How low?

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FinnGopher said:
We have a roster of one trick ponies. Only Garcia, Mike Mitchell, and Isaac Asuma have more to offer. As a coach, every set needs to revolve around these three and the others need to get the ball when their one trick is setup. For Rigsby, it's coming off multiple picks, catching the pass in perfect rhythm to shoot. Anything that changes his rhythm will result in a brick being laid. So, Ben has to figure out plays that can get him this kind of shot or else not play him. For Odukale and Fox, they have to catch a pass while they are cutting downhill to the basket. Edmonds has to get the ball on the left block so he can turn to take his baby hook with his right hand. Patterson just stops all ball movement. It's hard to figure out what to do with him. He's undersized, slow, and kills ball movement. That, by the way, is why Rigsby gets playing time. If Patterson would just cut, catch, pass or catch and shoot, he'd be preferred over Rigsby. But, Patterson is not doing that when he gets on the court.
From this point onward, either Mike Mitchell or Isaac Asuma must always be running the offensive sets.
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That's exactly it. Its largely a roster of misfit toys. The majority of our roster allegedly has something they do well, but come with massive limitations in their game. A great coach could maximize their individual strengths while minimizing their major weaknesses.

In case anyone still wasn't sure - we don't have a great coach.
 

EG#9 said:
I am concerned that with a team full of guys in their last year of college basketball this could get even uglier. There was not a lot of fight tonight and you think they would be jacked to play their first B1G game at home against MSU. I don't want to see what the effort looks like if this team gets to the midway point of conference play and is 3-7 (or worse) and is just playing out the string.
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I think Coyle will have his person and is quietly getting all the $$$ ducks in a row to make the leap after this season. Coyle has been very methodical in the NIL era and football seems to be in a good place. Other sports seem to be in good spots. Men's Basketball is the next step.

...at least I am going to believe this for the next 3 months.
 


MaxyJR1 said:
I think Coyle will have his person and is quietly getting all the $$$ ducks in a row to make the leap after this season. Coyle has been very methodical in the NIL era and football seems to be in a good place. Other sports seem to be in good spots. Men's Basketball is the next step.

...at least I am going to believe this for the next 3 months.
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This is my assumption as well. I get why people are calling for him to be fired now but Coyle doesn't seem inclined to do that. However him not firing Johnson in-season doesn't mean he isn't getting everything ready to move quickly after the season.

Just look at when they hired Fleck for football, they moved very quickly and landed one of the hotter names available in that cycle.
 

MNVCGUY said:
This is my assumption as well. I get why people are calling for him to be fired now but Coyle doesn't seem inclined to do that. However him not firing Johnson in-season doesn't mean he isn't getting everything ready to move quickly after the season.

Just look at when they hired Fleck for football, they moved very quickly and landed one of the hotter names available in that cycle.
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Well, in the firing of Claeys, Coyle simply used a half-baked excuse to dropkick him after a bowl win over WSU. What kind of excuse does Coyle even need to fire Johnson?

It may not matter if Johnson is kept as head coach for this season, but Coyle had better have a nearly instant replacement at the end of this season. If he doesn't, then Coyle has not been doing his due diligence.
 




RockChalk said:
Therein lies the problem. This coach has no offensive sets, he has no offense, period. In 4 years have you ever once witnessed any one of his teams run the same thing on more than one occasion? NO

A team with any kind of resemblance of an offense would not have the shot clock run out on them time and time and time again.
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It's really not that much different from Pitino's offense. The difference with Pitino is he would go get himself a quick guard or two to get some pace. Lil' Dre, Marcus Carr, Washington, McBrayer, Mason, Morris and Dorsey were all quicker than most of the guards Ben has brought in (Samuels, Cooper, Patterson). So while both offenses are/were formless most of the time, Pitino's guys had the ability to break people down and scramble the defense. Ben only has had one guy that could really do that with pace and that was Hawkins- by far Ben's best year. Asuma will get there, but not soon enough to save Ben.
 

I think Coyle might have a “today list” but there are coaches who emerge over the course of the season (as well as those who - submerge?). It’s too early to know the right replacement, IMO.

It doesn’t matter that much when you let the current coach go, though - it won’t make the search easier or harder.
 




FinnGopher said:
Well, in the firing of Claeys, Coyle simply used a half-baked excuse to dropkick him after a bowl win over WSU. What kind of excuse does Coyle even need to fire Johnson?

It may not matter if Johnson is kept as head coach for this season, but Coyle had better have a nearly instant replacement at the end of this season. If he doesn't, then Coyle has not been doing his due diligence.
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Unless the replacement is someone who has a team in the NCAA tournament. In that case our season would be over but the replacement wouldn't be named until after the team was out of the tournament. But yeah, I would be shocked to find out Coyle isn't doing what he needs to do to prepare for a coaching change this off season.

Coyle didn't need an excuse to fire Claeys, he was just a one year stop gap option and was never going to be the long term solution under a new AD. He won't need an excuse to fire Johnson after 4 years with multiple rebuilds and no NCAA Tournament appearances.
 

TeamTubby said:
Apathy has already set in for the majority of fans.

I never thought it would happen to me but it has. Johnson has sucked all the life out of the program. He is the worst Minnesota coach in any sport during my entire lifetime.
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I dont know how old you are but Joe Salem was worse as the football coach.
 

The 1986 team that went 2-16 in the Big Ten could beat this team...but you also could see the talent coming up(they went to the elite eight a few years later). Other than Asuma there is no hope for the future for this squad.
 



TeamTubby said:
Apathy has already set in for the majority of fans.

I never thought it would happen to me but it has. Johnson has sucked all the life out of the program. He is the worst Minnesota coach in any sport during my entire lifetime.
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ahh......Tim Brewster?

as I've said before, Johnson did not inherit a top-of-the-conference program. since the 1997 Final Four team, the Gophers have had 3 seasons with a winning record in B1G games. that's 3 winning conference seasons in 27 years.

Johnson inherited a below-average program and made it a little more below average.

Johnson is part of the problem - but he is not the entire problem. If changing the head coach is the only change, I don't see things getting appreciably better.

unless there is a sudden change in philosophy and the U decides to go after a big-name coach and pay a big-name salary - plus come up with big-time NIL money. In order for that to happen, I think the U would need a new AD - in fact if I was running the show, I would start with a new AD and let that person look for a new coach.
 



short ornery norwegian said:
ahh......Tim Brewster?

as I've said before, Johnson did not inherit a top-of-the-conference program. since the 1997 Final Four team, the Gophers have had 3 seasons with a winning record in B1G games. that's 3 winning conference seasons in 27 years.

Johnson inherited a below-average program and made it a little more below average.

Johnson is part of the problem - but he is not the entire problem. If changing the head coach is the only change, I don't see things getting appreciably better.

unless there is a sudden change in philosophy and the U decides to go after a big-name coach and pay a big-name salary - plus come up with big-time NIL money. In order for that to happen, I think the U would need a new AD - in fact if I was running the show, I would start with a new AD and let that person look for a new coach.
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Ben is worse than Brewster.
 


USAF said:
How low does this program have to fall before Johnson loses his job?
How moribund?
How hopeless?
How far does attendance have to fall?
How irrelevant?

Everyone, including Johnson himself, who is still paying any attention knows Johnson is a failure. Even he can't fake the slightest bit of enthusiasm.

FFS, do something, Coyle. Immediately.

At the least let the players and the dozens of fans still out there know YOU are paying attention.
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LOL you talk about paying attention.

And yet you're still talking about coaching.

This board can't be for real.
 


MaxyJR1 said:
I think Coyle will have his person and is quietly getting all the $$$ ducks in a row to make the leap after this season. Coyle has been very methodical in the NIL era and football seems to be in a good place. Other sports seem to be in good spots. Men's Basketball is the next step.

...at least I am going to believe this for the next 3 months.
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I agree Maxy, Coyle is going nuclear! We will have a big time coach soon!
 


There’s a school of thought by some on this site that these threads should be removed by mods so we won’t be aware of how bad the program is. I also wouldn’t mind if ESPN and CBSsports didn’t put the scores of our games on their site but they are Ben haters and so far haven’t responded to my emails.
 

I am not saying he is 100% the only issue, but CBJ is by far the biggest issue for bball. He's like 95% of the issue. I'm not saying we have stacked programs across the board but football, volleyball, women's bball, mens/women's hockey softball soccer CC are all at least stable to good programs. CBJ is not only the worst x's and o's coach maybe in the country, but he also has the personality of a tree stump. He's not out drumming up support or hyping guys up. Instead he's telling us we have to embrace being terrible. It is essentially impossible for us to have a worse coach for what is needed in 2024. I have said there is no reason to really fire him now, but there might be a good case made that just not having him as the head of the program just is a massive upgrade for now and will boost morale around the program.
 


leib0039 said:
I am not saying he is 100% the only issue, but CBJ is by far the biggest issue for bball. He's like 95% of the issue. I'm not saying we have stacked programs across the board but football, volleyball, women's bball, mens/women's hockey softball soccer CC are all at least stable to good programs. CBJ is not only the worst x's and o's coach maybe in the country, but he also has the personality of a tree stump. He's not out drumming up support or hyping guys up. Instead he's telling us we have to embrace being terrible. It is essentially impossible for us to have a worse coach for what is needed in 2024. I have said there is no reason to really fire him now, but there might be a good case made that just not having him as the head of the program just is a massive upgrade for now and will boost morale around the program.
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This is the way to build your social media empire. Tell the people what they want to hear. This is beautiful music to ears of Gopherholers.
 

Richard had a hall of fame coaching career for gopher basketball compared to CBJ. We’re in Monson days again. It’s depressing to think about how long is going to take to dig out of this hole.
 

jonasty said:
Richard had a hall of fame coaching career for gopher basketball compared to CBJ. We’re in Monson days again. It’s depressing to think about how long is going to take to dig out of this hole.
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The great thing is ...... it doesn't have to take many years. The proper coach can make it happen.
 


WoodburyTim said:
There’s a school of thought by some on this site that these threads should be removed by mods so we won’t be aware of how bad the program is. I also wouldn’t mind if ESPN and CBSsports didn’t put the scores of our games on their site but they are Ben haters and so far haven’t responded to my emails.
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You waste a lot of brainpower making things up (badly) with half baked snark that almost never lands.

Here is a hint: maybe read a little bit before you decide to try and be "clever".
 

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