Poll: Should Mark Coyle give Ben Johnson a 5th year?

Poll: Should Mark Coyle give Ben Johnson a 5th year?

  • Yes, Ben Johnson deserves a 5th year.

    Votes: 34 15.5%

  • No, it is time to move on from Ben Johnson.

    Votes: 185 84.5%
  • Total voters
    219
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Nope. I wanted Ben Johnson to succeed but he has had 4 years without any progress.

Trent Tucker said on KFAN that Tom Crean would be interested in the Minnesota Gophers Basketball Head Coach job if it is open. Now that’s a real coach with experience that this program needs.
 


In what world would he deserve another year (absent hanging a banner by winning the BTT and making the NCAA tourney)? If Tubby's six year track record was worth firing, how historically good would Johnson's next two years need to be to be better than that after year six? We have a low bar based on the last few decades of performance, and Johnson still managed to be noticeably worse than his predecessors at the same institution (including the one who was handcuffed by some pretty significant sanctions for issues from before he arrived). This is a no, and it's not a close call.
 


UnFadeable21 said:
Nope. I wanted Ben Johnson to succeed but he has had 4 years without any progress.

Trent Tucker said on KFAN that Tom Crean would be interested in the Minnesota Gophers Basketball Head Coach job if it is open. Now that’s a real coach with experience that this program needs.
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I hope this is sarcasm
 




UnFadeable21 said:
Nope. I wanted Ben Johnson to succeed but he has had 4 years without any progress.

Trent Tucker said on KFAN that Tom Crean would be interested in the Minnesota Gophers Basketball Head Coach job if it is open. Now that’s a real coach with experience that this program needs.
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Crean would take it and Barreiro would turn on him immediately. Barreiro has had some really good conversations with him.
 

Johnnyboy18 said:
I hope this is sarcasm
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Yep- this is exactly why I won't vote in this poll. The devil is in the details. If we are going to go small ball and go after what is perceived as an affordable new coach, an incremental upgrade- don't bother. Stick with Ben. If we are going to go big, and invest in the program by going out and getting a big time high D1 coach that will excite the town- then great..fire Ben and do it.

I have seen the former strategy with the firing of Pitino and we all know how that has worked out. Until I see differently, I have no trust in the administration to do this right.
 

bga1 said:
Yep- this is exactly why I won't vote in this poll. The devil is in the details. If we are going to go small ball and go after what is perceived as an affordable new coach, an incremental upgrade- don't bother. Stick with Ben. If we are going to go big, and invest in the program by going out and getting a big time high D1 coach that will excite the town- then great..fire Ben and do it.

I have seen the former strategy with the firing of Pitino and we all know how that has worked out. Until I see differently, I have no trust in the administration to do this right.
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I voted no in the poll. But I do agree that if the change is only the coach and nothing else changes then the likelihood of the new coach succeeding is pretty slim.

Need a new coach and a commitment to get him what he needs under the new revenue sharing setup to be successful.

On that same token, if they do run it back with Ben he also needs that same commitment to having the resources he needs to be on near equal footing with other teams in the conference financially when it comes to building the roster.
 

bga1 said:
Yep- this is exactly why I won't vote in this poll. The devil is in the details. If we are going to go small ball and go after what is perceived as an affordable new coach, an incremental upgrade- don't bother. Stick with Ben. If we are going to go big, and invest in the program by going out and getting a big time high D1 coach that will excite the town- then great..fire Ben and do it.

I have seen the former strategy with the firing of Pitino and we all know how that has worked out. Until I see differently, I have no trust in the administration to do this right.
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Even under your first scenario, what do you really lose? Are you worried about the buy-out dollars? I've heard the argument the grass isn't always greener if you make a change. The problem with that mentality is the grass doesn't get much browner than it is right now. Fan apathy is at an all time low. If exceeding expectations in year four of your regime is to make the B1G tourney with a senior laden line-up and arguably the best player to come through here in awhile, doesn't that say all you really need to know?

I've thought for awhile that NIL (or lack thereof) would be his life preserver to keep him around for another year. But how many years without an NCAA tourney berth is acceptable? Five? Six? One appearance in six years?
 



Voted no. Would next year be the last year in his contract? I can see Coyle letting him ride out this contract then moving on next year. Unfortunately, I believe that would just put us another year behind. Nice guy, did a few things right, but he needed to be a head coach at a mid major first. I remember logging onto Gopher hole and seeing we hired Ben Johnson, my mind initially went to (Ben Jacobson) really we hired the Northern Iowa head coach? After my mind settled, I realized, no we hired someone worse then the Northern Iowa coach...
 

MNVCGUY said:
On that same token, if they do run it back with Ben he also needs that same commitment to having the resources he needs to be on near equal footing with other teams in the conference financially when it comes to building the roster.
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You also don't let him (or anybody else that has been responsible) anywhere near the process of setting the schedule for next year. He has unnecessarily knee-capped his own team both of the last two years and led to his very poor tournament profiles despite a handful of Q1 wins. I'd have more faith in a number of posters on this site gaming the system to allow for a much better schedule. Pitino, for example, was a very good non-conference scheduler.
 


This poll seems unnecessary. Of course he shouldn't. Shouldn't have given him year four.

Better poll: WILL Coyle give Johnson year 5?
 






USAF said:
This poll seems unnecessary. Of course he shouldn't. Shouldn't have given him year four.

Better poll: WILL Coyle give Johnson year 5?
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Yeah, if it's up to Coyle. I'm in the camp that it's not his choice, and that the people over there who hate sports, especially men's sports, are kicking and screaming about how it needs to be "fair", since the last basketball coach that got canned got five years.
 


UnFadeable21 said:
Nope. I wanted Ben Johnson to succeed but he has had 4 years without any progress.

Trent Tucker said on KFAN that Tom Crean would be interested in the Minnesota Gophers Basketball Head Coach job if it is open. Now that’s a real coach with experience that this program needs.
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totally agree with you
 


The team faltered this year because of NIL dollars to entice Hawkins and Payne to leave. Had they stayed this would be an NCAA tournament team. Johnson wasn’t able to replace them with equal talent. My guess is he gets another year because the $2.9 million buyout is too high to absorb. We’ll know soon enough.
 


WilliamsArenaGuy said:
Somehow the Twitter poll is only 60-40. It's amazing.
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If it is people under age 35 voting what have they seen from Gopher basketball in their lifetime? Pretty pathetic when you think about it. I long for the days of Clem. His teams had worts too but they were capable of playing with and beating almost anyone. Four years has been plenty of time for Ben. In the NIL and transfer portal era if you know what you are doing and can recruit you can turn a team around in a year, two tops. If the coach can't do that he isn't the right guy regardless of the excuse.
 

Bobek said:
The team faltered this year because of NIL dollars to entice Hawkins and Payne to leave. Had they stayed this would be an NCAA tournament team. Johnson wasn’t able to replace them with equal talent. My guess is he gets another year because the $2.9 million buyout is too high to absorb. We’ll know soon enough.
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The Gophers weren't an NCAA with Hawkins and Payne last year. Also, if they stayed probably 2 less components that they would have gotten incoming via the Portal.
 

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