Marcus article: Gophers are hiring while Big Ten men’s basketball has zero Black head coaches again

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Per Marcus:

“I will say that some of this is cyclical,” Petitti told the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder in October. “I think it’s partly [the] pipeline, developing assistance, opportunity. … It’s being honest about the results we’re seeing. If it’s a trend going in a different direction, you want to make sure you are paying attention.”

The Gophers are among the Big Ten programs that have taken diversity more seriously than others with recent hires. They are tied with Indiana and Michigan for the lead in the Big Ten with three Black men’s basketball head coaches in their history — Clem Haskins, Tubby Smith and Johnson. Jimmy Williams became the U’s first Black men’s basketball coach in 1986, but he served only as an interim coach. Rutgers has also had three Black coaches, but not all when part of the Big Ten.

But the Gophers also went eight years without a Black head coach anywhere in their athletic department before hiring Johnson in 2021. They now have a Black women’s tennis coach, Lois Arterberry, and an Asian American women’s golf coach, Matt Higgins. Their head diving coach, Wenbo Chen, is also Asian American, though he reports to Kelly Kremer, who is the director of men’s and women’s swimming and diving.

www.startribune.com

Gophers are hiring while Big Ten men’s basketball has zero Black head coaches again

The Gophers have a history of hiring Black basketball coaches — from Clem Haskins to Tubby Smith to Ben Johnson — the Big Ten currently has zero.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!
 



I try to stay out of any conversation involving race and sports - I do think reperesentation is important. But this (Marcus’ continued articles) is turning into a weird hyper-focus that is off-putting. Ben was a bad coach by metrics and that is what was used to evaluate his performance. Time for a change and race should be a very marginal factor, if a factor at all, in determining a replacement.
 




MNVCGUY said:
It's a tricky subject but these stories and the clear agenda behind them get tiring.
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Yes these stories do get tiresome and seem to occur with much more regularity at the time this university is thinking about and/or actively replacing a coach.

As you said, it is a very tricky subject (almost taboo) but it's a worthy discussion. Whenever this topic comes up it is invariably linked to the observation that the percentage of minority coaches doesn't line up with the percentage of participants in the respective sport. But that ignores the reality of the participant demographic doesn't come close to lining up with the distribution of the society at large and by extension the number of kids playing in youth sports. Why is that never questioned?

I think it's fair to say at the highest levels we largely try to place the best players on the court/field/diamond -- based on a sports meritocracy (a player's ability). Which it should. What if we are doing the same thing in the coaching ranks? I'm not suggesting minorities aren't as capable as white coaches. I'm wondering aloud if the talent pool is just larger. Do minorities see their pathway in sports as participants whereas more white individuals seek coaching opportunities, supporting roles, etc.? Is the real disparity at the top (professional/college coaching) or at a much lower level where coaches earn their chops?

The unspoken alternative is universities/professional franchises are willing to fill their team/roster with minorities but having a minority coach is a bridge too far? Is that really where we are at with this?
 


NBA was over 50% a couple years ago at 16. It’s back down to 11 of 30.

Completely different leagues and with paying athletes it will be interesting to see if more NBA backgrounds get into college.
 



golfing18now said:
Yes these stories do get tiresome and seem to occur with much more regularity at the time this university is thinking about and/or actively replacing a coach.

As you said, it is a very tricky subject (almost taboo) but it's a worthy discussion. Whenever this topic comes up it is invariably linked to the observation that the percentage of minority coaches doesn't line up with the percentage of participants in the respective sport. But that ignores the reality of the participant demographic doesn't come close to lining up with the distribution of the society at large and by extension the number of kids playing in youth sports. Why is that never questioned?

I think it's fair to say at the highest levels we largely try to place the best players on the court/field/diamond -- based on a sports meritocracy (a player's ability). Which it should. What if we are doing the same thing in the coaching ranks? I'm not suggesting minorities aren't as capable as white coaches. I'm wondering aloud if the talent pool is just larger. Do minorities see their pathway in sports as participants whereas more white individuals seek coaching opportunities, supporting roles, etc.? Is the real disparity at the top (professional/college coaching) or at a much lower level where coaches earn their chops?

The unspoken alternative is universities/professional franchises are willing to fill their team/roster with minorities but having a minority coach is a bridge too far? Is that really where we are at with this?
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I think it's pretty simple.

For whatever reason, African Americans are disproportionately represented in D1 college basketball and the NBA. I'm not saying that's a bad thing at all, I think, for the most part, getting a scholarship or an NBA contract is merit based.

That said, having a intense interest in basketball is NOT nearly as disproportionately represented. So you'd expect the percentage of white coaches to African American coaches to be more in line with the general population than it would be to players in D1 or the NBA.

It's similar to height. I'd the average NBA basketball coach is taller than the average American male. However, I'd imagine they are nowhere near as tall as the average NBA player. This is because there are great coaches who were never capable of playing the game at the highest level.

The crazy thing about having to type this is that everyone already knows these facts to be true. For whatever reason, some folks just want to guilt other folks from saying the simple thing we all know to be true.
 


It's a shame Marcus cannot see beyond the color of ones epidermis. Did he not hear Dr Martin Luther King when MLK longed for a person to be judged by the content of one's character rather than the color of one's skin?

I honestly couldn't care less what the skin color is of a coach. I also couldn't care less where they come from. As a Finn, should I bemoan that there are no Finnish head coaches in the Big10? Why is there no Bolivian head coaches?

What I care about is a coach that gets us into the NCAA tournament and molds young persons into honest and productive citizens who benefit their neighbors. One reason I can support PJ Fleck is because his players come out of his program as better citizens than when they came in. Second, PJ's teams are competitive. Ben Johnson checked off box #1, but he did not check off box #2. That's why Ben was fired. It had nothing to do with the color of his epidermis.
Marcus, it's time to leave Jim Crowe behind you and enter into a world where the content of character takes precedence over the color of one's skin.
 

Us fans need representation too. We need a coach with jaundice, bloodshot eyes, and hands shaking uncontrollably as he tries to draw up a play. Navigating the raised floor and the wild emotional outbursts would draw in the fans.
 




FinnGopher said:
It's a shame Marcus cannot see beyond the color of ones epidermis. Did he not hear Dr Martin Luther King when MLK longed for a person to be judged by the content of one's character rather than the color of one's skin?
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Taking one line out of a lifetime of speeches of MLK has become a way of life.

I think he'd have an opinion on the state of black coaches in the Big Ten Conference.

1964 book (a year after that speech):
“A society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for the Negro.”

“A section of the white population, perceiving Negro pressure for change, misconstrues it as a demand for privileges rather than as a desperate quest for existence. The ensuing white backlash intimidates government officials who are already too timorous.”

1967 NBC interview:
I must confess that that dream that I had that day has in many points turned into a nightmare. Now I’m not one to lose hope. I keep on hoping. I still have faith in the future. But I’ve had to analyze many things over the last few years and I would say over the last few months.

I think the biggest problem now is we got our gains over the last 12 years at bargain rates, so to speak. It didn’t cost the nation anything. In fact, it helped the economic side of the nation to integrate lunch counters and public accommodations. It didn’t cost the nation anything to get the right to vote established. Now, we’re confronting issues that cannot be solved without costing the nation billions of dollars. Now I think this is where we’re getting our greatest resistance. They may put it on many other things, but we can’t get rid of slums and poverty without it costing the nation something.
 

Hey Marcus,

There has never been a transgender coach in the Big 10.

What the hell, Marcus?
 

MilosRevenge said:
Taking one line out of a lifetime of speeches of MLK has become a way of life.

I think he'd have an opinion on the state of black coaches in the Big Ten Conference.

1964 book (a year after that speech):
“A society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for the Negro.”

“A section of the white population, perceiving Negro pressure for change, misconstrues it as a demand for privileges rather than as a desperate quest for existence. The ensuing white backlash intimidates government officials who are already too timorous.”

1967 NBC interview:
I must confess that that dream that I had that day has in many points turned into a nightmare. Now I’m not one to lose hope. I keep on hoping. I still have faith in the future. But I’ve had to analyze many things over the last few years and I would say over the last few months.

I think the biggest problem now is we got our gains over the last 12 years at bargain rates, so to speak. It didn’t cost the nation anything. In fact, it helped the economic side of the nation to integrate lunch counters and public accommodations. It didn’t cost the nation anything to get the right to vote established. Now, we’re confronting issues that cannot be solved without costing the nation billions of dollars. Now I think this is where we’re getting our greatest resistance. They may put it on many other things, but we can’t get rid of slums and poverty without it costing the nation something.
Click to expand...
Isn't it sad that in the year 2025, 60 years later, people still aren't color blind. Skin color is literally one of the dumbest things to be bickering over. Dr Seuss, in the Sneech book, showed how silly it is, yet here we are still claiming privilege or lack of privilege based on our epidermis. One cannot make up how silly this is. Sadly, our society keeps the silliness going with our government constantly asking what color our skin is, like it's a big deal. I simply refuse to answer. If we're gonna go down that road, where's the checkmark for a Finn who has genetic ties to Mongolia?
Come on America, get past skin color, it's such a shallow marker.
 



Black players seem to be color blind.

Interesting ...
 

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