Lindsay Whalen Steps Down - Effective Immediately

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Watched Coyle's press conference on YouTube.

He essentially refused to say if she was fired or resigned. just kept saying that after "many conversations, it was a mutual decision." several reporters tried to pin him down, but he just kept giving the same answer.

worth noting - Whalen did not appear. Coyle said she was still meeting with her staff and would meet with the media "at a later date."
 

short ornery norwegian said:
as alluded to in some comments, this is part of the announcement.

Athletic director Mark Coyle said Whalen will stay on as a special assistant to the athletics director through April 12, 2025.

my gut tells me this was negotiated as a way of minimizing the buyout. instead of a buyout, Whalen basically gets a salary to do........something......for two years.

as for what it means to the men, well:

the Gophers had two struggling basketball programs. with the Women hiring a new coach, the focus will likely shift even more to the Men's program. the new Women's coach will at least get some kind of honeymoon period.

and whether it's intentional or not, it will be seen as Coyle sending a signal to Ben - produce better results or you're next.
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Well, I don't think the AD has to communicate to his basketball coach via the firing of another coach. I'm sure they have periodic meetings.
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
How many men's P6 coaches haven't lost players to the portal the last two years🥸?

Can I give you a hint -

ZE
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How many did SHE lose in her first two years, ☁️

Your previous comment was a comparison between Whalen and Ben’s records (years 1 & 2 -see in your post below)- you can’t open that door and not be willing to take all variables into account then - little early to be hitting the Cutty that hard, even for Sturgis folk🤓
GopherWeatherGuy said:
And she was far better in years 1 and 2 than Ben. How did waiting 3 more years work out?
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GopherBlood666 said:
If they were going to fire Ben, they are going to do it regardless. Unless Ben is taking the Women's basketball job, or Lindsay is taking Ben out the door with her, then this topic belongs only in the WOMEN'S BASKETBALL FORUM. Are they not talking about it there? I'm confused.
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Thx, yes we are talking about the “ mutual agreement “ which was most likely an ultimatum. Hope Whalen can assist is keeping some of the star freshman. Go Gophers !
 








A great Gopher legend, a hall of famer as a pro, a great olympian…just doesn’t have the charismatic personality to be a coach at this level. She never could get all the players to buy in. Coaches need buy-in to succeed. Charisma helps the buy-in.

This is unfortunate, and I’d have liked to see her do one more year and see where it goes, but it is what it is. The change is probably necessary…who can take this team to the next level?
 



Gopher_In_NYC said:
How many did she lose in the portal those years🥸?

Can I give you a hint -

ZE
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The portal problem is what gave me pause regarding Whalen. She just lost so many players and that made me wonder what was going on in the program. A program just has to have stability.

My other impression is I have this term--Ted Williams Syndrome--about how great players rarely have big-time success as a coach/manager. Williams was arguably the greatest hitter of all time, but when he managed the Washington Senators, he only met with marginal success. There were a lot of reasons for that, but he admitted he was frustrated because he knew he was a good hitter when he played and somehow he couldn't impart that knowledge to his players.

It's apples-to-oranges in a lot of ways, but I'm relatively certain that Whalen saw things happen in front of her that made her wonder "Why didn't the player see that (or do that)? It was so obvious." that made her question her ability. Nothing comes easy at high-level sport, but some people have the knack/ability and don't realize that not everyone has the same attributes. Almost always frustrating for the greats to accept.

I wish Whalen the best. Great human being by all accounts. Sorry it didn't work out for her in this situation.
 








The question continues to be how many wins next year buys Ben continued life. In another thread, one person says 6 won't be enough--that the Gophers would have to be on the tournament bubble--while another says 5-6 wins will show clear progress and buy him more time.

I'm torn. On one hand, it's hard to see this team, even with stability and additions, vying for a NCAA bid. On the other hand, 5-6 wins got Pitino fired. Are we really saying that it's acceptable to only claw your way back to a fireable record three years into the new regime? When you walk around this thing and look at it from all the angles, Coyle has really backed himself into an uncomfortable spot here.
 

Bad Gopher said:
The question continues to be how many wins next year buys Ben continued life. In another thread, one person says 6 won't be enough--that the Gophers would have to be on the tournament bubble--while another says 5-6 wins will show clear progress and buy him more time.

I'm torn. On one hand, it's hard to see this team, even with stability and additions, vying for a NCAA bid. On the other hand, 5-6 wins got Pitino fired. Are we really saying that it's acceptable to only claw your way back to a fireable record three years into the new regime? When you walk around this thing and look at it from all the angles, Coyle has really backed himself into an uncomfortable spot here.
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Ben isn’t getting fired. He just got an instate commit from a 2024. Coyle will have to at least see what next year looks like. It’s possible he gets fired midseason but he’s getting one more year
 

You might be singing a different tune if Battle misses that last shot.
 


GopherPlaya said:
Ben isn’t getting fired. He just got an instate commit from a 2024. Coyle will have to at least see what next year looks like. It’s possible he gets fired midseason but he’s getting one more year
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To clarify, the uncomfortable spot I'm talking about is upon the conclusion of next season...barring a breakout NCAA tournament contention.
 



My gut reaction when I first heard the news Whalen was “stepping down” was that it clears a huge hurdle for Coyle to possibly fire Ben Johnson after the B1G tournament. No way he could fire him if he kept Whalen with the way her team was trending. Couple that with the timing (a couple days for him to square away a women’s coach then turn to the men’s program) and his lack of a solid response supporting Johnson at the press conference and I almost feel like it’s going to happen.

One more interesting thing is I was listening to Barreiro after it happened. He said if he were in Coyle’s position he would’ve given Whalen one more year to see what she could do with her current freshmen. He said “as a MN basketball legend, I would’ve thought she earned that.”

Johnson is not remotely a Minnesota basketball “legend” so he hasn’t earned that. Coyle wouldn’t give Whalen an extra year with her freshmen- maybe he’ll do the same with Johnson.

Curious what happens on Weakling Wednesday. We lose by 20 and I’ll be watching very closely.
 


GopherPharmaBiz said:
My gut reaction when I first heard the news Whalen was “stepping down” was that it clears a huge hurdle for Coyle to possibly fire Ben Johnson after the B1G tournament. No way he could fire him if he kept Whalen with the way her team was trending. Couple that with the timing (a couple days for him to square away a women’s coach then turn to the men’s program) and his lack of a solid response supporting Johnson at the press conference and I almost feel like it’s going to happen.

One more interesting thing is I was listening to Barreiro after it happened. He said if he were in Coyle’s position he would’ve given Whalen one more year to see what she could do with her current freshmen. He said “as a MN basketball legend, I would’ve thought she earned that.”

Johnson is not remotely a Minnesota basketball “legend” so he hasn’t earned that. Coyle wouldn’t give Whalen an extra year with her freshmen- maybe he’ll do the same with Johnson.

Curious what happens on Weakling Wednesday. We lose by 20 and I’ll be watching very closely.
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I think it means that just getting good recruits coming aren’t enough to save your job if the results on the floor aren’t good enough. No idea if Ben will get next year or not but if he does now he knows he needs to improve a lot to keep his job.
 

GopherPharmaBiz said:
My gut reaction when I first heard the news Whalen was “stepping down” was that it clears a huge hurdle for Coyle to possibly fire Ben Johnson after the B1G tournament. No way he could fire him if he kept Whalen with the way her team was trending. Couple that with the timing (a couple days for him to square away a women’s coach then turn to the men’s program) and his lack of a solid response supporting Johnson at the press conference and I almost feel like it’s going to happen.

One more interesting thing is I was listening to Barreiro after it happened. He said if he were in Coyle’s position he would’ve given Whalen one more year to see what she could do with her current freshmen. He said “as a MN basketball legend, I would’ve thought she earned that.”

Johnson is not remotely a Minnesota basketball “legend” so he hasn’t earned that. Coyle wouldn’t give Whalen an extra year with her freshmen- maybe he’ll do the same with Johnson.

Curious what happens on Weakling Wednesday. We lose by 20 and I’ll be watching very closely.
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My gut reaction was just the opposite, I don't see Coyle floating 2 huge buyouts within days of each other.

Just a gut reaction. No basis of fact whatsoever.
 

Ope3 said:
My gut reaction was just the opposite, I don't see Coyle floating 2 huge buyouts within days of each other.

Just a gut reaction. No basis of fact whatsoever.
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Agreed

EDIT* I don't think Lindsay has much of any buyout though. Could be wrong there.
 
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