Neal: Moving forward with Ben Johnson is the only option for Gophers men’s basketball

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GopherGrit said:
Thanks for the thoughts, seems like a reasonable stance.

I'm guessing the thinking on the current non-conf is "we need wins, for" XYZ reasons. But, like you say, I think conference wins are far more meaningful at this point. If playing and losing to 3 tough non-conf means we instead of losing put away the Ohio State, Washington, and maybe even Maryland games ... well, there you go.
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AND playing and losing to highly rated teams does not hurt your metrics. Losing to a bad metrics team is very, very detrimental. Beating them offers nothing in metrics…to people not paying attention…it makes you look a little better with some hollow victories.
 



FinnGopher said:
KFAN was just pimping Ben Johnson as the best we can get. Called him an excellent coach who gets the most out of his players.

Even if that were true, Ben Johnson can't attract top quality players from the transfer portal, which means Minnesota will always be a team of beggars begging for scraps.

They asked if UMN can do better? I say, absolutely. Get the coach with a winning track record and capacity to attract upper level talent and UMN will do much better than begging to get to #15 in the Big10.
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How can they really believe that? He has the worst record among coaches in program history. He's objectively the WORST we've ever gotten, so he can't possibly be the best we can get. Do they think their listeners are that stupid? Are THEY that stupid?
 

Bad Gopher said:
How can they really believe that? He has the worst record among coaches in program history. He's objectively the WORST we've ever gotten, so he can't possibly be the best we can get. Do they think their listeners are that stupid? Are THEY that stupid?
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Denver just fired it's coach yesterday in year 4. He's won 33% of his conference games. Ben's won 28% but we can't do any better. I guess our standards aren't as lofty as Denver University.
 



howeda7 said:
Denver just fired it's coach yesterday in year 4. He's won 33% of his conference games. Ben's won 28% but we can't do any better. I guess our standards aren't as lofty as Denver University.
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Obviously, the hidden message in their messaging is to put down the U and their fans as a bunch of losers. Also, they don't want the Gophers to get in the way of pro sports worship in this town. As always, follow the money.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Obviously, the hidden message in their messaging is to put down the U and their fans as a bunch of losers. Also, they don't want the Gophers to get in the way of pro sports worship in this town. As always, follow the money.
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It's just lazy. Outside of Marcus Fuller, almost none of them watch the Gophers on a regular basis and they certainly don't watch any other college basketball. So "they don't have any NIL, they're destined to suck, poor Ben" is a lazy, easy narrative to latch onto.
 





GopherWeatherGuy said:
There's only one reason the media doesn't want BJ fired, and it's the same reason he was hired.

It doesn't have anything to do with his resume or the results over the last 4 years.
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No one in the local media died on the hill for Tubby and that was a far more questionable firing. There was a couple of "who do they think they are?" takes from national writers but no outrage locally.
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
A lot has changed since 2013.
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Yes. But one of them is that the local sports media just doesn't even pay attention to Gopher basketball. I buy it could be political for one or two of them like Souhan, but it doesn't explain the near universal takes. It's at least partially just lazy, uninformed takes.
 




These Ben Johnson threads are crazy to me. I have been a season ticket holder in the past and I almost pay no attention to them now. What have we become in this town where we hire a guy with actually no real search, have no success, have no excitement, play in an empty arena, and there is some question as to whether or not we should fire him? I am open to a suggestion that we will never be good because we will never raise any money and will never pay NIL. If thats your view, then keep him, bulldoze the barn and play in the rec center. Lets not pretend any longer. Unlike football, we have local talent, only need a handful of guys, and in theory could compete for talent and potential donors. If thats the view, Ben offers no hope.
 

howeda7 said:
Yes. But one of them is that the local sports media just doesn't even pay attention to Gopher basketball. I buy it could be political for one or two of them like Souhan, but it doesn't explain the near universal takes. It's at least partially just lazy, uninformed takes.
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Ben Johnson is well known as a former Gophers player and assistant coach and is super likable. Anyone looking further into it than that has personal issues.
 

howeda7 said:
Yes. But one of them is that the local sports media just doesn't even pay attention to Gopher basketball. I buy it could be political for one or two of them like Souhan, but it doesn't explain the near universal takes. It's at least partially just lazy, uninformed takes.
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Hopefully someday you'll understand why the media has 'universal takes' on a lot of things.

But there was still plenty of local media saying the Gophers would be stupid to fire Tubby in 2013.
 

Ben is likable and has a way of eliciting pity. Also, if you hate the U, you're obviously going to support one of their least successful coaches, in this case a historically unsuccessful coach. Like I posted in another thread (or maybe this one?), at some point the local sportswriting mafia decided the right answer was to hate Fleck and pity Johnson. P.J. has been successful enough to piss off the U haters.
 


howeda7 said:
ZZZ. There's no local media cabal deciding their group think Gopher basketball takes.
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It's not a cabal, but do believe there's some groupthink to this. Arrogant people need to feel like the smartest people in the room, so they'll often adopt contrarian positions to make them look or feel like they know something nobody else is smart enough to perceive. There's a little of that in this forum, in fact.
 

Bad Gopher said:
It's not a cabal, but do believe there's some groupthink to this. Arrogant people need to feel like the smartest people in the room, so they'll often adopt contrarian positions to make them look or feel like they know something nobody else is smart enough to perceive. There's a little of that in this forum, in fact.
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"If Dennis Green said there is one, then there is one!" MN Sports Fans
 

stocker08 said:
Ben Johnson is well known as a former Gophers player and assistant coach and is super likable. Anyone looking further into it than that has personal issues.
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But why is he even likable? I find him to be the least charismatic coach that I have maybe ever heard speak. He’s neither funny nor interesting nor informative. So yeah he’s not anybody that’s going to create negative controversy, but what is there to like?
 

Bad Gopher said:
It's not a cabal, but do believe there's some groupthink to this. Arrogant people need to feel like the smartest people in the room, so they'll often adopt contrarian positions to make them look or feel like they know something nobody else is smart enough to perceive. There's a little of that in this forum, in fact.
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Ya think?? 🤣🤣🤣
 

stocker08 said:
Ben Johnson is well known as a former Gophers player and assistant coach and is super likable. Anyone looking further into it than that has personal issues.
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Some want to see it as the lone issue because of personal beliefs, but it is impossible to deny that you refuse to believe it plays any factor because of your personal beliefs.

The truth is somewhere in the middle.
 

WilliamsArenaGuy said:
But why is he even likable? I find him to be the least charismatic coach that I have maybe ever heard speak. He’s neither funny nor interesting nor informative. So yeah he’s not anybody that’s going to create negative controversy, but what is there to like?
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He's likeable the way a puppy is likeable. When threats emerge he just breaks out his equivalent of big sad puppy dog eyes.
 

WilliamsArenaGuy said:
But why is he even likable? I find him to be the least charismatic coach that I have maybe ever heard speak. He’s neither funny nor interesting nor informative. So yeah he’s not anybody that’s going to create negative controversy, but what is there to like?
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Spot on. He’s dull AF.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Obviously, the hidden message in their messaging is to put down the U and their fans as a bunch of losers. Also, they don't want the Gophers to get in the way of pro sports worship in this town. As always, follow the money.
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This is the theory I subscribe most to. I think they don't really care very much and it makes their job easier in that it doesn't take much time to cover a team on one cares abouts. More time to write about Kevin O'Connell's favorite color.
 

howeda7 said:
ZZZ. There's no local media cabal deciding their group think Gopher basketball takes.
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You’re wrong. These are the same media members that have nothing positive to say about PJ Fleck, had nothing positive to say for Jerry Kill, or Richard Pitino. But they all say we can’t fire BJ.

It’s group think across the board with them.
 
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WilliamsArenaGuy said:
But why is he even likable? I find him to be the least charismatic coach that I have maybe ever heard speak. He’s neither funny nor interesting nor informative. So yeah he’s not anybody that’s going to create negative controversy, but what is there to like?
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He’s not. The way he recruits and schedules also comes across as lazy.

There’s a reason he’s the worst coach bball coach in Gophers history.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
You’re wrong. This are the same media members that have nothing positive to say about PJ Fleck, had nothing positive to say for Jerry Kill, or Richard Pitino. But they all say we can’t fire BJ.

It’s group think across the board with them.
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This is so true and funny. I literally just texted almost this exact same thing to my friend group of Gopher fans. There is no logic behind it at all. Every coach has been railed on for years. Except the one who is literally the worst in the programs history. Fleck is still getting shit and his success compared to Ben Johnson looks like John fucking wooden.
 

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