Joshua Ola-Joseph Enters Transfer Portal

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Thinking we all saw this coming unfortunately. I could see him coming back to score 30 on is with another team. Really think he had the tools to be a good 3 starter with filling in at the 4 in times. We all saw some disconnect late in the season when scoring double digits to not many minutes off the bench. CBJ looking for something better defensively from the 3 is my opinion. Wish JOJ all the best.
 

Gilthorp57 said:
This one hurts, I thought he'd make it. Tons of potential and one of few that could create his own shot on the team. Starting to really question coaching and player development. Hope this doesnt into Tubby where the players dont get better. Good luck JOJ, still a fan and will follow you wherever you land.
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Another Haiku:
A team out of gas
Bench team still remains on bench
Defense suffering
 

with JOJ, it's easy to see the athletic ability and the dunks. it's easy for fans to see a few flashy dunks and imagine what that player could do with more opportunities.

but we don't know what goes on at practice. and we don't know what the coaching staff is telling players. IF JOJ was being told "do X" and he went out and did "Y" instead, you can understand why he lost playing time. and once he started playing less, any shot of him on TV showed him looking - shall we say - disinterested.

chalk it up to a bad fit - some of it could be on the player - some of it could be on the coaches - but in the end, it didn't work.

Hopefully JOJ finds a better fit, and hopefully the coaches can find a portal player who is a better fit with their scheme.
 

As tough as it is to lose a guy with potential I’d rather have it happen now than when he begins to actually realize that potential.
 

bomba$$_golf said:
I wouldn’t call JOJ a miss either. I will say there seemed to be a major disconnect between Josh and the staff all season.I blame both sides equally. Josh needs to mature and be open to constructive criticism. The staff needs to do way better in connecting with the team and defining roles. Towards the end, it felt like Ben lost the locker room. He lost JOJ well before that. That’s on him and any good coach has to be better. Joj has elite athleticism who can develop into a very good player. He undoubtedly could have helped this team late in the year.
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If the staff was not good at connecting with the team and defining roles, how would you explain what Fox did and Carrington leaving the team, returning in a defined role, and contributing even overcoming a serious concussion?

Mitchell, even as a starter had a role that he played to. Ihnen had a role, didn't fulfill it, and eventually didn't play. It seems JOJ is the glaring failure on Ben's part, even after getting the starting call 42 times. I wonder if he outworked Fox in practice?
 


Gophers7633 said:
Because he wasn't good enough. Or wasn't developed properly, or wasn't progressing. It would have been nice to see some progression from the SO class(and Betts), but it just wasn't there.
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Payne is in the sophomore class. You think he has not developed?
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
There couldn't be a worse fit for JOJ than an offense like Indiana State runs. The wings are in constant motion, they are all good shooters, and they are all decent distributors. He would have to learn to move without the ball and somehow develop vision.

Their bigs are also highly skilled and good passers (they are often feeding the wings in constant motion).

IMO, I literally could not think of a worse offense for JOJ.
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Agreed, and there are many here who are talking about Johnson "missing" this opportunity with JOJ and failing to "coach him up" into the player he should be. JOJ seems like a good guy, and he is pretty good initiating offense with the ball in his hands. He also has a 46 inch vertical.

However, the more you saw him play, the more you could see how he struggled to be a part of a working offense, passing and moving without the ball. He struggled to make the right pass and to be in the right spot at the right time. And for a guy with the kind of athleticism he has, his rebounding was really poor.

He also struggled defensively in many ways. The fact is that some players have better instincts on how to play on a team than others do. He simply did not make the team better most of the time. And you can bet that coaches worked with him on these details.

I hope JOJ finds a spot that works for him. And I respect Johnson's decision to leave him on the bench after giving him multiple opportunities. If you're not doing the things that the team needs you to do, then you don't play. That's not a "miss."

That's trying to make your team better.
 


Dakota2 said:
If the staff was not good at connecting with the team and defining roles, how would you explain what Fox did and Carrington leaving the team, returning in a defined role, and contributing even overcoming a serious concussion?

Mitchell, even as a starter had a role that he played to. Ihnen had a role, didn't fulfill it, and eventually didn't play. It seems JOJ is the glaring failure on Ben's part, even after getting the starting call 42 times. I wonder if he outworked Fox in practice?
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My guess is you are the type of person that takes the news being reported on tv as face value and 100% fact. It’s clear you are unable to read between the lines and see the truth.
 




Gophers7633 said:
From last year to this year? Not really.
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Disagree. He became a starter, played more minutes, played spurts of dominant rim protection, developed some nice moves down low, and learned to make free throws. That's actually a lot of development.
 

bomba$$_golf said:
My guess is you are the type of person that takes the news being reported on tv as face value and 100% fact. It’s clear you are unable to read between the lines and see the truth.
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On the contrary, I am the exact opposite of your "guess".

What is clear both inside and outside the lines is that Ben Johnson invested heavily in making JOJ a good and productive player. It is also clear the player did not live up to the expectation, on defense, on offense, almost assuredly not in practice, and likely in attitude.
 

Dakota2 said:
Disagree. He became a starter, played more minutes, played spurts of dominant rim protection, developed some nice moves down low, and learned to make free throws. That's actually a lot of development.
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I agree on the whole with your point. But just wanted to note his FT% actually went down this year, from 48.6% to 47.2%. He did finish the season on a hot streak, shooting 77% in March (17/22).

I liked his little drive he started doing from the free throw line. Really surprised some guys.

If Fox is gone, he will be my favorite player left to watch next year.
 



Formerswish said:
Agreed, and there are many here who are talking about Johnson "missing" this opportunity with JOJ and failing to "coach him up" into the player he should be. JOJ seems like a good guy, and he is pretty good initiating offense with the ball in his hands. He also has a 46 inch vertical.

However, the more you saw him play, the more you could see how he struggled to be a part of a working offense, passing and moving without the ball. He struggled to make the right pass and to be in the right spot at the right time. And for a guy with the kind of athleticism he has, his rebounding was really poor.

He also struggled defensively in many ways. The fact is that some players have better instincts on how to play on a team than others do. He simply did not make the team better most of the time. And you can bet that coaches worked with him on these details.

I hope JOJ finds a spot that works for him. And I respect Johnson's decision to leave him on the bench after giving him multiple opportunities. If you're not doing the things that the team needs you to do, then you don't play. That's not a "miss."

That's trying to make your team better.
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Well stated.

You can also bet that opponents, who have access to however much video they want, knew how they wanted to attack whenever he entered the game. Once the cat is out of the bag on a guy's tendencies, unless he can fix and adjust, it really limits how and where a coach can use him, unless your team is good enough to play 4 on 5, which we weren't.

Really do wish him the best and hope he finds a good fit at his new destination. Seems like a good dude. Sometimes it just doesn't work out, or stops working. Happens at every level in every sport.
 


Dakota2 said:
Disagree. He became a starter, played more minutes, played spurts of dominant rim protection, developed some nice moves down low, and learned to make free throws. That's actually a lot of development.
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He learned to make FT's by actually shooting a worse %? He played 1 more mpg. He had a worse shooting % from the field. I do think he was better defensively. He is a nice player, but he's going to have to show big improvement to be an all conference player.

Either way, we've shifted all the original point of JOJ not being good enough. And was a bust of a recruit.
 


Bummer to see JOJ go, kid is a great athlete. He could be a beast if he drops down in competition a little bit.
 

Who you blame here is dependent on your perspective. I lean towards JOJ just not being willing to be the type of player this staff thinks he should be. If they see your role as an energy/rebounder guy who hopefully can be a versatile defender and you don't rebound (and at least occasionally don't hustle) then you are not going to play. I tend to agree with the staff's assesment of JOJ strength's and weaknesses, so I tend to think it's JOJ that wasn't doing what was needed to see the court.

On the other hand, the staff couldn't get JOJ to be this type of player even though he showed flashes (more so with rebounding than defending) of being able to be that type of player. They could bare some responsibility for not being able to get him to buy in to a role.

I do think part of this goes back to last season and the roster construction where JOJ was going to play a lot as a Freshman almost regardless of what he did. The benefit of having a deeper roster with veterans is making those Freshman earn their minutes. If JOJ had to come in and fight for minutes from the day he stepped on campus, maybe he would have had more of a receptive ear to doing the things the staff wanted him to do.

At the risk of derailing the thread, I've seen several posters mention a "tired" Gopher team at the end of the year and I just can't buy that. College kids playing two games a week is not a big ask. Most of our games were well spaced out to like Wednesday and Sunday. Then you add in the fact that we had one game we traveled to in the non-conference portion of the season and NINE quad 4 home games...we couldn't have had it any easier until the last 18 conference games. Parker Fox didn't play as many minutes as other guys, but he also hadn't played in two full years and was coming off 2 knee surgeries and he noticeably played some of his better ball down the stretch. I do think Ben could/should play one more guy and monitor minutes a little more carefully but if the team was worn down from this schedule that is a major red flag on the strength and conditioning front.
 


It's like guys on here think that CBJ ran JOJ off? Why would he do that? CBJ is literally coaching for his career/life. He knows the writing on the wall. He's got to hear all the rumors/complaints about the results. If JOJ would really have helped on the court, there's no way CBJ wouldn't play him in order to free up a scholarship. That makes ZERO sense.....
 


XMan said:
What? Payne really grew and developed this year.
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I think anyone who saw him agrees. But if your only criterion is stat line, the advancement was negligible. Major advances on defense, especially getting better if not perfect in not taking dumb fouls. More confident on offense as well. Needs to improve passing and free throws.
 

GoldenMAV30266 said:
Carrington is still a stud defensively, hes not a box score type player, but he was a big part in what they did this year.
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If by “big part of what they did” you mean losing. His offensive decencies are a net negative to the team when he’s on the floor, they may as well play 4 on 5 when on that side of the court.
 

This is absolutely a loss and a hit on the staff. You have a local metro kid who chose to stay home, is the best pure athlete on the team, size to play multiple positions, and had the highest TS% on the team for players with meaningful minutes this year. The fact that he couldn’t find the rotation when we were struggling for depth is mind boggling.
 


Hope he finds a spot, stays healthy and does well.
 

EG#9 said:
Who you blame here is dependent on your perspective. I lean towards JOJ just not being willing to be the type of player this staff thinks he should be. If they see your role as an energy/rebounder guy who hopefully can be a versatile defender and you don't rebound (and at least occasionally don't hustle) then you are not going to play. I tend to agree with the staff's assesment of JOJ strength's and weaknesses, so I tend to think it's JOJ that wasn't doing what was needed to see the court.

On the other hand, the staff couldn't get JOJ to be this type of player even though he showed flashes (more so with rebounding than defending) of being able to be that type of player. They could bare some responsibility for not being able to get him to buy in to a role.

I do think part of this goes back to last season and the roster construction where JOJ was going to play a lot as a Freshman almost regardless of what he did. The benefit of having a deeper roster with veterans is making those Freshman earn their minutes. If JOJ had to come in and fight for minutes from the day he stepped on campus, maybe he would have had more of a receptive ear to doing the things the staff wanted him to do.

At the risk of derailing the thread, I've seen several posters mention a "tired" Gopher team at the end of the year and I just can't buy that. College kids playing two games a week is not a big ask. Most of our games were well spaced out to like Wednesday and Sunday. Then you add in the fact that we had one game we traveled to in the non-conference portion of the season and NINE quad 4 home games...we couldn't have had it any easier until the last 18 conference games. Parker Fox didn't play as many minutes as other guys, but he also hadn't played in two full years and was coming off 2 knee surgeries and he noticeably played some of his better ball down the stretch. I do think Ben could/should play one more guy and monitor minutes a little more carefully but if the team was worn down from this schedule that is a major red flag on the strength and conditioning front.
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I think Ben's plan was for those freshmen to play a lot. BUT the plan was also probably to have JOJ earn limited minutes behind Fox and Ihnen. What Ben didn't anticipate was that they both be out for a second season with injuries. That's why JOJ got waaayyyy more run and leash than he should have. It wasn't ideal. The restrictions on his minutes this year, ideally would have happened last year. Maybe if it would have happened in reverse his development would be on course and he would have stayed, but we won't be able to find out.
 

cheeseheadgophfan said:
It's like guys on here think that CBJ ran JOJ off? Why would he do that? CBJ is literally coaching for his career/life. He knows the writing on the wall. He's got to hear all the rumors/complaints about the results. If JOJ would really have helped on the court, there's no way CBJ wouldn't play him in order to free up a scholarship. That makes ZERO sense.....
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What you say makes perfect sense. But I lost a lot of faith and respect for Ben and his judgement while he started Ihnen and didn't start Payne. To me, that's a guy who may be coaching for his career/life, but is so confused he makes poor decisions. So, I'm skeptical how he handled JOJ.
 

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