GOPHERS HIRING BEN JOHNSON

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Best thing I was out food shopping and when I came back this classic from Gordon LIghtfoot came on my 70s pop pandora station, as I was reading the thread -

 

Captain Willard said:
You get what you want, or you get experience. Either give the guy the time to prove himself (and there are some reasons to believe he will), or pronounce him a failure before he takes a breath if for some sad reason that seems more fun. There are a host of challenges to success for any coach here, but many “fans” — who in this case will simply assume all the facts they don’t know about the process, the candidates truly available, the deal terms, the President’s & AD’s goals, or just how Johnson’s alleged connections will help in recruiting — only make it harder.
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Cut it out. We need to vent. We’re venting. Over and over again the wrath is no about Ben. It’s about the U. We want Ben to succeed. We also generally believe he does not have the experience to give us the confidence he is ready for this job.
 


fmlizard said:
Tom Izzo, Juwan Howard, Greg Gard, and Chris Collins all had their first ever HC job at their current Big Ten school.

Matt Painter had 2 yrs at SIU. Penn State’s guy also had 2 years from 2005-7 at IU South Bend.

It’s pretty common to have coaches with no HC exp in Big Ten and a good number of them have been big successes.
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Any differences in where the Wisconsin and Michigan programs were when they hired Gard/ Howard and where the Gophers are as a program, or nah?
 


gopherdudepart2 said:
You will see it when the team starts playing next year. He learned from better coaches than Pitino.
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He was a better coach than Pitino when he was an assistant. I remember during a shitty moment of a shitty game Pitino started cussing out Ben. Pitino was in over his head. Ben will be an upgrade over Pitino which isn’t saying much
 

Holy Man said:
You give them too much credit. You assume they care and just being out of the box in their wisdom. I think it’s a cynical financial play that is a poke in the eye to you and me and another 8,000 or so season ticket holders.
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It's about the budget and playing to the liberal media.....Coyle's number one job should always be selling tickets for the two revenue producing sports....This will not do it.
 





UpAndUnder43 said:
My tickets are $1540. Doesn’t include parking obviously. So let’s say an even $1700. So they can hire a discount coach with no head coaching experience? Not like we can’t get them back. Season ticket base is dead.
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Cost of buying at your boy Pitino
 

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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You have no idea if "didn't take" the job. I doubt he was even interviewed as it was scheduled for later this week.
 

Iceland12 said:
Or, as far more likely, most of the other "rumors" were just that. Rumors.

Basketball writers and broadcasters, both at the NBA and College level, are notoriously awful at picking the next head coach, trades, draft picks, transfers etc. Usually because they throw nearly every speculation out there to see if it will "catch fire".

That's why, like in this case, people say how surprised they were by the hire. Why?

Because the hires that were speculated about are nearly always wrong.
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Amen! I was literally reading on here that Smith was the guy that got hired. Changed quick.
 

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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Why do you people keep saying this? No, of course no one is sure. How could anyone be certain of this?

I am not certain that Brad Stevens is a better coach than Ben. Ben's never been a head coach.

All of the evidence that we have indicate that Gates is a better coach than Ben. We have some evidence of Gates turning around a struggling program (data points), Ben Johnson is the great unknown. He doesn't have a resume and doesn't have any data points. The fact that we couldn't possibly know what we are getting with Ben Johnson is precisely the problem.
 



gopherdudepart2 said:
All these diversity cheap shots are annoying as F. What does it matter about a person's race? That is total crap and y'all know it even if you are using it as a crutch or excuse for disliking something. Ben's a great dude and people are sh!tting all over him. A lot should be ashamed here, be pissed at Coyle maybe, but give Ben a chance for cripes sakes.
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Hope Johnson does well and there is something that isn't apparent on the surface of his resume.

But as to your other point. It is pretty unrealistic to have all the familiar voices calling for a diversity hire and then once a that hire is made nobody is suppose to talk about race playing in a role in it.

That is part of the problem with making everything about race. You can't just stop and start the conversation when it suits you, despite what many of have been led to believe.
 


4thegophers said:
After I saw news of the hire I contacted two friends that are D1basketball coaches (one a asst head coach) to get their reaction. Both said that they had heard rumors over the weekend but were still none-the-less surprised. They both knew him, one a little better than the other. They think he is a very good recruiter and well thought of on the AAU circuit and that one of the past problems in getting recruits to the University was that Pitino was a lazy recruiter and did little to support his assistant’s efforts. So much so that that lack of effort was what drove Ben away. Left to his own devices, they think he will be able to recruit good players and really grow into the job. They think he will have to bring in a veteran presence as an assistant, but overall is a great guy, really knows his stuff and knows how to develop players.
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This is the Big Ten, there is no growing into the job. Growing into the job is what you do at smaller schools/conferences. Let's be honest, look at the coaches in the Big Ten and rank Ben Johnson on that list for coaching and player development. Then honestly tell me which of those same programs Ben is going to be able to out recruit. That is where he starts, then once you have a track record of losing, you can't recruit anymore. That means Ben has like two maybe three years to move up to the top half of the list. How realistic is that? If you read what these coaches said, it is not optimistic. It sounds like they like Ben and he has some good qualities, but he is not ready to go toe-to-toe with the big boys. It sounds like they like him as a person and don't want to hammer the guy and he probably has some potential, but its definitely not, "this guy is ready for the big time"
 

Flipper1a said:
How do you know? Give him some time. I watched one of Pitino's best rosters in his 8 years not be able to consistently shoot, run an offense, or play lockdown defense. We were pretty much back to square one.
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I saw the same thing when Johnson was on the staff and using all of his local recruiting ties to not land many local recruits.
 

Trying to convince myself that this is a good hire, either that or Johnson has some photos of Coyle that he brought to the interview with him...
  • Numero Uno: Xavier did pull in two very impressive recruiting classes in 2019 and 2020. That can't be too easy to do at Xavier. So I'll give him some cred for making that happen.
  • Numero Dos: A minority coach is a plus, not a big plus, but a plus.
  • Numero Tres: Some folks "in the know" are saying he has solid connections with our AAU teams. Wish I could see some evidence of that, but you've gotta think that if that's one of the reasons for the hire, that Coyle made phone calls to the AAU coaches to get their input Johnson. I sure hope the "in the know" folks are actually in the know.
  • Numero Quatro: With a small pay stub for the head coach, that should leave us with dollars to hire impressive assistant coaches - hopefully in contrast to Maturi's philosophy of pay low for the head coach (Brew) and even less to the assistants.
 

Ozzy&Ray said:
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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Loyola Chicago says Hey - their violence is like Beirut compared to Mpls.
 


60's Guy said:
No, it ain’t. The top HS coach would have proven he is a winner. He would have developed a style.
Ben offers neither and nothing but mediocrity has followed him as an assistant.
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Worse than mediocre followed the gophers after he left...
 

WorkingMyTailOff said:
He was a better coach than Pitino when he was an assistant. I remember during a shitty moment of a shitty game Pitino started cussing out Ben. Pitino was in over his head. Ben will be an upgrade over Pitino which isn’t saying much
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Probably true. But does that make it a good hire?
 









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