointed. I’m not worried about 5 star one and dones but let’s see if Ben can keep some 3 and 4 star kids here and build this program.
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Almost every poster here is a die hard Gopher fan and most of us have always liked Ben Johnson. So I'd imagine every single one of us would love to say nice things about about the decision.

That said, the process is garbage, regardless of how it turns out. At best, Coyle ignored all tangible evidence and chose someone based entirely on anecdotal evidence. Bad decisions/process can lead to good results. I'm obviously hoping that happens here.
 


After a night's sleep, Ben Johnson will have to win over the Gopher fan base and prove he is an elite B1G coach. He has no track record so his slate is clean. He either shows he can consistently win in the B1G or he doesn't. Since his hire resulted in huge "thud" from the fan base, which wanted an up and coming person who the nation would envy, his unknown status requires Coach Johnson to not just recruit, but consistently beat B1G teams like Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and Michigan State. He needs to consistently get us into the NCAA tournament.
With zero head coaching experience and a disappointed fan-base, Coach Johnson not only needs to win, but he needs to excite the fan-base with significant recruiting and improvement of play on the court.
I wish him the best. I will sit on the sideline and observe. I will try to be patient. But, don't produce a sloppy, undisciplined team that doesn't honor each possession, take good shots and has a sieve defense. I can't take more sloppy play and standing around like Coach Pitino produced. This isn't the AAU circuit.
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
Someone with head coaching experience. Pretty low bar.

I guess we can give the U some credit, calling the bluff of the MN AAU programs. Wonder what those programs will say when their players still go else where? Probably blame Ben for not being good enough
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I'm not trying to be super negative here, but exactly.

The top dogs aren't going to come now because we aren't very good.
 

Gopher Teeth said:
This is the problem, I feel bad for Ben. If he doesn’t come out of the gates on fire, the momentum will never let him recover. There won’t be many high level recruits that will have him rated higher than those coaches. I hope not, but this could get ugly fast.
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True. Craig smith not in that category either. And Craig smith will be more expensive to fire in 2024 than Johnson will be when we fire him
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I'm not trying to be super negative here, but exactly.

The top dogs aren't going to come now because we aren't very good.
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You aren’t super negative. I am.

I am defending the hire by saying he will be cheap to fire
 



I know Ben Johnson I have not talked to him for a while I saw him in August at a good friend’s wedding.

I watched Johnson play basketball when he was playing at DeLaSalle and at the University of Minnesota.

I continued to follow Johnson through college and when he started his college coaching.

I think that he is a good person for the job. He knows the twin cities area and knows the high school and AAU coaches in the area.

I will be interested in seeing who he brings in as an assistant coach.

http://stevenssports.blogspot.com/2021/03/minneapolis-native-ben-johnson-has.html
 

Some guy said:
True. Craig smith not in that category either. And Craig smith will be more expensive to fire in 2024 than Johnson will be when we fire him
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+1.
Add all those others to the list. Medved, Smith, Gates, Dutcher, Mitchell, Jacobsen....they are all risky.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Almost every poster here is a die hard Gopher fan and most of us have always liked Ben Johnson. So I'd imagine every single one of us would love to say nice things about about the decision.

That said, the process is garbage, regardless of how it turns out. At best, Coyle ignored all tangible evidence and chose someone based entirely on anecdotal evidence. Bad decisions/process can lead to good results. I'm obviously hoping that happens here.
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If it works out that might make it a great decision?
Conventional wisdom and strategy is sometimes wrong.

I’m hoping Coyle sees the fit better than I see the fit
 




stevenmgr said:
I know Ben Johnson I have not talked to him for a while I saw him in August at a good friend’s wedding.

I watched Johnson play basketball when he was playing at DeLaSalle and at the University of Minnesota.

I continued to follow Johnson through college and when he started his college coaching.

I think that he is a good person for the job. He knows the twin cities area and knows the high school and AAU coaches in the area.

I will be interested in seeing who he brings in as an assistant coach.

http://stevenssports.blogspot.com/2021/03/minneapolis-native-ben-johnson-has.html
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This sounds like the reaction if he was hired at St. Thomas.
 

Flipper1a said:
+1.
Add all those others to the list. Medved, Smith, Gates, Dutcher, Mitchell, Jacobsen....they are all risky.
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I mean, let’s all face it. It’s the gophers. Greatest likelihood is that whoever gets hired will be fired in 3-10 years. We just made the hire that safest allows us to do it at 3 for cheap.
 


Some guy said:
True. Craig smith not in that category either. And Craig smith will be more expensive to fire in 2024 than Johnson will be when we fire him
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This is the height of foolishness: hiring someone because he'll be cheap to fire. I suppose this is the way many fans think, so thanks for representing them here.
 

Bad Gopher said:
This is the height of foolishness: hiring someone because he'll be cheap to fire. I suppose this is the way many fans think, so thanks for representing them here.
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I’m not defending the hire. The hire sucks. Craig smith would be better. But he isn’t a very impressive get either
 

GopherPoke said:
Do we actually know this? I mean do we 100% know what the budget was, and do we 100% know what the bottom line was for those other candidates?
I don't think we do, nor will we ever.
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We know they had at least $2.4 million in the budget. You will never convince me that Smith wouldn't have taken the job for that and probably Medved too.
 

This is not the best time to replace a coach. Like most programs, if not all, the financial impact of the pandemic on ours has been severe. That, coupled with the pressure to diversify is probably the reason for the Ben Johnson hire. As an 80 year old with congestive heart failure, my dream of a return to the final four is probably not going to happen in my lifetime. But as in marriage, I’m a Gopher for better or worse, and I will give Ben all of my support. I hope others will too.
 



Some guy said:
I mean, let’s all face it. It’s the gophers. Greatest likelihood is that whoever gets hired will be fired in 3-10 years. We just made the hire that safest allows us to do it at 3 for cheap.
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I see Ben as similar to the Wisconsin coach. There will be some good recruits but the key is the glue guys, Ben was the glue guy. We need Robbins, Johnson, Carr, and Mashburn back and keep the rest of the kids happy.
 

Some of the greatest accomplishments in life are the result of some of the greatest risks ever taken. It can also bring great failure. Smith? Gates? Medved? If that was the best we had to choose from, I'm all for rolling the dice on Ben Johnson. Without going into detail, I know for a fact:

1.) Many at the U were involved in the search, not just Coyle
2.) There were no budget restraints on the hiring
3.) A "couple" top-tier candidates declined an interview
4.) Many in the local basketball community were "consulted"
5.) Diversity candidates were highly valued for a variety of reasons but had NOTHING to do with the final decision on who to offer

Jobs are on the line with this hire and that premise was not lost on the people involved. I will continue to support the U through attendance and donations as I always have. When the general disappointment from the fan base dissipates, we need to stand behind Ben and give him the support and encouragement that he deserves as our Coach. The rest will be up to Ben. Go Gophers!
 

ethomasp31 said:
I think Dean Smith was in the Air Force and not the Army....I'm not sure what kind of team he was the coach for there as there is no reference for it. The point about Tubby is that he had the resume you wanted....even though it was almost 40 Fing years ago. How did that work out??? The point of the whole post no one this board has any idea if Ben Johnson will be successful or not. They have no idea if Craig Smith would have been successful here or not.....they have no idea if Niko Medved would be successful here or not....they have no idea if Gates would be successful here or not.

Beyond that...they weren't in the interview process. They have no idea what conversations have taken place. They have no idea what former players have or haven't said....and yet they are experts on who the Gophers should have hired as their head coach....and are acting like little babies that the U didn't hire who they wanted to be hired.
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Of course no one knows if this will work or if Medved/Gates would have worked. If we would have hired Brad Stevens, that would not have guaranteed that would have worked either. There are no guarantees. You could go to the casino and triple your life savings today, that doesn't make that a good choice because "who knows what'll happen?"

So you've hit the nail on the head, no one on here can tell the future. That said, I could give you endless examples of coaches who had success at smaller programs and then transitioned that success to larger programs. It's really the best way to tell if people will be good at something is to see their experience in that something. When you tried to bring up examples of people who were successful despite being hired without a resume, you failed. You have guys from 80 years ago, guys who had head coaching experience, and guys who were long time assistants to legendary coaches. That's kind of an apples to spaceships comparison.

As far as acting like a baby about who we wanted, WTF are you talking about? This was an odd coaching search because it seemed like everyone was pretty open between Gates, Smith, Moser, Medved if we missed out on Muss and Dutcher. As a fan base, we were so desperate for a semblance of a healthy program, that most of us just wanted a proven college basketball coach. I don't think there would have been any negativity around any qualified candidate.
 


Some guy said:
I mean, let’s all face it. It’s the gophers. Greatest likelihood is that whoever gets hired will be fired in 3-10 years. We just made the hire that safest allows us to do it at 3 for cheap.
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If that went remotely into Coyle's thinking, he should be fired immediately.
 

howeda7 said:
If that went remotely into Coyle's thinking, he should be fired immediately.
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If you enter a hiring process and realize you are to a group of candidates who are all risky. You might choose the one with the lowest downside financially.
I have no idea what entered the process.


I am assuming Coyle is really cocky on this one and thinks it is a perfect fit and that it has as good of a chance to be successful as more experienced hires (in his own mind)
 

Slim Tubby said:
Some of the greatest accomplishments in life are the result of some of the greatest risks ever taken. It can also bring great failure. Smith? Gates? Medved? If that was the best we had to choose from, I'm all for rolling the dice on Ben Johnson. Without going into detail, I know for a fact:

1.) Many at the U were involved in the search, not just Coyle
2.) There were no budget restraints on the hiring
3.) A "couple" top-tier candidates declined an interview
4.) Many in the local basketball community were "consulted"
5.) Diversity candidates were highly valued for a variety of reasons but had NOTHING to do with the final decision on who to offer

Jobs are on the line with this hire and that premise was not lost on the people involved. I will continue to support the U through attendance and donations as I always have. When the general disappointment from the fan base dissipates, we need to stand behind Ben and give him the support and encouragement that he deserves as our Coach. The rest will be up to Ben. Go Gophers!
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(1) That is the scary point. I don't want people outside of the athletic department being part of the process.
(2) I don't buy this.
(3) Sure. It happens all the time.
(4) This is kind of a scary premise depending upon the extent they were consulted. I really hope the AAU circuit didn't get to pick our next coach.
(5) The first half of this statement doesn't agree with the second half of this statement. If diversity is highly valued, why would it have nothing to do with the decision? This is the lie the diversity-based-hiring types try to sell. They want diversity to be part of the hiring process but they also indignant when anyone brings it up. Of course diversity played a role in the hiring. It played a role because, as they say, it's highly-valued to them.

I agree with your last sentence. I'll stand by Ben and cheer him on. Part of that means accepting the truth with how he was hired and getting over it or celebrating it (some people like the diversity, local, anecdotal angle). None of that will prevent me from cheering for Ben and supporting him and the Gophers.
 

I find it curious that with some of th emost recent players strngly endorsing Johnson, just what it says about former Coach Pitino. At least Coach Johnson will not just "be relying on his last name"!
 

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