If Gophers Get to 5 Conference Wins, Making Big Ten Tournament Not Out of the Question?

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golfing18now said:
I think most posters agree that it "shouldn't be" good enough to consider a 5th season. But do we really have any indication that it won't be? I share the concerns of others on this message board that we really don't know if there is any appetite to get rid of him from the people that matter in this case. I think an NIL deficit relative to other programs gives Johnson a longer leash, not the other way around. I'll guess we will find out.
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Do we really have any indication that it is good enough?
 


MNVCGUY said:
Exactly. It is funny to see the paranoid scenarios some are drawing up since the Michigan win. We are still a long way from the point where the team's play on the court could shift things to a point where Johnson might be retained after this season.
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Kinda want to keep winning to see how crazier it gets. On a serious note like in business this is why you judge seasons and tenure on their totality and not in a one game vacuum. Maturi emotional reaction to a meaningless bowl game lead to the Brewster era because there was no plan. Where as the same year Sparty had a plan, they told their HC at the time he could finish the season and then they hired Mark D'Antonio
 

MNVCGUY said:
Exactly. It is funny to see the paranoid scenarios some are drawing up since the Michigan win. We are still a long way from the point where the team's play on the court could shift things to a point where Johnson might be retained after this season.
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Spaulding!No! said:
Sad. Some people don’t want Ben to succeed.
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MNVCGUY's post said that?
 




Mark Coyle fired Lindsay Whalen, who is a Gopher and Minnesota sports living legend after doing more on the court and recruiting better than Ben Johnson. Mark Coyle fired Tracy Claeys after one of the most impressive bowl wins in program history and a nine-win season. Mark Coyle (in essence) fired national championship-winning coach Don Lucia after winning six conference championships in the previous seven seasons and three seasons removed from coaching in the national championship game.

You think for a minute Mark Coyle is going to give Ben Johnson a fifth year after a five-win Big Ten season in year four?

Really, nothing about Coyle's tenure and history would indicate he would be willing to continue on this path.
 

tjgopher said:
Mark Coyle fired Lindsay Whalen, who is a Gopher and Minnesota sports living legend after doing more on the court and recruiting better than Ben Johnson. Mark Coyle fired Tracy Claeys after one of the most impressive bowl wins in program history and a nine-win season. Mark Coyle (in essence) fired national championship-winning coach Don Lucia after winning six conference championships in the previous seven seasons and three seasons removed from coaching in the national championship game.

You think for a minute Mark Coyle is going to give Ben Johnson a fifth year after a five-win Big Ten season in year four?

Really, nothing about Coyle's tenure and history would indicate he would be willing to continue on this path.
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This is Mn. Decades of poor decisions and lack of true leadership is the hallmark in men's bb.

Until I see evidence, nothing has changed.
 

Strongazzoffer said:
Kinda want to keep winning to see how crazier it gets. On a serious note like in business this is why you judge seasons and tenure on their totality and not in a one game vacuum. Maturi emotional reaction to a meaningless bowl game lead to the Brewster era because there was no plan. Where as the same year Sparty had a plan, they told their HC at the time he could finish the season and then they hired Mark D'Antonio
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Allegedly it was President Bruininks reaction on Mason. Not Maturi.
 



tjgopher said:
Mark Coyle fired Tracy Claeys after one of the most impressive bowl wins in program history and a nine-win season.
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I suspect that Claeys was fired because he dared to challenge the administration's suspension decisions and supported the players when they threatened to strike. I don't think that was Coyle's idea at all. I think the administration wanted to make an example of Claeys. Notice that Pitino didn't utter a peep when Lynch was suspended. The second reason he was fired was because he was dirt cheap to fire (something like 5 or 6 hundred thousand).

Few ADs want to fire a coach. Most of them are business managers, not pro sports franchise general managers.
 


TwistingMyMelon said:
I suspect that Claeys was fired because he dared to challenge the administration's suspension decisions and supported the players when they threatened to strike. I don't think that was Coyle's idea at all. I think the administration wanted to make an example of Claeys. Notice that Pitino didn't utter a peep when Lynch was suspended. The second reason he was fired was because he was dirt cheap to fire (something like 5 or 6 hundred thousand).

Few ADs want to fire a coach. Most of them are business managers, not pro sports franchise general managers.
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The situation with Claeys was something different. Claeys was just a stop gap option for one year and was never going to be a long term solution at head coach regardless of the whole mess that took place around the time of the Bowl Game.

Honestly those that are afraid he won't get rid of Ben just need to look at the Whalen situation. If he was willing to fire her he isn't going to be afraid to fire Ben.
 

I agree on the reviews. I watched the end of the George Washington vs. George Mason game this past weekend, and there was an absurd number of reviews. I think they reviewed the clock on three consecutive stoppages at one point. And in another review (I think from a different game), it was so obvious who knocked the ball out, there was absolutely zero doubt. However, once the officials were at the review monitor, they of course had spend a half minute to adjust the clock by a couple tenths.

I don't know what the solution is, but I think they need to do address this.
 



SomeGopherFan said:
I agree on the reviews. I watched the end of the George Washington vs. George Mason game this past weekend, and there was an absurd number of reviews. I think they reviewed the clock on three consecutive stoppages at one point. And in another review (I think from a different game), it was so obvious who knocked the ball out, there was absolutely zero doubt. However, once the officials were at the review monitor, they of course had spend a half minute to adjust the clock by a couple tenths.

I don't know what the solution is, but I think they need to do address this.
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I would love to see a challenge system of some kind. Or a timer on the review length. Something to keep the reviews from sucking the air out of the game.
 

If the Gophers get to 5 conference wins, .... :). And, if the Gophers get to 20 wins they might make the NCAA Tournament. :)
 





Big Dawg said:
Catch 22 for me. On the one hand I enjoy and celebrate each and every Gopher victory. On the other hand, I believe that Ben Johnson HAS to be gone and soonest. He is not the future of this program. Every Gopher victory moves the needle towards Coyle making a horrible decision to keep Ben OMY.
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In my opinion, he is going to need to win 10 to 11 conference games to even warrant a discussion of possibly keeping him. There are 13 games remaining. The team is going to have to go 9-4 to achieve a .500 record in conference. 11-2 to get to 20 wins and *maybe* sniff an NCAA bubble berth. Realistically, I do not see either of those things happening. With revenue sharing set to kick in, it will be a perfect opportunity to reset and retool for the future.
 

DarthGopher said:
In my opinion, he is going to need to win 10 to 11 conference games to even warrant a discussion of possibly keeping him. There are 13 games remaining. The team is going to have to go 9-4 to achieve a .500 record in conference. 11-2 to get to 20 wins and *maybe* sniff an NCAA bubble berth. Realistically, I do not see either of those things happening. With revenue sharing set to kick in, it will be a perfect opportunity to reset and retool for the future.
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Yep, we are a long way from being anywhere close to Johnson realistically saving his job. Michigan win was awesome but it is just a drop in the bucket in the big picture. Team would have to go on an amazing run to close out the season to even come close to making a case for year 5 and letting Johnson rebuild the roster again.
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
I guess nobody can be sure of anything but 6 conference wins would give him only 14-17 overall record. Perhaps that would get them into the Big Ten tournament but even if they won a game there, that would still result in a 15-18 record.

I guess it's possible that a coach with three overall losing seasons in 4 years could be given a 5th year. Hoiberg did it at Nebraska and his best season (#4) was only .500. I have a suspicion that the big payouts they were making to fired football coaches at the time factored into that retention decision and Hoiberg likely would have been more expensive to fire than Johnson. Johnson could be renewed but I think it's going to take more than that. To have a chance, I think he has to win at least 17 in the regular season which would include 9 conference wins. To do that, the team would have to go 8-5 for the remainder of the conference season.
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Dave H said:
What could they be doing right now that would somehow show they have an appetite to fire him? They aren't going to say it publicly and if they are searching for a coach they aren't going to let that be public knowledge either.

The only thing that could satisfy the paranoia is if they fire him, which they aren't doing yet. The whole thing is rather unreasonable.
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I don't disagree with either of you here. I don't have a number in mind that would save him either. Although I'm guessing that number is lower than most of us think. But you are right Dave that they wouldn't come out publicly and say anything. It's interesting to me there is so little chatter among media members and continued fluff pieces from Marcus. But that is probably due to apathy in the program as much as anything.

They have a chance tonight. Let's see what happens.
 



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