He does. But it should have been mandated to him from day 1. I thought Thorsen was that guy. Clearly he's not. At worst it should have been mandated to him after last season. It wasn't. It's too late now.
Too easy to blame the media. The university made this decision for reasons they have functionally not revealed, ostensibly because of local connections in the basketball community. Classic over correction of weakness in the previous holder of the position. I’ve done it myself.
Uhm...you really have zero idea about this coaching career, do you.
Thorson is a so-called defensive guru, and yet this team has been between bad (2021) and atrocious (2022) during his tenure according to both the stats and eye-test.
This should put the fear of God into the management of the U. Anger can be engaged. Apathy is nearly impossible to cure.
I understand he has some experience as an assistant coach at the NCAA level. He also has much more experience as a HS coach (hence my comment, may want to google it yourself). If you want to die on the hill over Thorson, have at it.
Monsons team quit on him in early December. That was the biggest reason the plug was pulled. I’m not sure I see them quitting. But the “I hope things get better “ ship has passed.
Yes, they did quit on Monson, but the fans had too. That is what is similar now, unfortunately. There is some talent on the floor, but there needs to be some evidence soon that they can be put in a position to succeed.
This hire was a Minnesota media influenced hire. The media which largely hates Gophers men's sports conveniently laid out a narrative just prior to the coaching hiring process.
We are also to compete in Basketball and football and in the Womans program volleyball and basketball find boostees to build up a NIL bank. Otheewise we always will get 2nd level recruits. Now i will contradict myself. I actually think this group of players on Ben's team have talent and potential we lost badly in a scrimmage against a good Colorado State team ( unbeaten), lost by blowing a big lead to a above average Missouri team and lost away to a above average WCC team in San Francisco. They will not lose another non concference gam ( and there schedule was not as poor as we wwre lead to beliece and i believe in conference and confeeence tournanent games in the Big Ten we will will win 6-8 or 9 game whichch puts there total at 16-19 wins and a NIT bertg!
That reminds me of an old saying: there's never enough time to do it right but always enough time to do it over. If you don't do something right, you always end up doing it over. And here we are.
Such as?
16-15 is not making the NIT in any recent years. I'm not familiar with the specifics of the recent changes, but they would generally need 19 or 20 wins just to make the NIT with this embarrassing non conference schedule.
How is it racist to be stating a factor of why Ben Johnson was hired, a factor with high levels of truth. First of all, I love BJ the guy, the person, but as a coach, no one can say the hire has been great. Not all hires turn out, but BJ's resume up to getting this job, was on the very low end of what qualifications you need to get a job like this. Like show me another example of a guy with only assistant coaching experience (was he ever even a #2 assistant for a head coach?) who was hired to a power 5 conference, who wasnt groomed by a well respected predecessor (BJ was not) who wasn't a legend in their basketball community, in basketball in general. BJ is not a legend. In regards to your claim on a racist remark, its pretty clear to any objective party, that following the George Floyd summer, there was a big push nationally, and even more so locally, to hire more candidates of color. George Floyd happened in Minneapolis, the most emotion and push for change came from Minneapolis, and many felt they needed to be this change, to be at the forefront of it, the UM in particular. You can pretend this didn't happen across the US, at the UM, or with Ben Johnson, but the fact is he was hired following this highly charged time, and the UM was one of the loudest proponents of wanting to be more inclusive. Ben Johnson deserved a college head coach chance, Im just not sure UM is where he should have started. Lets give him the full season, but to say his race wasnt a factor at all for being hired, following a time where there was the biggest push in national history to hire people of color, is being really naive.
REALLY!!! GOTTA GO THERE!!
Here we are again, with people blaming the usual boogeymen under the bed: the "administration" and the media. To me, that's part of the show of resignation I posted about earlier: you throw up your hands, blame the boogeymen, and feel good that you've solved the mystery. I do think that brand of consumer apathy is part of the problem in these parts. I know that probably sounds like blaming the fans, but we are pretty meek and mild as fan bases go, and we haven't gotten to be awful at every major sport in this town by purely bad luck.