Shooter: If the Gophers’ Ben Johnson wins 20 this season, he would be a legitimate candidate for BT Coach of the Year

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Per Shooter:

>> With nine games remaining, if the Gophers’ Ben Johnson wins 20 (Minnesota is 15-7 overall, 6-5 in the Big Ten) this season, he would be a legitimate candidate for Big Ten men’s basketball coach of the year.

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Go Gophers!!
 




Shooter says a lot of stupid stuff but if the Gophers were to finish 11-9 in league play I would think Johnson would at least be in the discussion for COY given how bad the team has been the past 2 years. So as far as Shooter content goes, this one isn't completely outside the realm of possibility.
 



golfing18now said:
Very similar situation to when Pitino won in year four after a disastrous year three.
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I completely forgot Pitino won coach of the year

Don't think this happens without a winning Big record
 





Doubtful. Unless he gets a couple of signature wins. Beat Purdue and I guess it's not preposterous statement tournament territory.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Shooter says a lot of stupid stuff but if the Gophers were to finish 11-9 in league play I would think Johnson would at least be in the discussion for COY given how bad the team has been the past 2 years. So as far as Shooter content goes, this one isn't completely outside the realm of possibility.
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I think 11-9 and a few wins in the BT tournament would give him a chance. That would be more like 22 wins minimum.
 






The harder part will be getting to 20 wins.

If he accomplishes 20 wins (finishing 5-3 with remaining games left), he will definitely be in the COY discussion, absolutely. Might be the favorite at that point.

Depending on how Nebraska and Northwestern finish I would guess Hoiberg and Collins enter the discussion, too.

Let's think about it.

Matt Painter might get some consideration just because of the stellar regular season he will have had.

Outside of that??? Wisconsin, Illinois, MSU coaches won't be in the mix. Indiana, Maryland, Iowa, Rutgers, Michigan and Penn State coaches won't be in the mix. Ohio State obviously not.

Heck, Ben might get consideration short of 20 wins, if he gets the Gophers a Top 8 seed in the BTT.

Again the bigger issue is getting to 20 wins.
 
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I do not care about the awards. I would rather be a double bye team with an invite to the dance than have any all conf, freshman of the year, player of the year, coach of the year awards. Have you ever heard "my team sucks and didn't make the dance, but the HC was voted coach of the year"?
 

Currently 17-9 with 5 games to go. I like our chances to get to 20 wins. We should be able to handle Penn State and Indiana at home. I think we pick up at least one road win at Nebraska, Illinois, or Northwestern. I like the fact that this team is getting better every game and they now seem to really believe in themselves.
 




jblass said:
Why not? This team seems to be getting better and more confident every game. Good teams keep getting better as the season progresses and this is a good team.
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Nice part is we have seen a good half game, but that OSU game was a good full game, and saw some evidence of learning how to not fall into crumbling and finding a way to lose
 

If they make the NCAA's, he should win it and deserves it. I doubt he will otherwise. Not often a coach wins it for going to the NIT, regardless of expectations.
 

howeda7 said:
If they make the NCAA's, he should win it and deserves it. I doubt he will otherwise. Not often a coach wins it for going to the NIT, regardless of expectations.
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Probably right on both counts. But it is certainly remarkable he is being mentioned as a possibility. Easy for us to do it but a little more serious when BTN devotes first half hour of post game to talk about the Gophers and fact Johnson has a chance to win COY.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Probably going to have someone post that we don’t want Ben to do too much, because we want to see him come back next year.
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Guys here will say I was wrong about Ben and about building a team. And that they themselves were right all along (even though they had the pitchforks out and wanted him fired).
 

Im completely impressed with the growth and development of this squad. Ben gets a ton of credit. They’ve learned a ton this year and are light years better than they were in December. If the core comes back next year, they vie for top three in Big Ten easily and are shoo in for the dance. Please teach Payne to take a short range jumper!
 

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