Reusse Gopher Basketball Insights - Transfer Gossip, NIL Money, Facilities, Dutcher, Musselman ETC

[Gopher Teeth]

Names, please. Exactly who should have done what?

Let's put it this way, ultimately responsibility is always at the top. If they really wanted success, then they have the ability to make it happen, and if they don't do it, then responsibility is with them because they are not taking actions to fix it. It's the whole fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. The initial issue may not be the admin's fault, but inaction by them in the face of obvious long failure is on them. If you are the CEO, and you have a problem in a department, sure the problem may be a manager in that department, well fire that manager and bring in someone who will get the job done. You can't go to the board and say, "Well that one manager in that department just won't do his job well there is nothing I can do." The board will hold you accountable for not doing what needs to be done and you will be gone.

If Coyle is the problem get rid or him, if money is the problem then allocate the money, but the fact they do nothing is all you need to know the problem is them.

 

[Crappie]

Names, please. Exactly who should have done what?

The university president should insist on hiring qualified candidates. And funding appropriately to ensure hiring only highly qualified candidate's. And ensuring challenges like nil are appropriately addressed to give every chance at success.

 

[Bad Gopher]

Let's put it this way, ultimately responsibility is always at the top. If they really wanted success, then they have the ability to make it happen, and if they don't do it, then responsibility is with them because they are not taking actions to fix it. It's the whole fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. The initial issue may not be the admin's fault, but inaction by them in the face of obvious long failure is on them. If you are the CEO, and you have a problem in a department, sure the problem may be a manager in that department, well fire that manager and bring in someone who will get the job done. You can't go to the board and say, "Well that one manager in that department just won't do his job well there is nothing I can do." The board will hold you accountable for not doing what needs to be done and you will be gone.

If Coyle is the problem get rid or him, if money is the problem then allocate the money, but the fact they do nothing is all you need to know the problem is them.

I think this is fair. Whatever the institutional problem, however, it doesn't seem to have prevented perennial national title-contending volleyball teams, perennially ranked gymnastics, a resurgent men's hockey team, multiple women's hockey championships, a football program that seems to be headed in a good direction and has already made some strides, and a softball program that's outperforming their climate. A reasonable, detached skeptic would question whether the "woke boogeyman" model best fits the U of M's situation.

 

[Off-GridTNgopher]

So there's now zero nil money.... Wouldn't that be an indictment on cbj?? The donors that we do have, have decided this p.o.s. squad/coach/program is not worth them investing their money into it at this time...

 

[GopherWeatherGuy]

You think the Strib's analysis of the lack of black coaches in the Big Ten and NCAA as a whole, when there is and has been a high percentage black players, is the reason the program is bad? I know it's easy to blame the "media elite" and the deep administrative state, but come on.

Was there pressure to consider minority candidates? Probably, especially when the coaches in the department are largely white and same throughout the sport.

Let's not forget that the athletic department was in the financial ringer and Ben was the cheapest option. Also since recruiting locally was an issue, Ben was most clearly qualified to jump right in.

It wasn't an analysis of the B1G and NCAA, it was a blatant attack on Coyle by the Strib because he hadn't hired a minority candidate yet. There was no mention that 2 of the last 4 gopher basketball coaches prior to Ben were black. Three days after the article was printed, Ben Johnson came out of nowhere as a candidate and was hired. He had by far the worst resume out of anyone who was being considered.

Ben being the cheapest option is also a complete fabrication. He's making nearly the same as Pitino, and what Craig Smith is being paid at Utah.

Would it been better to pick someone else who would've taken a bit of time to build local relationships? Maybe.

You can't be serious with this comment. It's almost impossible to be worse than Ben has so far, yet he may actually out do himself next season.

 

[50PoundHead]

You think the Strib's analysis of the lack of black coaches in the Big Ten and NCAA as a whole, when there is and has been a high percentage black players, is the reason the program is bad? I know it's easy to blame the "media elite" and the deep administrative state, but come on.

Was there pressure to consider minority candidates? Probably, especially when the coaches in the department are largely white and same throughout the sport.

Let's not forget that the athletic department was in the financial ringer and Ben was the cheapest option. Also since recruiting locally was an issue, Ben was most clearly qualified to jump right in. Would it been better to pick someone else who would've taken a bit of time to build local relationships? Maybe.

I agree that one aspect of hiring Johnson was to try to strengthen the relationship with the local AAU programs to keep some of the top Minnesota kids in-state. I'm not going to argue whether that was the primary reason he was hired, but I think it certainly factored into the decision. Was it the right strategy? Too early to say it was totally wrong but with the portal and NIL and the rest of the stuff, there's a lot more to consider. Clearly Johnson needs to stabilize the program or it will be a short tenure.

 

[jamiche]

Is NIL the biggest issue? No. It is a symptom. It is a general lack of interest in winning in major sports. Look how many years football languished and despite nice success by historical standards, still no championships. You can affect basketball in a big way with NIL- much more so than football where it is impossible to spread big money around to every impact player.

The selection of the coach is actually indicative of what I am saying. They were more concerned about checking a diversity box than winning. If it so happened that he won- all the better but that was secondary. They put Johnson in a terrible spot I have said so from the beginning- it was not the hire I wanted. Was he ready to be a Big Ten coach? No. Now he is our coach and if he is going to win they had better pull out all the stops to help him. Otherwise they will be right back at it in a year or so hiring another coach to start over.

You are feeling emboldened to go back to your "diversity hire" thing because Johnson has had a rough start.

 

[Crappie]

I think this is fair. Whatever the institutional problem, however, it doesn't seem to have prevented perennial national title-contending volleyball teams, perennially ranked gymnastics, a resurgent men's hockey team, multiple women's hockey championships, a football program that seems to be headed in a good direction and has already made some strides, and a softball program that's outperforming their climate. A reasonable, detached skeptic would question whether the "woke boogeyman" model best fits the U of M's situation.

Contrast and compare the hires for hockey and men's bb.

 

[Crappie]

You are feeling emboldened to go back to your "diversity hire" thing because Johnson has had a rough start.

Do you hear that old Styx song Foolin yourself over and over in your head?

 

[Spaulding!No!]

And soon the anti Ben crowd will be labeled racists. It is destiny.

 

[Gophers_4life]

2. If what he's saying regarding the NIL situation (NO money at ALL) at the U is true, then man, we're f*cked, seriously. I hate to say that or think it and hate to drop an F-bomb like that, but wow. What an absolute travesty.

NW seems to be doing fine this year. They didn't even (still don't??) have a NIL collective.

And no, a NW degree is not some automatic 7-figures job thing. It just isn't. Plus, I doubt the guys on the bball team are doing whatever their top rated degrees are anyway. (Wild guess business, law, and med - ie professional degrees)

 

[Gophers_4life]

I’m sorry, this is such a lazy, tired take. If NIL were the biggest issue, how are football, volleyball, men’s and women’s hockey successful? Because they’re swimming in NIL and basketball is left to start their own lemonade stand? No- those other sports have good coaches. Is it easier to be a coach at a place like Oregon where there is an almost unlimited amount of cash from an overly zealous benefactor? Probably. But the money was flowing into schools like that before NIL to give them an unfair advantage already. This is just in a different form.

Does Fairleigh Dickinson have a robust NIL collective? I have no idea, but I’m willing to bet they don’t. Yet somehow they were able to beat Purdue and we only managed to score 39 points against them. NIL is a pretty easy excuse when your coach can’t coach or build a team.

The problem is the strategy of going after the kinds of players/recruits for whom you do need to have strong NIL to have a chance at landing.

We don't need those kinds of guys, to win. We don't. Football doesn't do that. They've embraced the 3* athlete.


But, it seems clear that Ben sold Coyle on that he had special sauce/mojo/energy/vibes to go out and hook those particular kinds of fish, especially the big whoppers that grow up in the Cities, and Coyle ate it up.

 

[Full Speed Ahead]

...
Coyle is like Maturi. Earnest, non dynamic and organized. A perfect number two in the department. The U needs someone who can raise money and provide leadership, not remind people to fill out forms and answer surveys.

This guy, who wanted the AD job back when we hired Coyle. We're not going to find anyone else who's more plugged into money and doners, and who can also sell the U to others.

Pete Najarian​

 

[Bad Gopher]

Contrast and compare the hires for hockey and men's bb.

I don't think it's oversimplifying things to say that it comes down to hiring the right person to coach the team. I sometimes refer to the Gopher volleyball program as The House That Hebert Built. Not the house that Voelz built or the house that Hasselmo built. I can't think of a more uninspiring president in my lifetime than Hasselmo, and we all have our feelings about Voelz, but hiring Hebert cured all the ills. Obviously he was immune to this woke boogeyman I keep hearing about.

 

[Spaulding!No!]

Pete enjoys visiting the tailgating in a certain lot. Fun guy!

 

[jamiche]

And soon the anti Ben crowd will be labeled racists. It is destiny.

Nope. There are many legitimate reasons to have problems with a coach who is 5-35 in the B1G. There's one guy on this board who has a long history of bigoted comments, racist dog whistles and racist innuendos. My post applies to him.

 

[Gophers_4life]

This guy, who wanted the AD job back when we hired Coyle. We're not going to find anyone else who's more plugged into money and doners, and who can also sell the U to others.

Pete Najarian​

View attachment 24640

Reading his bio, this has "dirty money/win at all costs" written all over it -- my wild, worthless, gut feel.

Not necessarily saying that's a bad thing .....

 

[jamiche]

Pete enjoys visiting the tailgating in a certain lot. Fun guy!

I think he would have been a good hire, particularly in the NIL environment. Unfortunately, the U was going to do the safe thing after Norwood.

 

[Gophers_4life]

You are feeling emboldened to go back to your "diversity hire" thing because Johnson has had a rough start.

Also -- and give me some rope on this -- he was turned down for head coaching jobs at Montana State and Northern Illinois.

I dunno .... seems kinda odd that Minnesota would be the first HC job, without any "other factors" in play.

 

[CentralGopher]

Unless it’s baseball or sports in the 60’s Reusse really doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about.

 

[tikited]

This is what I have been saying. Follow the money because that's what the players are doing. It's Coyle's job to go find it, not Johnson's. Until the U gets real NIL money we won't know if Johnson can coach because the roster will be a revolving door of mediocre to sub mediocre talent.

Coyle is like Maturi. Earnest, non dynamic and organized. A perfect number two in the department. The U needs someone who can raise money and provide leadership, not remind people to fill out forms and answer surveys

Johnson has had two seasons to show us all something. He hasn't delivered. Crap hire no matter what the nil situation is. Part of the solution is on the coach to show some hope for the future. There is none right now.

 

[jamiche]

Also -- and give me some rope on this -- he was turned down for head coaching jobs at Montana State and Northern Illinois.

I dunno .... seems kinda odd that Minnesota would be the first HC job, without any "other factors" in play.

I comment specifically on bga's posts because he has a long history of racist comments on this board. His "diversity hire" posts aren't isolated and they aren't offered in a vacuum.

Like many hires, CBJ was the opposite of his predecessor. Pitino's weakness was local recruiting. That was presumably CBJ's strength. CBJ was perceived as hungry and a relentless recruiter. Pitino was not. CBJ's contract was reasonable and we don't know if he was the top choice. Coyle had a prior relationship with CBJ, which counts for a lot. Don't know if CBJ had prior relationships with the NIU and Montana St. AD's.

As I said earlier, there's a lot to criticize legitimately about CBJ's first two years. However, calling it a "diversity hire" before the press conference and periodically saying "I told ya so" continues to reflect poorly on that member of the board. Perfectly ok to call him on it.

 

[scools12]

And soon the anti Ben crowd will be labeled racists. It is destiny.

The labeling has already started.

 

[alchemy2u]

Video

They start off the segment by saying they do not know anything about Gopher Basketball and it shows! A bunch of idiots making conclusions about crap they are just making up.

I had to stop watching after the one clown says there hasn't been many major recruits out of Minnesota since Tre Jones....

They make it seem like the university can just set up the big money NIL deals and that it is their fault. The U has traditionally been a clean program (with regards to money) with very little booster money floating around and riding its way to the players. Many of the schools with large NIL money are the ones that have had the booster money floating around under the table in the past.

Reusse throws out the comment that he is sure Iowa State can find the NIL money that the U can not find. I did some checking and didn't find any large NIL money for ISU players, but I did find an "We Will" NIL collective fund that is just like the one that the U has going.

I did not know that we are a part of ISU Mythology. They "We Will" comes from their "I Will" which is based upon a game in Minnesota:

Thus, the advent of the “We Will” collective, a name derived from the “I will” part of the letter Jack Trice wrote on the eve of a 1923 game at Minnesota — a game in which severe injuries eventually led to his death. It’s a booster-driven initiative independent of Iowa State University that will roll out this week. The collective will pay student-athletes to help organizations in fundraising endeavors.

Peterson: Iowa State boosters create the 'We Will' collective to help compete in NIL landscape

Name, image and likeness financial opportunities are part of the college athletics landscape now. Iowa State boosters are doing their part to help.

www.desmoinesregister.com

 

[Spaulding!No!]

I hope they allot some € for the trice family. I mean it seems like the right thing to do.

 

[GopherWeatherGuy]

They start off the segment by saying they do not know anything about Gopher Basketball and it shows! A bunch of idiots making conclusions about crap they are just making up.

I had to stop watching after the one clown says there hasn't been many major recruits out of Minnesota since Tre Jones....

They make it seem like the university can just set up the big money NIL deals and that it is their fault. The U has traditionally been a clean program (with regards to money) with very little booster money floating around and riding its way to the players. Many of the schools with large NIL money are the ones that have had the booster money floating around under the table in the past.

Reusse throws out the comment that he is sure Iowa State can find the NIL money that the U can not find. I did some checking and didn't find any large NIL money for ISU players, but I did find an "We Will" NIL collective fund that is just like the one that the U has going.

I did not know that we are a part of ISU Mythology. They "We Will" comes from their "I Will" which is based upon a game in Minnesota:

Thus, the advent of the “We Will” collective, a name derived from the “I will” part of the letter Jack Trice wrote on the eve of a 1923 game at Minnesota — a game in which severe injuries eventually led to his death. It’s a booster-driven initiative independent of Iowa State University that will roll out this week. The collective will pay student-athletes to help organizations in fundraising endeavors.

Peterson: Iowa State boosters create the 'We Will' collective to help compete in NIL landscape

Name, image and likeness financial opportunities are part of the college athletics landscape now. Iowa State boosters are doing their part to help.

www.desmoinesregister.com

Iowa St literally lost their 2nd best player and true freshman off of last year's sweet 16 team to Texas, in the same conference, due to NIL. And they still made the tournament this year, and have the 7th ranked recruiting class in the country for next year.

Reusse just makes shit up and sadly some people here will still eat it up.

 

[golfing18now]

I comment specifically on bga's posts because he has a long history of racist comments on this board. His "diversity hire" posts aren't isolated and they aren't offered in a vacuum.

Like many hires, CBJ was the opposite of his predecessor. Pitino's weakness was local recruiting. That was presumably CBJ's strength. CBJ was perceived as hungry and a relentless recruiter. Pitino was not. CBJ's contract was reasonable and we don't know if he was the top choice. Coyle had a prior relationship with CBJ, which counts for a lot. Don't know if CBJ had prior relationships with the NIU and Montana St. AD's.

As I said earlier, there's a lot to criticize legitimately about CBJ's first two years. However, calling it a "diversity hire" before the press conference and periodically saying "I told ya so" continues to reflect poorly on that member of the board. Perfectly ok to call him on it.

The attempt to address Pitino's perceived weakness (local recruiting) was given to the guy that was responsible for local recruiting during the Pitino tenure? Or are we now arguing the local recruiting only sucked for the three years after Ben left? Getting local kids to commit is more than just having relationships with AAU coaches. Kids want to try other places too. Just because dad played here, doesn't mean (insert local high school kid) wants to play here too.

Regarding the racism charge......Reusse flat out said in the interview that Dutcher was Coyle's first choice but he was over-ruled. Reusse is far more plugged in to what is going on at the University than any of us here. I believe him. So why then was Coyle over-ruled? Surely it wasn't the resume that wasn't good enough for Montana State of Northern Illinois. Nobody that makes this diversity hire declaration is bothered by the fact a minority candidate was hired. Most of us are bothered that a far more qualified minority candidate wasn't hired (i.e. Shrewsberry, Gates, etc.).

 

[Gopher Teeth]

Iowa St literally lost their 2nd best player and true freshman off of last year's sweet 16 team to Texas, in the same conference, due to NIL. And they still made the tournament this year, and have the 7th ranked recruiting class in the country for next year.

Reusse just makes shit up and sadly some people here will still eat it up.

Apologists gonna apologize

 

[DLib]

I’m sorry, this is such a lazy, tired take. If NIL were the biggest issue, how are football, volleyball, men’s and women’s hockey successful? Because they’re swimming in NIL and basketball is left to start their own lemonade stand? No- those other sports have good coaches. Is it easier to be a coach at a place like Oregon where there is an almost unlimited amount of cash from an overly zealous benefactor? Probably. But the money was flowing into schools like that before NIL to give them an unfair advantage already. This is just in a different form.

Does Fairleigh Dickinson have a robust NIL collective? I have no idea, but I’m willing to bet they don’t. Yet somehow they were able to beat Purdue and we only managed to score 39 points against them. NIL is a pretty easy excuse when your coach can’t coach or build a team.

Fairleigh Dickinson that has a kenpom of 275. They won one game

 

[disco]

Reading his bio, this has "dirty money/win at all costs" written all over it -- my wild, worthless, gut feel.

Not necessarily saying that's a bad thing .....

I'm fine with it.