Marcus: What if struggling Gophers men’s basketball hadn’t lost key players because of NIL?

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GopherWeatherGuy said:
It’s 100%, he will be gone.
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Yep.....coming into the season there was a slim chance the team would play well enough to save Johnson. But at 8-8 overall and 0-5 in the conference they would basically have to run the table at this point for the U not to make a coaching change after the season.
 


While analyzing Ben Johnson as a basketball coach, I think it's only fair to try to predict how good the team would have been if we were able to add through the portal while also not losing any players to the portal. We probably would win 5 or 6 Big 10 games.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Yep.....coming into the season there was a slim chance the team would play well enough to save Johnson. But at 8-8 overall and 0-5 in the conference they would basically have to run the table at this point for the U not to make a coaching change after the season.
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This will never happen, but if they get to 6 wins in conference, Coyle will find a way to keep him using the "Marcus/Pilgrim" excuse.
 

Dave H said:
I think you are overthinking it. They don't want to fire during the season for whatever reason (probably due to not having a decent interim coach to fill in) but that has nothing to do with what is coming next. He is not going to be the coach next year no matter how nice of a person he is.
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Agree. Closed door, player-only meetings and skipping media sessions generally signals the end of a coach, college or pro.

There is always an outside miracle chance the blind gopher could still find a hole, but, if I'm putting money down, our gopher is out in the open and will soon be a meal.
 



DarthGopher said:
Agree. Closed door, player-only meetings and skipping media sessions generally signals the end of a coach, college or pro.
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Sometimes. Rocco Baldelli has survived several of these already. Has Ben tried writing "the season starts NOW" on a whiteboard yet?
 

NIL is a coach issue as much as anything. People are not going to invest in someone they don't believe in, and the coach is key to advocating for and building relationships for NIL. As much as PJ can make people cringe sometimes (less of it in recent years), he does a great job of building relationships with key people and has won enough that people believe in him and want to invest in his program.

Whoever the new coach is will have an advantage with the direct pay program from schools as the Big Ten and SEC will be ahead of other schools, but they will need NIL to supplement that. Part of recruiting a new coach will be demonstrating people are ready to invest (which they are), and the new coach has to be willing to cultivate and maintain relationships. Thorsen should get a lot of credit for the NIL $$ the basketball team does have as he has done a lot of work behind the scenes, but his impact is limited by being an assistant coach.

NIL is new in the last couple of years, but successful coaches have had to build relationships forever to enhance their programs. We have our football stadium thanks to a lot of work Mason did with various people leading up to getting that built. Tubby did a lot of work with business leaders to get the practice facility. There are all kinds of examples out there.
 




bga1 said:
This will never happen, but if they get to 6 wins in conference, Coyle will find a way to keep him using the "Marcus/Pilgrim" excuse.
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I don't know Coyle personally but there is no way he his happy with the state of the basketball program or looking for an excuse to keep Johnson around so I really don't get this line of thinking.

The Men's Basketball and Football programs are the two biggest reflections on the AD in terms of an athletic department at least as far as the public is concerned.

6 conference wins last year would have been good for 13th place. Assume that even in the larger conference 6 wins leaves you at or near the bottom, zero chance that is good enough when combined with the fact that nearly the entire roster is going to turn over again after the season.
 

NYtoWItoMN said:
Caught a bit of crunch time of Texas Tech on TV the other day... They were up on a ranked team. Hawkins got fouled on a drive, hit his 5/5 and 6/6 fts for the night. Then they showed his10ast/ 0to graphic. Too much to handle in 30 seconds of screen time. Turned it off.
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Every time I see Hawkins running up the floor, I see dollar signs. Definitely was tampered, disgusted, yes, but gotta pony up in this new era. Though it would take a mid six figure deal to go to Lubbock...what an armpit.
 


two things can be true at the same time.

Ben Johnson has not been a successful coach ---- AND

the MN program is way behind other schools in NIL.

If MN had more NIL, and Hawkins and Payne were still here, I think it's fair to suggest the team would have been better.

it's a moot point now. like some of the football coaching decisions - what happens if Maturi never hired Brewster? good only for starting arguments on message boards.
 



GopherWeatherGuy said:
Despite being the worst basketball coach in Gopher history, Ben continues to be treated with kid gloves by the local media.

Every other coach in his position would be getting destroyed.
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This guy isn't shy.

www.minnesotasportsfan.com

Alumni & Boosters Again Trying to Influence Minnesota Gophers MBB Coaching Hire

The Minnesota Gophers are enjoying one of their worst men's basketball seasons ever. When Ben Johnson gets fired, alumni and boosters reportedly want Ryan Saunders.
www.minnesotasportsfan.com www.minnesotasportsfan.com
 


Strongazzoffer said:
This guy isn't shy.

www.minnesotasportsfan.com

Alumni & Boosters Again Trying to Influence Minnesota Gophers MBB Coaching Hire

The Minnesota Gophers are enjoying one of their worst men's basketball seasons ever. When Ben Johnson gets fired, alumni and boosters reportedly want Ryan Saunders.
www.minnesotasportsfan.com www.minnesotasportsfan.com
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Get all of this out in the open, so the same mistakes are not made yet again. First time I've seen somebody call it out black and white like that, assuming it is valid.
 





short ornery norwegian said:
two things can be true at the same time.

Ben Johnson has not been a successful coach ---- AND

the MN program is way behind other schools in NIL.

If MN had more NIL, and Hawkins and Payne were still here, I think it's fair to suggest the team would have been better.

it's a moot point now. like some of the football coaching decisions - what happens if Maturi never hired Brewster? good only for starting arguments on message boards.
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Please explain more NIL. Purdue has less yet there they are top 25 in the country at the moment.
 



Carrington would still be bad, JoJ would still be making bone-headed plays and riding the pine, Payne would be playing decent for 65% of the time...then head scratching for the other 35% of the time (and that's before we see him shoot a FT), Hawkins is missed for being a floor general who can get tempo.

Maybe 2 B10 wins by now, but still awful.
 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
Carrington would still be bad, JoJ would still be making bone-headed plays and riding the pine, Payne would be playing decent for 65% of the time...then head scratching for the other 35% of the time (and that's before we see him shoot a FT), Hawkins is missed for being a floor general who can get tempo.

Maybe 2 B10 wins by now, but still awful.
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They would be really competitive but I'm not convinced that they all left for money reasons. I think there was more of a riff in the lockerroom that led to some of these departures. Total speculation but not sure Johnson adapted to those players and I'm not sure that our upperclassmen did as well.

Not sure Garcia is still here if those players are still here. Again, total uneducated speculation.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
They would be really competitive but I'm not convinced that they all left for money reasons. I think there was more of a riff in the lockerroom that led to some of these departures. Total speculation but not sure Johnson adapted to those players and I'm not sure that our upperclassmen did as well.

Not sure Garcia is still here if those players are still here. Again, total uneducated speculation.
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You are absolutely correct, they did not all leave because of money, and there were some behind the scene issues.
 

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