Shooter: Brian Dutcher praises Gophers’ hiring of Ben Johnson

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I have never gotten the feeling that Coyle is the type to roll out of bed groggily, look at his calendar and say "Ooph , was that today?"

I'll bet he was 80% in with his decision before Pitino was gone.

I don't think it was a POC decision. I think it was a plus.

He could have spent more with no guarantee of result.

I don't think an all Minnesotan roster is the answer, but I do think if you can't retain your backyard talent you are not doing something right.

Time to wait and see if it was a good decision...
 

Gopher Teeth said:
Ahhh, because he took 1.85 from Utah, which is a little less than what Ben got, are you really going to keep arguing this point?
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So if you have two competing job offers you don't think you'd take the one that doesn't require you to move or that is an area your family likes?. Are you really going to keep arguing that?
 

MplsGopher said:
Prove the sun is going to rise tomorrow Central.

You can't, can you! That must prove you're full of crap.


Where did I say it was a fact?

I literally said "Is what I heard".
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You claimed to hear it. I doubt you even have a source. You're trying to pass off the random thoughts in your head as facts.
 


CentralGopher said:
So if you have two competing job offers you don't think you'd take the one that doesn't require you to move or that is an area your family likes?. Are you really going to keep arguing that?
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Seriously? Craig Smith has said Minnesota was his dream job, your argument is backwards. At this point you are just making stuff up.
 


CentralGopher said:
you don't think you'd take the one that doesn't require you to move or that is an area your family likes?
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Nevermind that he and his wife are from Minnesota. Probably doesn't make a difference.
 

Gopher Teeth said:
Seriously? Craig Smith has said Minnesota was his dream job, your argument is backwards.
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Yet nothing says he would have done it for the same money we are giving Johnson and that he'd move his whole family vs taking a comparable offer where he doesn't have to move at all.
 

Gopher Teeth said:
Definitely a class act, but from his comments it looks like Minnesota could have definitely got him, I was very surprised with what he shared. Quote that sets the stage:



Your response is not this if you are less than 50/50


. . .you don't tell the media that if you weren't really interested. That quote is not going to help you in your current gig when you are quoted in the media talking about loving to hear about others places you could go. How does that go over with current players or future recruits, hint: its not helpful. This guy was talking from the heart and not his head, which tells me all I need to know about where he was at.

I have been accepting the possible narrative that Dutcher really wasn't gettable, but this really changed that, and now I see that that narrative is false. I am really shocked, again that Minnesota didn't even talk to an established coach who has built a program with a proven track record and was no doubt gettable. I hope that Ben does well, but this is now a confirmed another option that was very gettable for the U. All the speculation about we didn't really have a chance with Dutcher is now out the window. This committee made a very big call without even interviewing some great candidates and this could come back to haunt them. I wonder what peoples' reactions would be if Dutcher and Smith were black and Ben Johnson was white and this hire went down the way it did, would people be upset or would they be all in? Would people be upset that two very qualified black coaches were not even interviewed, despite having strong interest, for an unproven white coach who had a good interview?
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Really? I think Minnesota had a real chance to get Dutcher, but we will never know. But I do think you have a couple of false assumptions.
- First that Dutcher was greater than 50/50 because of his response that he would love to hear from him. That is exactly the response that you give to an employer if you want to stay in contact with them and want to learn more. Even if you are probably not going to take the job, you have to make them think it is the most important thing in your life! The moment you hesitate and do not show excitement for the job, they will stop talking to you. I see this as Dutcher being polite and wanting more info, that is all. This will have no impact on Dutcher at SDSU. They have always know that he has that Minnesota clause, it just gives him a chance to address it. Lets them know that he was contacted, but he is staying at SDSU.
- You do not have to interview all of the candidates before you make a hire. You hire the person you feel fits the job and you know know it. Like SON said, you know if they are the one.
 

alchemy2u said:
Really? I think Minnesota had a real chance to get Dutcher, but we will never know. But I do think you have a couple of false assumptions.
- First that Dutcher was greater than 50/50 because of his response that he would love to hear from him. That is exactly the response that you give to an employer if you want to stay in contact with them and want to learn more. Even if you are probably not going to take the job, you have to make them think it is the most important thing in your life! The moment you hesitate and do not show excitement for the job, they will stop talking to you. I see this as Dutcher being polite and wanting more info, that is all. This will have no impact on Dutcher at SDSU. They have always know that he has that Minnesota clause, it just gives him a chance to address it. Lets them know that he was contacted, but he is staying at SDSU.
- You do not have to interview all of the candidates before you make a hire. You hire the person you feel fits the job and you know know it. Like SON said, you know if they are the one.
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In regards to not interviewing "all" of the candidates. Of course you wouldn't interview all the candidates, whatever that means, but you do interview the most qualified candidates. Not only that, but interviewing multiple candidates is great because one of the questions for this position was probably, "What is your vision and how do you plan to implement it?" This is not a multiple choice question with one right answer, this is open ended and you can really see their vision and how they organize plans to implement the vision. This is something where you hear one person give their response and think, that was pretty good, but than you hear someone else's you go wow, that is much more thought out and better execution plan for Minnesota. What I am getting at, is you can learn new things in these interviews, new approaches, new ways of looking at things. One person may wow you, but than the next person may double wow you. If you stop with the first one you may not make the best hire. The candidates with success and proven track records are definitely ones you want to hear their plans and approaches.
 



CentralGopher said:
Yet nothing says he would have done it for the same money we are giving Johnson and that he'd move his whole family vs taking a comparable offer where he doesn't have to move at all.
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You're just wrong on this one. You can choose to refuse to listen to multiple posters if you want. Smith wanted this job and would have taken this job. No offer was extended or negotiated but it clearly would not have required much more than what Ben is being paid to make the deal. Money had zero to do with why Ben was chosen over him.
 

Gopher Teeth said:
In regards to not interviewing "all" of the candidates. Of course you wouldn't interview all the candidates, whatever that means, but you do interview the most qualified candidates. Not only that, but interviewing multiple candidates is great because one of the questions for this position was probably, "What is your vision and how do you plan to implement it?" This is not a multiple choice question with one right answer, this is open ended and you can really see their vision and how they organize plans to implement the vision. This is something where you hear one person give their response and think, that was pretty good, but than you hear someone else's you go wow, that is much more thought out and better execution plan for Minnesota. What I am getting at, is you can learn new things in these interviews, new approaches, new ways of looking at things. One person may wow you, but than the next person may double wow you. If you stop with the first one you may not make the best hire. The candidates with success and proven track records are definitely ones you want to hear their plans and approaches.
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All the second guessing of the AD is just silly to me. Most here were singing his praises since the day he was hired and many were greatly anticipating his basketball coach hire since the beginning as well. Now suddenly those people turn on him and claim it's likely a bad hire or he isn't qualified or some other garbage like they know better. Just laughable. Relax, this is Coyle's profession. I'll trust he knows what he's doing far more than I. We all know it's a bit of a crap shoot.
 

howeda7 said:
You're just wrong on this one. You can choose to refuse to listen to multiple posters if you want. Smith wanted this job and would have taken this job. No offer was extended or negotiated but it clearly would not have required much more than what Ben is being paid to make the deal. Money had zero to do with why Ben was chosen over him.
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If you say so. Not having to move with a pay bump has to be pretty appealing. Absolutely no way of knowing whether he would have come here for a competing offer.
 

MplsGopher said:
I heard Ben blew the (committee) away, did a great job, which is not surprising.

I guess the Montana State and Northern Illinois committees were not as blown away.

However, Tim Brewster apparantely did blow away the committee (Maturi) back then.
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Monson won the job on the strength of his interview, too...at least according to Dienhart.
 



CentralGopher said:
All the second guessing of the AD is just silly to me. Most here were singing his praises since the day he was hired and many were greatly anticipating his basketball coach hire since the beginning as well. Now suddenly those people turn on him and claim it's likely a bad hire or he isn't qualified or some other garbage like they know better. Just laughable. Relax, this is Coyle's profession. I'll trust he knows what he's doing far more than I. We all know it's a bit of a crap shoot.
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I wasn't singing Coyle's praises, so I didn't turn on him, I didn't have a strong opinion one way or the other. I agree others were, but regardless people can change their opinions based on evidence. I agree nothing is sure, but there are ways to make it less of a crap shoot and that's what people are debating. Nobody, that I have seen, are saying that its guaranteed that BJ will fail, just like when Pitino was hired we couldn't say it was guaranteed he would fail. Many of us squinted our eyes and bit our tongues when Pitino got hired and said, well maybe this can work? Now we got out from under that type of mistake and now it feels we are probably going right back to it, so its frustrating. I really hope I am wrong, but experience tells me I am probably not.
 


CentralGopher said:
If you say so. Not having to move with a pay bump has to be pretty appealing. Absolutely no way of knowing whether he would have come here for a competing offer.
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There's no way of knowing? You don't think he's ever told anyone what his thoughts were about the MN job?

Perhaps you haven't looked at a map of Utah, but he still had to move. This isn't Porter Moser supposedly taking the DePaul job because he didn't want his kids to switch schools ( we all see how that went.)

He's long viewed MN as a job we wanted. We made our choice.
 

Gopher Teeth said:
In regards to not interviewing "all" of the candidates. Of course you wouldn't interview all the candidates, whatever that means, but you do interview the most qualified candidates. Not only that, but interviewing multiple candidates is great because one of the questions for this position was probably, "What is your vision and how do you plan to implement it?" This is not a multiple choice question with one right answer, this is open ended and you can really see their vision and how they organize plans to implement the vision. This is something where you hear one person give their response and think, that was pretty good, but than you hear someone else's you go wow, that is much more thought out and better execution plan for Minnesota. What I am getting at, is you can learn new things in these interviews, new approaches, new ways of looking at things. One person may wow you, but than the next person may double wow you. If you stop with the first one you may not make the best hire. The candidates with success and proven track records are definitely ones you want to hear their plans and approaches.
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I think it is save to say the Ben wan't the only interview for the job. Also, Coyle is not a rookie.
 


CentralGopher said:
If you say so. Not having to move with a pay bump has to be pretty appealing. Absolutely no way of knowing whether he would have come here for a competing offer.
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I also disagree. Money is not everything. Get the job you want, succeed and the money will come.

Look at the way Kill smartly handled his first contract. He had the U pay him less and use the extra money on the assistants. He knew full well that his pay would be raised up to the B1G level as he succeeded in this job. It is easier to get approval for the HC pay increases than for the assistants.

Same with Smith or whoever as the Basketball coach. They may come into the job at a discount, but they know they will get bumped up in pay to keep in line with other B1G coaches. Remember Pitino kept getting big raises he never asked for... No school will pay a consistent top half finisher the 12-14th rated pay in the conference.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Monson won the job on the strength of his interview, too...at least according to Dienhart.
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Per Monson, they basically didn’t let him leave town until he said yes. His interview with Doug Gottlieb on his all ball pod was pretty informative and interesting.
 


GopherBlood666 said:
This is the biggest thing that bothered me about the hire. There were multiple candidates ready to interview and the U didn't even want to hear what they had to say? If you go through the process and end up with BJ than fine, but to say F the process we got our guy seems short sighted. The only time that may be the right move is when the coaching prospect is sooo hot you have to pull the trigger or risk losing them. That was not the case with our choice.
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First off, it wasn't our choice... it was Coyle's (and not Gabels, contrary to what someone has been flogging for quite some time.)

Obviously, Coyle was sold the minute he interviewed Ben Johnson... The facts prove it. In Coyle's mind, Ben was his choice... and Coyle has seemed like the sort of guy who shoots from the hip, so to speak. It was his choice, and he was going to make it.

He met "his" coach and made the hire. That's all there is to it.
 


Bad Gopher said:
Monson won the job on the strength of his interview, too...at least according to Dienhart.
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That's a valid point... So sit back and relax. It's gonna be a while before you know if Ben was a "Monson" hire or not.
 

laazrakit said:
First off, it wasn't our choice... it was Coyle's (and not Gabels, contrary to what someone has been flogging for quite some time.)

Obviously, Coyle was sold the minute he interviewed Ben Johnson... The facts prove it. In Coyle's mind, Ben was his choice... and Coyle has seemed like the sort of guy who shoots from the hip, so to speak. It was his choice, and he was going to make it.

He met "his" coach and made the hire. That's all there is to it.
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Coyle never struck me as someone who shoots from the hip. He seems very strategic, calculated and experienced. Coyle thanked the "search committee" immensely during the presser, and also noted how involved Gabels was in this hire. This was obviously not his hire alone and to suggest otherwise would be directly contradicting the statements Coyle made himself about the process. If Johnson was the hottest prospect around and it was pull the trigger or be damned, I would completely understand. That was not the case with Ben and nobody can claim otherwise because I don't think Montana and Norther Illinois would have passed.
 

laazrakit said:
It's gonna be a while before you know if Ben was a "Monson" hire or not.
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Ben will get four years, no matter how badly it goes. That's how it is in college athletics. You have to give the coach a chance to show significant progress with "his guys".

(even though the transfer portal is like defacto NBA free agency going forward)
 

MplsGopher said:
Ben will get four years, no matter how badly it goes. That's how it is in college athletics. You have to give the coach a chance to show significant progress with "his guys".

(even though the transfer portal is like defacto NBA free agency going forward)
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He'll have four years, but I think we will have a pretty good idea of what he brings before that.
 

MplsGopher said:
Ask other people for their opinions?? My god, Coyle is a genius!! No one has ever thought of that before!

Of course, Montana State and Northern Illinois' committees would never have thought of that!
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You keep hitting on this idea that because Johnson was not hired by Montana State or Northern Illinois, then that means he was not a good choice for MN.

I have no inside information. None. just going by my gut and what little I know about the hiring and interviewing process.

But - maybe - just maybe -

the people at Montana State and N. Illinois did not think Johnson was a good fit or the best fit for their programs - while Coyle thought Johnson was a good fit or the best fit for Minnesota.

the fact that Johnson was not hired for a different job does not mean that he was the wrong choice for MN. It just means that the people doing the hiring in those other cases chose to hire someone else.

Under your theory, then anyone who ever interviews for a mid-major job and is not hired would be forever barred from consideration for a major-college job. I don't think that's how it works.

And maybe- just maybe - Johnson learned from those earlier interviews and made a stronger/better impression when he interviewed for MN. You know, like a coach making halftime adjustments.

then again, you probably don't what it looks like for a coach to make halftime adjustments, because you haven't seen it in so long at MN.
 

Good gosh! You can see from a million miles away that Coyle did NOT hire Ben Johnson.
All of Coyle’s other hires had no committee,
no public statements of diversity and no statements of the most diverse committee assembled ever by the University prior to interviews. etc etc

Coyle was following his superior’s wishes. He ain’t leading nothing. Just keeping his job.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Not 100% sure he was disappointed, he was actually probably a little relieved when they hired Johnson. Yes he has the clause in his buyout but he also has a good thing going at SDSU and he isn't exactly a spring chicken.

I have no doubt that he has a soft spot for Minnesota given his past, but at 61 he probably isn't actively seeking to move up the coaching ranks the way a younger coach would be. And he would probably be even less interested in a rebuild the way the Gophers are going to be.
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Good take.
 

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