GOPHERS HIRING BEN JOHNSON

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It’s freaking Pitino 2.0! But at least Richard had a year as a head coach under his belt and he was soon exposed to be a vastly unqualified Big Ten head coach.This smacks of Teague’s desperation hire when nobody wanted the job. I can’t take any more of the bottom-feeding shit. Act like a damn Big Ten school and stop with the crony hires!
 


I was very excited about the new coach. I checked this thread probably 30 or more times a day..... I am extremely disappointed. I thought for sure Coyle had a PJ Flecks-type hire. I have been a Gopher fan for 40 plus years. I might be done caring. If it works out I will be back quicker than you can say “Chet Holmgren is a Gopher”. But man this has the feeling of why should I invest myself to a school that I am not sure invests back.
 

WriterGoph said:
Amazing to see so many loyal "fans" jumping ship and giving up their tickets this quick.

Everyone demanded a change and now they don't trust the AD's choice?

Imagine that.
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This isn't a Motzko or PJ Fleck. 2 of the top if not THE top candidates at the time.

This is the same as hiring the top high school basketball coach in the state.

I'll support him, but people are allowed to bitch right now and rightfully so.
 




From the Xavier athletics website:
“Ben is an outstanding coach and recruiter that will be a very successful head coach one day,” said head coach Travis Steele. “Ben is ‘Steady Eddy,’ he just is. He is the same guy every day. He is highly intelligent, very well thought out. He’s very good at everything. He is great on the floor, he’s great in skill development, he’s got a great offensive mind and he’s got great relationships with our players. He is a really good evaluator and recruiter. Everything he does he is very thorough and has helped us to mine the state of Alabama to get Colby Jones and New Jersey to get Zach Freemantle just to name a few. He’s got a great eye for talent and he’s very thorough, very diligent with his process. He is another guy I think is going to be a head coach sooner rather than later. He is terrific and we are fortunate to have him.”

“Ben will play a key role once again in developing our perimeter players. Ben is very intelligent. He is a very good teacher, takes a lot of pride in it and how he communicates his messages to our players. Ben is always studying the game. I don’t have to tell him to do that. He just does it. It’s his passion.”

Ben Johnson - Men's Basketball Coach - Xavier University Athletics

Ben Johnson, 39, joined the Xavier Basketball staff in 2018 after spending the previous five seasons from 2013-18 as an assistant at his alma mater, Minnesota. He
goxavier.com goxavier.com
 

TheBarnyard said:
Wow, what a disappointing hire. Is there anyone on the board that is happy with this hire???
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I'm going to trust Coyle. I'm surprised, but I don't have anything bad to say about Ben Johnson.

It's just funny that everyone was so scared of guys like Gates who "would leave soon" and now some of those same people are upset that we got an alum with local recruiting connections.
 

7866Fan said:
I would guess that Coyle is going to demand that an experienced coach be on the bench, like Phil Martelli at Michigan. Tim Miles?
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If you hired him, trust him -- otherwise you hired the wrong person.

Tough crowd. Not much of a track record to rate him by, but let's let him speak before you go too off your rockers.

Certainly a risky hire, right after a risky hire. Time will tell, but let's be welcoming. Get it done Ben!
 




I'll be interested to see who his assistants are and think that's key. Bring Dave Thorson back to Minnesota (who he obviously played for) and I can breathe a little. I imagine they'll have a fair amount of money to play with when it comes to assistants with Ben likely being the lowest paid coach in the conference. I'm definitely in shock
 

Rickman55 said:
What a HUGE letdown. Can’t wait to hear what Coyle has to say about the hire.
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Do you expect him to say how disappointed he is that others turned him down and he is hiring his 8th choice?. Not gonna happen.
 

Spottedmuskie said:
Kfan saying aau circles wanted Ben and now it's on them if they send their kids to Minnesota. We need to chase Dawson Garcia now and try to reel back in Mashburn and/or Carr. One last run at Chet, maybe get Hercy Miller. I'm optimistic with the hire
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This obsession with MN recruits has to go.
 



Spottedmuskie said:
Kfan saying aau circles wanted Ben and now it's on them if they send their kids to Minnesota. We need to chase Dawson Garcia now and try to reel back in Mashburn and/or Carr. One last run at Chet, maybe get Hercy Miller. I'm optimistic with the hire
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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.
 

gopherdudepart2 said:
Black has nothing to do with it, Ben Johnson can coach, people usually love the HE IS one of us MANTRA. I like Ben Johnson as a player, I don't understand the hate, head coaches have to start somewhere and XAVIER, is a good basketball school.
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OK - what does Johnson bring that Smith doesn't?
 

Thing with the MN kids angle is how do we know that there will continue to be top 10 kids coming from our state? I mean after Chet we might just have decent high school players. The past 10 years we've had multiple NBA guys coming out of our high schools but that could change. Seems like a strange thing to gamble on.
 

If Chet walks in that door with Ben "Dover" Johnson then I am more disgusted at Minnesota selling out for a 1 year rental.
 

Go Gophs said:
This isn't a Motzko or PJ Fleck. 2 of the top if not THE top candidates at the time.

This is the same as hiring the top high school basketball coach in the state.

I'll support him, but people are allowed to bitch right now and rightfully so.
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Your point is fair, BUT let's remember that after Fleck was hired there were a bunch of haters who said "he is fake. he is too high energy. he will leave soon!"

After Motzko was hired some people said "he is too old. he never delivers in the tournament."
 


WriterGoph said:
Amazing to see so many loyal "fans" jumping ship and giving up their tickets this quick.

Everyone demanded a change and now they don't trust the AD's choice?

Imagine that.
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Yes. We needed a boost of energy. We didn’t get it. I feel betrayed. For what it’s worth I am not in the trust Coyle crowd. He’s made three major hires with one verified success in Fleck. Whalen made news but not success yet. Jury out on Motzko. This doesn’t help.
 

Well at least it will save time watching Gopher sports when the only one I'll bother with is football.
 


WriterGoph said:
I'm going to trust Coyle. I'm surprised, but I don't have anything bad to say about Ben Johnson.

It's just funny that everyone was so scared of guys like Gates who "would leave soon" and now some of those same people are upset that we got an alum with local recruiting connections.
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I was not one of them who was scared about Gates leaving soon. Are you insinuating this was me? Please find posts that back your claim?
 

WilliamsArenaGuy said:
So is Holmgren a possibility? Landing a local like that right away would go along way to showing this has a basis in logic. The easiest way to win us over seems to bring in the big Minnesota fish right away.
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Hell no. Don't be silly.

Guys like that go power 5 hammers. They don't come here to play for a gutted team with a coach that has no experience. They want to go pro.
 


Gophs24 said:
man....im still going to support. But this is a shocker.....

good for Ben....

Nothing we say on here will change this.....so screw it. Im all in
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Ditto, not my choice, but I'm all in

Curious on @builtbadger take
 


gopherdudepart2 said:
I don't usually disagree with Dpodoll68, but GROSS MY ASS, former Gopher player who was a leader on the court. Passionate about Minnesota Gopher Basketball, connections to the AAU coaching circuit, one of us, and this dude can flat out coach. I hope he brings Dave Thorson back with him to the Gopher sidelines and keeps at least one assistant from the last staff. If he does that we will right the ship.
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On paper, this is a flat-out horrible hire. This is worse than the Pitino hire, and I didn't think that was possible. Of course, I will support him and hope that he makes all of us look foolish, but he hasn't earned this job, doesn't deserve it, and in all likelihood will be a colossal failure.
 

Either way it's painfully obvious that we need to move on from Coyle who can no longer effectively do his job for whatever reason. He bowed to the media and hired a cheap minority coach who no one else wanted over proven head coaches who badly wanted the job. Time to find someone who is willing to stand up to the critics and actually make the best hire for the program.
 


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