I/we can see what Coach Johnson is trying to do to build the team. This last recruiting season and now Christie next year are attempting to fill the SQ/wing spots that are not present yet. That is a rebuild process. The previous acquisitions/bets at forward should be assumed to be more than expected. So four years makes sense.
The far more serious situation is over on the women's basketball side where that coach has little to show in now the fifth year except a lot of questionable stuff -- and I say heat seat should go to the AD Coyle:
She had zero head coaching experience. She had zero even assistant coaching experience. OK, she's one of the greatest point guard players ever and initially brought image gravitas when hired. That appears to be gone and now we have questionable stuff.
In 5 years zero NCAA Tournament appearances. The year before she arrived was the last year the Gophers made the NCAA Tournament. Gophers also have zero success in NIT tournament meaning only made that twice and eliminated in the 2nd round each time of the NIT. Other three years no tournament appearance at all.
Both last year and this year lost to nobody schools including NDSU this season and Jacksonville last season. Gophers had better talent. How does the Big Ten lose to those kinds of teams two years in a row?
So many questionable game coaching decisions this year. Gophers were winning against a bad Rutgers team with only 8 players and bungled that away including a 5' 5" point guard assigned to guard a 6' 0" wing, the best player, who feasted on the Gophers. For context. Iowa just set a program record for most points against Rutgers in a 54 point route of Rutgers.
Lost twice to a bad Wisconsin team after leading both. That's the story over and over.
On and on with questionable stuff this season.
Game was tied against Ilinois. Illinois media said Gophers Braun was giving their defense the biggest problem. Gophers coach sits Braun down at around 6 and a half minutes. The announcers on Big Ten + are saying, "I just don't understand this coaching decision by Whalen to put Braun on the bench." And again, "Where is Mara Braun?" When she did come in at I believe under a minute she went 2 of 2 on free throws.
Gophers just one a game this week with 28 points from Braun and apparently one of the players that cannot shoot helped coach the win by at the end asking to be taken out and Gradwell put in who then made the winning bucket after the other team double or triple teamed Braun leaving Gradwell open. Had it been for the coach.
Five years now for of that coach with zero assistant or head coaching experience.
And last year a huge numbers of players left via the transfer portal leaving only 3 players.
Sophomore guard Alexia Smith is the sixth Minnesota player this year to enter their name into the NCAA transfer portal.
mndaily.com
And before that Big Ten freshman of the year Destiny Pitts left after she was "shocked and blindsided" by the coach suspending her. Two of her teammates sat out a game in protest of the suspension. And then Pitts won the 6th (wo)man award and helped Texas A&M go deep into the NCAA Tournament.
Minnesota's Destiny Pitts said she was informed last Friday that she was suspended indefinitely for her "body language" during a game against Northwestern. On Thursday, she announced she would transfer.
www.espn.com
Program appears to be impaired both picking up good transfer players and now current recruiting.
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How this relates to men's basketball:
OK, so CBJ gets his time to show what he can do. How long does that go on? Five years?
Everyone knows me to be the loyalist but also to a point. CBJ needs time to put it together but Minnesota just is not the fanbase and program to tolerate many years of nothing.
Pay attention to the women's side to see what Coyle does there. Yet another extension?
