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

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MaxyJR1 said:
This is where I think about Rigsby. The guy was starter for an NCAA tournament team at Oregon last year and can't get off the bench here.

This is where Ben Johnson loses me. You come off a huge, likely tiring, road trip and you decide to shorten the bench to 44 minutes. PSU had 56 minutes off the bench.

Rigsby 3
Mitch 14
Asuma 27
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This is always the tipoff: how well a coach uses talent. Any time I see something like this...it tells me everything I need to know about Dana Altman and Ben Johnson.

I always go back to Jon Bryant. I'm not sure he would've started on most mid-major teams, but there he was being named the most outstanding player of the 2000 west region on Wisconsin's Final Four run. That told me everything I needed to know about Dick Bennett.
 

Holy Man said:
Rhetorical I know, but Penn State. He had a career game against them and doesn’t see the floor the next time? Maybe there was a favorable match up that could be exploited.
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They wouldn't have won that first PSU game without him, and it turned out they DIDN'T win the second PSU game without him for the most part. If I'm Penn State, I can't believe my good fortune that Johnson took mercy on us in the second game by not unleashing him. :p In all seriousness, that's malpractice. How many times and in how many ways have we been asking: what the fuck are we doing here?
 

bga1 said:
Except for the one game- Rigsby has been awful. Now it could be because his time is so limited and inconsistent but he has been bad. The guy I don't understand is Edmunds when we play bigger centers. That is a guy who at least give a big like Konan N. some size to deal with and you have some fouls to burn. Putting Fox against a 6-10 big is insane.
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I wonder if Edmonds is dealing with an injury of some kind. He didn't play at all during the West Coast trip and now against Penn State. He hasn't been a huge part of the rotation all year but he has at least been logging a few minutes most nights with the exception of these past 3.
 

Bad Gopher said:
They wouldn't have won that first PSU game without him, and it turned out they DIDN'T win the second PSU game without him for the most part. If I'm Penn State, I can't believe my good fortune that Johnson took mercy on us in the second game by not unleashing him. :p In all seriousness, that's malpractice. How many times and in how many ways have we been asking: what the fuck are we doing here?
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Rigsby played out of his mind in that first matchup and was a huge part of why we got the win but after seeing both games the biggest factor (pun intended) was Penn State not having their center the first time we played them. We had no real answer for him.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Rigsby played out of his mind in that first matchup and was a huge part of why we got the win but after seeing both games the biggest factor (pun intended) was Penn State not having their center the first time we played them. We had no real answer for him.
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Not saying it's an automatic win if he plays more minutes, but the original point is valid: it's not like he's a Rudy-like walk-on who happened to catch fire. He's a proven commodity: a starter on a NCAA team last year and a valued transfer who must have had other good offers. And he was a difference maker in the first game...and then he went right back to the bench. That's inexplicable. People aren't talking about that enough. That and Asuma not starting. The roster is being mismanaged. The Gophs probably would have won Saturday--even with the center we had no answer for having a big game--if Johnson hadn't ridden too few players into fatigue by the end of the game. And don't ask Ben what he's been thinking with all these decisions. If his answers to some of these other dicey questions are any indication, he either doesn't have very good reasons or he's unwilling or unable to articulate them.
 


MNVCGUY said:
I wonder if Edmonds is dealing with an injury of some kind. He didn't play at all during the West Coast trip and now against Penn State. He hasn't been a huge part of the rotation all year but he has at least been logging a few minutes most nights with the exception of these past 3.
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Perhaps but Ben always does this. The bench starts short and gets shorter. We're down to play 7 trust 6.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Not saying it's an automatic win if he plays more minutes, but the original point is valid: it's not like he's a Rudy-like walk-on who happened to catch fire. He's a proven commodity: a starter on a NCAA team last year and a valued transfer who must have had other good offers. And he was a difference maker in the first game...and then he went right back to the bench. That's inexplicable. People aren't talking about that enough. That and Asuma not starting. The roster is being mismanaged. The Gophs probably would have won Saturday--even with the center we had no answer for having a big game--if Johnson hadn't ridden too few players into fatigue by the end of the game. And don't ask Ben what he's been thinking with all these decisions. If his answers to some of these other dicey questions are any indication, he either doesn't have very good reasons or he's unwilling or unable to articulate them.
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This. If he is making head scratching decisions AND winning, then he looks smarter than everyone. If you make head scratching decisions AND lose, you are just going to look like a dummy. He consistently looks like a dummy. The never changing starting lineup and extreme shortening of the bench each year never results in winning. At least TRY something different instead of putting Fox on a guy guaranteed to eat his lunch. Why is he afraid to start Frank Mitchell NOW when all indications are he would have been our starting Center had he not injured his shoulder in the exhibition. For a guy who is allegedly very superstitious, I am confused as to why he always sticks with the things that result in losing.
 


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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There is definite groupthink...it is not the conspiracy GWG seems to think it is though. It is just laziness and having no real idea (or care) about the U of M that causes it.
 



Bad Gopher said:
This is always the tipoff: how well a coach uses talent. Any time I see something like this...it tells me everything I need to know about Dana Altman and Ben Johnson.

I always go back to Jon Bryant. I'm not sure he would've started on most mid-major teams, but there he was being named the most outstanding player of the 2000 west region on Wisconsin's Final Four run. That told me everything I needed to know about Dick Bennett.
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Jon Bryant was a solid player for my HS (we made State that year!) but yeah he had no business being as good at Wisconsin as he was. That was coaching for sure.
 


Bad Gopher said:
Not saying it's an automatic win if he plays more minutes, but the original point is valid: it's not like he's a Rudy-like walk-on who happened to catch fire. He's a proven commodity: a starter on a NCAA team last year and a valued transfer who must have had other good offers. And he was a difference maker in the first game...and then he went right back to the bench. That's inexplicable. People aren't talking about that enough. That and Asuma not starting. The roster is being mismanaged. The Gophs probably would have won Saturday--even with the center we had no answer for having a big game--if Johnson hadn't ridden too few players into fatigue by the end of the game. And don't ask Ben what he's been thinking with all these decisions. If his answers to some of these other dicey questions are any indication, he either doesn't have very good reasons or he's unwilling or unable to articulate them.
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Rigsby is a tough one to figure out. He got 22 minutes and scored 14 huge points against Penn State but that game is the exception for him and not the rule. Hell he played 22 minutes in the next game against Illinois and scored 0 points. In pretty much all the Big Ten games outside of the first Penn State game he has been a non-factor on offense regardless of how many minutes he is on the court.

Asuma not starting doesn't bother me. If he wasn't getting lots of minutes it would be an issue but he is playing a lot, just not starting over players with significantly more experience then him.

That said, Ben's rotations certainly don't make sense a lot of the time.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Not saying it's an automatic win if he plays more minutes, but the original point is valid: it's not like he's a Rudy-like walk-on who happened to catch fire. He's a proven commodity: a starter on a NCAA team last year and a valued transfer who must have had other good offers. And he was a difference maker in the first game...and then he went right back to the bench. That's inexplicable. People aren't talking about that enough. That and Asuma not starting. The roster is being mismanaged. The Gophs probably would have won Saturday--even with the center we had no answer for having a big game--if Johnson hadn't ridden too few players into fatigue by the end of the game. And don't ask Ben what he's been thinking with all these decisions. If his answers to some of these other dicey questions are any indication, he either doesn't have very good reasons or he's unwilling or unable to articulate them.
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I read where Ben said it "was their immaturity showing up" HUH?

Isn't his starting 5 made up of seniors with an 8 year senior sprinkled in for good measure?
 



GopherBlood777 said:
This. If he is making head scratching decisions AND winning, then he looks smarter than everyone. If you make head scratching decisions AND lose, you are just going to look like a dummy. He consistently looks like a dummy. The never changing starting lineup and extreme shortening of the bench each year never results in winning. At least TRY something different instead of putting Fox on a guy guaranteed to eat his lunch. Why is he afraid to start Frank Mitchell NOW when all indications are he would have been our starting Center had he not injured his shoulder in the exhibition. For a guy who is allegedly very superstitious, I am confused as to why he always sticks with the things that result in losing.
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The decision to keep on starting Fox over Frank Mitchell makes zero sense. It would be one thing if Parker was playing at really high level but he isn't and F. Mitchell is a much better rebounder then Parker. Plus, Fox is perfectly suited to be a high energy guy off the bench.

Asuma not starting is the one that people seem to get hung up on but to me not strarting F. Mitchell over Fox is a far bigger issue.
 

RockChalk said:
I read where Ben said it "was their immaturity showing up" HUH?

Isn't his starting 5 made up of seniors with an 8 year senior sprinkled in for good measure?
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Sometimes coaches can't get out of their own way. Considering they are all transfers you can probably question their maturity, but that's across the board in 2025.

Do we really know who the mature leader of the team even is? I have my thoughts about some of the players that they are immature even if in their 8th season.
 




Bad Gopher said:
This is always the tipoff: how well a coach uses talent. Any time I see something like this...it tells me everything I need to know about Dana Altman and Ben Johnson.

I always go back to Jon Bryant. I'm not sure he would've started on most mid-major teams, but there he was being named the most outstanding player of the 2000 west region on Wisconsin's Final Four run. That told me everything I needed to know about Dick Bennett.
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Jon Bryant would have started on a lot of teams. He was criminally underrated.
 

He was not...he was just perfect for the system Bennett ran. Trust me I saw him play a lot ;)
 


Bad Gopher said:
He's a proven commodity: a starter on a NCAA team last year
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Not really.

He started 13 games last year for Oregon. Most came in December before he was replaced in the starting lineup. His minutes dipped fairly dramatically once he was removed as a starter. He did not start in any of the final 18 games of the season. He had one double digit scoring game after January 13th last year.

In PAC 12 tourney he averaged 2 points per game on 12 minutes per game. In the two NCAA games, which included a double OT loss to Creighton (50 minutes of game), he averaged 26 minutes and scored a TOTAL of two points. Basically, he wasn't very good for Oregon.

He started the first ten games for Minnesota this year and was so bad, Ben really had to bench him once Mike Mitchell got healthy. Outside of the Penn State road game, he literally hasn't made a shot since January 6th. Not one. More airballs than made FGs since then.
 
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tjgopher said:
Not really.

He started 13 games last year for Oregon. Most came in December before he was replaced in the starting lineup. His minutes dipped fairly dramatically once he was removed as a starter. He did not start in any of the final 18 games of the season. He had one double digit scoring game after January 13th last year.

In PAC 12 tourney he averaged 2 points per game on 12 minutes per game. In the two NCAA games, which included a double OT loss to Creighton (50 minutes of game), he averaged 26 minutes and scored a TOTAL of two points. Basically, he wasn't very good for Oregon.

He started the first ten games for Minnesota this year and was so bad, Ben really had to bench him once Mike Mitchell got healthy. Outside of the Penn State road game, he literally hasn't made a shot since January 6th. Not one. More airballs than made FGs since then.
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So, Ben offered a not very good player a scholarship.
 





We all have our opinions on whether Ben recently has saved his job or not. I would think he will be let go. After a sweep in LA people thought he would be back, but i have to believe if we lose tonight that will put to rest the possibility of him coming back. It will make it a done deal.
 

When the University formally announces we’re moving forward with CBJ, what’s the over/under on loss of season ticket holders? 🤔
 


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