Make It Happen, Ben!

Please try doing a little research before you just make sh!t up.

- When Ben was a coach at Minnesota they had a season with 24 wins (11-7 in B1G) and another one where they won the NIT with 25 wins. They were ranked in the top 25 during the 24 win season.
- When Ben was a coach at Northern Iowa it had seasons with 23, 30, 20 and 20 wins and made the NCAA Tournament twice. They were ranked in the top 20 during the 30 win season.
- When Ben was a coach at Xavier it had seasons with 19, 19 and 13 (best W/L%) and was ranked in the top 25 for two of those years.

No, Ben did not lead Kentucky to 15 national championships, but he has been involved in coaching winning teams.

You lose all credibility when you can even make up stuff that is believable, especially when it defeats the whole point of your argument.
offs. Being ranked in the top 25 is not success. It's a marketing tool and a gage or recent wins, but look at how that ranking served us last year.

I'll give you Northern Iowa because I never cared to look into that teams records, but get a load of Ben Johnson's conference records while at power 6 schools:

2012-2013, Nebraska: 5-13
2013-2014, MN: 8-10
2014-2015, MN: 6-12
2015-2016, MN: 2-16
2016-2017, MN: 11-7
2017-2018, MN: 4-14
2018-2019, Xavier: 9-9
2019-2020, Xavier: 8-10
2020-2021, Xavier: 6-7

HIS BEST P6 CONFERENCE RECORD IS 11-7. That was my research. That's not success. I don't come on here to bash him, but i'm not throwing uninformed opinions like shit on the wall as some posters do. This has formed my opinion of him since his hire. He has very limited sustained success against P6 opponents to market. I find that troubling.
 

offs. Being ranked in the top 25 is not success. It's a marketing tool and a gage or recent wins, but look at how that ranking served us last year.

I'll give you Northern Iowa because I never cared to look into that teams records, but get a load of Ben Johnson's conference records while at power 6 schools:

2012-2013, Nebraska: 5-13
2013-2014, MN: 8-10
2014-2015, MN: 6-12
2015-2016, MN: 2-16
2016-2017, MN: 11-7
2017-2018, MN: 4-14
2018-2019, Xavier: 9-9
2019-2020, Xavier: 8-10
2020-2021, Xavier: 6-7

HIS BEST P6 CONFERENCE RECORD IS 11-7. That was my research. That's not success. I don't come on here to bash him, but i'm not throwing uninformed opinions like shit on the wall as some posters do. This has formed my opinion of him since his hire. He has very limited sustained success against P6 opponents to market. I find that troubling.

I don't know why people keep arguing about whether Ben has an acceptable past record or not. This was completely a faith-based hiring decision. You either keep the faith or you don't and whatever happens, happens.
 

I don't know why people keep arguing about whether Ben has an acceptable past record or not. This was completely a faith-based hiring decision. You either keep the faith or you don't and whatever happens, happens.
I agree. I’m only reacting because someone said I had no credibility and I didn’t do research, then used top 25 rankings as a evidence that Ben was successful in the past... despite all P6 evidence. I was being very civil before that :)

anyways I posted elsewhere on the board, but I could not find any information on Twitter about Manley besides fuller’s tweet.
 


I don't know why people keep arguing about whether Ben has an acceptable past record or not. This was completely a faith-based hiring decision. You either keep the faith or you don't and whatever happens, happens.
Faith hiring? Okay fire Coyle.
 


I don't know why people need to keep rehashing the same argument over and over again.

I think most people understand that Johnson was hired because he is
A. a MN native with
B. coaching experience at MN, and
C. ties to the state AAU scene, with
D. multiple years as a D1 assistant coach

and yes,
E. he is a minority coaching hire at a school that has not made a lot of minority hires.

Some people apparently think that E. outweighs all other factors.

I think it is only part of the equation.

I am willing to give Johnson time to see what type of team he puts on the floor, and what type of recruits he is able to attract to the U.

In the end, he may succeed. he may not. But his fate will be decided by what his teams do on the floor - not by what some people post on an internet message board.
 

Lot at risk tho. St Thomas is moving up and it’s 100% possible they become the TC premier college basketball squad.
 

Lot at risk tho. St Thomas is moving up and it’s 100% possible they become the TC premier college basketball squad.
You are a troll master. It seems to me from many of your posts that you don’t even like Gopher basketball or that you want to see them fail. There has to be better ways to spend your time, no?
 




Lot at risk tho. St Thomas is moving up and it’s 100% possible they become the TC premier college basketball squad.

Yeah....and the Green Bay Phoenix are going to knock the Badgers off as the best D1 basketball school in the state.
 

You are a troll master. It seems to me from many of your posts that you don’t even like Gopher basketball or that you want to see them fail. There has to be better ways to spend your time, no?
You are absolutely correct regarding sportscompanyno. He's a troll with no other purpose than to make dispariging remarks about the Gophers. Best to ignore him.
 

You are absolutely correct regarding sportscompanyno. He's a troll with no other purpose than to make dispariging remarks about the Gophers. Best to ignore him.
I am compelled to the discourse of my own largesse. Pliny the y. Come on you guys it’s a simple dialogue.
 

I agree. I’m only reacting because someone said I had no credibility and I didn’t do research, then used top 25 rankings as a evidence that Ben was successful in the past... despite all P6 evidence. I was being very civil before that :)

anyways I posted elsewhere on the board, but I could not find any information on Twitter about Manley besides fuller’s tweet.
You said he had never won! So stop pretending you know what you are talking about.
 



You said he had never won! So stop pretending you know what you are talking about.
All but one of his p6 conference records were .500 or below. I overlooked his northern Iowa experience from 10 years ago. Let it go with the personal shit man. It’s obnoxious as hell.
 


Not that my opinion matters here... We all want to pull for a winning program... It shouldn't matter who the coach is... Just win.... I'm not overwhelmed by this hire and most would call it disappointed... But I'm not going to come on and argue wether he should of been hired, it wasn't my decision to make. So I'll support this coach, this team. My expectations have been reduced to nothing for this coming season and I'm not convinced it will raise even a year or two down the road.. I hope I'm wrong and I get to eat crow
 

All but one of his p6 conference records were .500 or below. I overlooked his northern Iowa experience from 10 years ago. Let it go with the personal shit man. It’s obnoxious as hell.
Teams made it to the NCAA tourney. Won the NIT, had 8 seasons of 19 wins or more. Last time I looked, teams get credit for every game they play, not just conference games. I know it is not a world beater resume, but most of the teams were winning teams. And his UNI experience is still part of his resume, you just can ignore it because it doesn't fit your comment.

You said:
"but I would have hoped that we could have hired a coach who was part of a winning program at least once."

Hey, I wouldn't be pestering you if you would be trying to back pedal and change the subject from a flippant comment.
 

Teams made it to the NCAA tourney. Won the NIT, had 8 seasons of 19 wins or more. Last time I looked, teams get credit for every game they play, not just conference games. I know it is not a world beater resume, but most of the teams were winning teams. And his UNI experience is still part of his resume, you just can ignore it because it doesn't fit your comment.

You said:
"but I would have hoped that we could have hired a coach who was part of a winning program at least once."

Hey, I wouldn't be pestering you if you would be trying to back pedal and change the subject from a flippant comment.
I’m not trying to backpedal. I’ve repeatedly acknowledged you were correct about UNI. But he has simply not won in P6 conferences.

But this is getting ridiculous, I don’t come back on here to bicker. Goodbye alchemy.
 

We all know it is a underwhelming record but his experience combined with skills of his staff give me great hope.
Absolutely. We can all read/see the teams he was with and their results year to year. We’re very familiar with 5 years of that record (and honestly, he probably stayed too long at MN the first time). I have a hard time holding that against him as he was an assistant and I don’t know his motivation for why he went to certain schools. I trust that he knows and his staff know what needs to be done to create a sustainable winning program.
 


We have nothing else to talk about. Landing a couple of Top 100 recruits will shift the story. Get ’er done, Ben!
 

We have nothing else to talk about. Landing a couple of Top 100 recruits will shift the story. Get ’er done, Ben!
Top 100 recruits don't want to play for a 13 or 14th place B1G team...

For those who expect us to land 2-3 of the TOP tier mn recruits this year, be ready for disappointment. Tre is not coming here to win 12 games in a season... Mich state is a perennial top 10 school.. he gone..
 


Top 100 recruits don't want to play for a 13 or 14th place B1G team...

For those who expect us to land 2-3 of the TOP tier mn recruits this year, be ready for disappointment. Tre is not coming here to win 12 games in a season... Mich state is a perennial top 10 school.. he gone..
I suggest you do that. Be gone...
 

Please try doing a little research before you just make sh!t up.

- When Ben was a coach at Minnesota they had a season with 24 wins (11-7 in B1G) and another one where they won the NIT with 25 wins. They were ranked in the top 25 during the 24 win season.
- When Ben was a coach at Northern Iowa it had seasons with 23, 30, 20 and 20 wins and made the NCAA Tournament twice. They were ranked in the top 20 during the 30 win season.
- When Ben was a coach at Xavier it had seasons with 19, 19 and 13 (best W/L%) and was ranked in the top 25 for two of those years.

No, Ben did not lead Kentucky to 15 national championships, but he has been involved in coaching winning teams.

You lose all credibility when you can even make up stuff that is believable, especially when it defeats the whole point of your argument.
Is Minnesota a winning program? I thought we just fired our coach because we weren't. UNI is successful for a mid-major, okay. Xavier missed the tourney every year he was a coach there and had made it the previous 8 of 9. You can put that on Steele, but Xavier fell much shorter of where they had been previously. Winning games, and winning tournament games in the NCAA are much different. If you are hiring a head coach to a P6 job with no head coaching experience, it definitely makes fans feel better if they are a hot name in coaching circles or have been at a HISTORICALLY successful program. "No, Ben did not lead Kentucky to 15 national championships, but he has been involved in coaching winning teams." Has anyone actually set this expectation? If he had been a part of ONE national championship staff, people would feel much differently. Your post pointed out that the most winning he did was at UNI, wasn't that his first job? It has been nearly 10 years since he was on that staff. Asserting those were winning programs while he was on staff is laughable. As built would ask, how many conference titles? I believe 0 with every P6 staff he has been a part of (I didn't bother checking for UNI). I don't understand the assumption of failure at this point, but you can place the probability of failure very high based on what we know. All we have right now is probability based on past results. Saying Ben Johnson has not been part of a winning PROGRAM as a coach is a fair, objective statement. A winning SEASON, does not constitute a winning program. If it did, Pitino would still be coach. A different opinion does not equate to "making stuff up". His lack of winning big as an assistant has been discussed several times.
 


Is Minnesota a winning program? I thought we just fired our coach because we weren't. UNI is successful for a mid-major, okay. Xavier missed the tourney every year he was a coach there and had made it the previous 8 of 9. You can put that on Steele, but Xavier fell much shorter of where they had been previously. Winning games, and winning tournament games in the NCAA are much different. If you are hiring a head coach to a P6 job with no head coaching experience, it definitely makes fans feel better if they are a hot name in coaching circles or have been at a HISTORICALLY successful program. "No, Ben did not lead Kentucky to 15 national championships, but he has been involved in coaching winning teams." Has anyone actually set this expectation? If he had been a part of ONE national championship staff, people would feel much differently. Your post pointed out that the most winning he did was at UNI, wasn't that his first job? It has been nearly 10 years since he was on that staff. Asserting those were winning programs while he was on staff is laughable. As built would ask, how many conference titles? I believe 0 with every P6 staff he has been a part of (I didn't bother checking for UNI). I don't understand the assumption of failure at this point, but you can place the probability of failure very high based on what we know. All we have right now is probability based on past results. Saying Ben Johnson has not been part of a winning PROGRAM as a coach is a fair, objective statement. A winning SEASON, does not constitute a winning program. If it did, Pitino would still be coach. A different opinion does not equate to "making stuff up". His lack of winning big as an assistant has been discussed several times.
If seasons of 30, 25, 24, 23, 20, 20, 19, and 19 wins is not winning basketball then you must have flunked math. Everyone knows he has not been at a major P6 powerhouse, but to say he has never been on a winning team is just ludicrous. You criticize the UNI, but coach K and Bobby Knight had their only winning at Army....

Just give it a rest.

We know it isn't apples to apples, but Ben Johnson has coached at several schools and our AD Coyle feels that he has enough experience to be the head coach at the University of Minnesota. PERIOD! It doesn't really matter what we think and making overblown statements of how inexperienced he is reflects more on you than it does him.
 

For those of you who are stat-heads like me...at the Tampa Bay Pro Combine he averaged 14 pts on 62% FG, 45% FT (!), 7 REB, 2 BLK in about 21 minutes per game. No 3's attempted, no steals, 1 assist in 4 games.

I was curious what kind of competition he was playing against so I watched the clip. You can see him post up and score on #17 Cameron Krutwig of Loyola fame, #36 Asbjorn Mitgaard (7'0" from Grand Canyon, not a character from Thor), #47 Hasahn French from SLU, absolutely demolish #20 Ryan Daly from St. Joe's when he drives, score over #23 Micah Potter from Wisconsin on an 8 foot fadeaway.

He looks strong, he scored in transition a few times, lots of powerful dunks but also a few short to mid range shots so it's not just him overpowering smaller guys (though there was some of that). Has some rim protection ability.

I have to imagine the best thing for his draft stock would be to come to MN, play 28 minutes per game, and show that he can hold up against the big boys in the B10. Hope we grab him -- he definitely brings something we lack.
 

For those of you who are stat-heads like me...at the Tampa Bay Pro Combine he averaged 14 pts on 62% FG, 45% FT (!), 7 REB, 2 BLK in about 21 minutes per game. No 3's attempted, no steals, 1 assist in 4 games.

I was curious what kind of competition he was playing against so I watched the clip. You can see him post up and score on #17 Cameron Krutwig of Loyola fame, #36 Asbjorn Mitgaard (7'0" from Grand Canyon, not a character from Thor), #47 Hasahn French from SLU, absolutely demolish #20 Ryan Daly from St. Joe's when he drives, score over #23 Micah Potter from Wisconsin on an 8 foot fadeaway.

He looks strong, he scored in transition a few times, lots of powerful dunks but also a few short to mid range shots so it's not just him overpowering smaller guys (though there was some of that). Has some rim protection ability.

I have to imagine the best thing for his draft stock would be to come to MN, play 28 minutes per game, and show that he can hold up against the big boys in the B10. Hope we grab him -- he definitely brings something we lack.
Getting him could change the outlook substantially- assuming he is healthy.
 

If seasons of 30, 25, 24, 23, 20, 20, 19, and 19 wins is not winning basketball then you must have flunked math. Everyone knows he has not been at a major P6 powerhouse, but to say he has never been on a winning team is just ludicrous. You criticize the UNI, but coach K and Bobby Knight had their only winning at Army....

Just give it a rest.

We know it isn't apples to apples, but Ben Johnson has coached at several schools and our AD Coyle feels that he has enough experience to be the head coach at the University of Minnesota. PERIOD! It doesn't really matter what we think and making overblown statements of how inexperienced he is reflects more on you than it does him.
What part of my statement was overblown?
 




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