STrib: Ben Johnson hopes his Gophers ignore criticism following 0-3 Big Ten start; he has a $2.93 million buyout if fired after this season.

[BleedGopher]

Per Marcus:

Instead of expressing excitement on the program’s future, criticism is growing from some Gophers fans about the present struggles under Johnson. The Gophers are the lone winless team in league play entering Monday night’s game against Ohio State at Williams Arena.

“There’s always going to be a certain narrative,” Johnson said. “You can find negativity and outside noise regardless of the situation. It can’t impact our approach every single day.”

If victories are hard to come by during that stretch, the frustration surrounding Johnson and his program could only get louder.

Even after a 19-win turnaround NIT season, Johnson’s name resurfaced on coaching hot seat lists this year. But with three years left on his contract through 2027, he has a $2.93 million buyout if fired after this season.

“This is the first time a lot of those guys have been covered the way we’re covered just as far as media goes,” Johnson said. “Nuances that you’ve got to deal with and handle with that. The pressures. But the more games you get under your belt, the more comfortable you get in that environment and situation.”

Ben Johnson hopes his Gophers ignore criticism following 0-3 Big Ten start

The Gophers are the last Big Ten men’s basketball team without a conference victory entering Monday vs. Ohio State.

www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[FinnGopher]

Marcus needs to realize that no one cares anymore.

 

[EasyThere Pilgrim]

Coaching?? Even Marcus portrays it as a coaching issue?

2 NCAA wins in 27 years at a school like Minnesota...and he thinks the issue is coaching??

 

[USAF]

"But the more games you get under your belt, the more comfortable you get in that environment and situation.”

IOW...Embrace The Suck.

 

[leib0039]

Marcus seems to be a lot like CBJ. Appears to be a really good human, but just can't grasp that sometimes the truth hurts. He writes a lot of fluff pieces on CBJ. It's ok to admit he's a disaster of a coach who has been in over his head since day 1 and needs to be fired. "Criticism is growing " come on Marcus, 99% of the people are either furious or worse, now don't care!

I have said previously that just let him finish the year who cares, but CBJs recent quotes make me want him fired now. He acts like he's just unlucky and full of 18 yr old freshman and we should all be excited to be awful. At this point it's almost toxic how out of touch with reality he is.

 

[EasyThere Pilgrim]

"But the more games you get under your belt, the more comfortable you get in that environment and situation.”

IOW...Embrace The Suck.

Yes.

After this off-season, Ben knows that Embrace The Suck is our motto. He's simply going through the motions and regurgitating the propaganda now.

 

[EasyThere Pilgrim]

I have said previously that just let him finish the year who cares, but CBJs recent quotes make me want him fired now. He acts like he's just unlucky and full of 18 yr old freshman and we should all be excited to be awful. At this point it's almost toxic how out of touch with reality he is.

And this board acts like we've just been unlucky for the last 27 years.

Just bad luck that we had to destroy Clem's Final Four team, destroy Tubby's National Championship favorite, destroy Pitino's Final Four contender....and we're RESEARCHING how to keep our players and get new ones now.

 

[Zeppelin Gopher]

Every time Ben opens his mouth, he makes things worse.

I get that there's a level of "what can he possibly say" when the situation is so bad...but yikes

 

[Stan]

Every time Ben opens his mouth, he makes things worse.

I get that there's a level of "what can he possibly say" when the situation is so bad...but yikes

This.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Every time Ben opens his mouth, he makes things worse.

I get that there's a level of "what can he possibly say" when the situation is so bad...but yikes

Was going to post something similar, problem is he has to do the media availability stuff so he has to say something and you can tell he is grasping at straws for answers.

The competitor in Johnson I'm sure wants to keep battling and try to win but there is also a part of him that probably wishes Coyle would just rip the bandaid off and fire him.

Tough to see any scenario where things will magically improve now that we are fully into conference play and the creampuffs are gone. Only real hope for this squad is to have a hot shooting night to snag a few victories as most nights they will likely be outmatched.

He was given a chance to build on last year, he failed.....coaching change won't happen fast enough for some posters here but given how this season has gone there is no way they can bring him back for year 5.

 

[SelectionSunday]

“The one positive I told them is our first three games were against three of the top five preseason teams in our league,” Johnson said. “With that you should take a certain level of confidence, it’s not necessarily going to get harder as far as the opponents."

Interesting quote.

Does Ben really believe it's not going to get any harder? Have yet to play Illinois, @ Maryland, Michigan, @ Michigan State, Ohio State, Oregon, @ UCLA, as well as a pair of rivals (@ Iowa, Wisconsin x 2) he's never beat.

 

[formerlybis]

Does Ben really believe it's not going to get any harder?

Based on what we know about him, I kinda think he does. In a way, he may be right. There's probably 10 other teams that are equally as hard (especially on their home floor), but not necessarily harder.

 

[bga1]

“The one positive I told them is our first three games were against three of the top five preseason teams in our league,” Johnson said. “With that you should take a certain level of confidence, it’s not necessarily going to get harder as far as the opponents."

Interesting quote.

Does Ben really believe it's not going to get any harder? Have yet to play Illinois, @ Maryland, Michigan, @ Michigan State, Ohio State, Oregon, @ UCLA, as well as a pair of rivals (@ Iowa, Wisconsin x 2) he's never beat.

Well, when you are losing games by 18 points per game on the average, how much worse can it get?

"Hey guys, if we get better and the other teams don't, we may be able to start losing by 10 points or less!"

I am now watching games on TV instead of in person. When they focus in on Ben, you can see the hopelessness of the situation all over his face.

 

[MNVCGUY]

“The one positive I told them is our first three games were against three of the top five preseason teams in our league,” Johnson said. “With that you should take a certain level of confidence, it’s not necessarily going to get harder as far as the opponents."

Interesting quote.

Does Ben really believe it's not going to get any harder? Have yet to play Illinois, @ Maryland, Michigan, @ Michigan State, Ohio State, Oregon, @ UCLA, as well as a pair of rivals (@ Iowa, Wisconsin x 2) he's never beat.

Doubtful.....but gotta come up with something at this point to try and keep the players invested and motivated.

 

[Strongazzoffer]

Marcus seems to be a lot like CBJ. Appears to be a really good human, but just can't grasp that sometimes the truth hurts. He writes a lot of fluff pieces on CBJ. It's ok to admit he's a disaster of a coach who has been in over his head since day 1 and needs to be fired. "Criticism is growing " come on Marcus, 99% of the people are either furious or worse, now don't care!

I have said previously that just let him finish the year who cares, but CBJs recent quotes make me want him fired now. He acts like he's just unlucky and full of 18 yr old freshman and we should all be excited to be awful. At this point it's almost toxic how out of touch with reality he is.

Marcus is a beat writer not a columnist. Beat writers tend to write fluff pieces other than the matter of face game notes from the games due to the obvious notion that they need access to the team to do their jobs. For example LV3 and Souhan were very much Pohlad pocket protectors as twins beat writers before they were columnist, it's a nature of the job. But I do agree the West side rag has been a lot nicer to Ben then they were to Pitino, Tubby and Monson. It's as if they know they pushed the DEI narrative into Coyle and it would be pretty easy to dig up those receipts.

 

[SelectionSunday]

I am now watching games on TV instead of in person. When they focus in on Ben, you can see the hopelessness of the situation all over his face.

Yep, getting paid a lot of money, but he's still a human being. I'm regretting that I posted the "5 Guys on a Shortlist" stuff. I should have waited until after the fact.

 

[GopherBlood777]

Yep, getting paid a lot of money, but he's still a human being. I'm regretting that I posted the "5 Guys on a Shortlist" stuff. I should have waited until after the fact.

Something tells me Ben will come out of this just fine. When you agree to take the money, you agree to everything that comes with that even if it's not always "fair".

 

[MaxyJR1]

Every time Ben opens his mouth, he makes things worse.

I get that there's a level of "what can he possibly say" when the situation is so bad...but yikes

Only 17 games, 2 Months, 9 Weeks or 62 days left in the season. At least the women are 15-1 and competitive.

 

[TwistingMyMelon]

It's ok to admit he's a disaster of a coach who has been in over his head since day 1 and needs to be fired. "Criticism is growing " come on Marcus, 99% of the people are either furious or worse, now don't care!

Does anyone need a beat writer to tell him that? Do you think that Ben Johnson won't be fired because a beat writer wasn't negative enough?

Apparently some of the constant complainers think that if people aren't complaining and haranguing 24/7 they must think everything is fine. What I believe many of them don't understand is that complaining and haranguing 24/7 only adds to the dreariness of a miserable situation.

 

[Strongazzoffer]

Something tells me Ben will come out of this just fine. When you agree to take the money, you agree to everything that comes with that even if it's not always "fair".

Ben was a decent assistant. He will get a nice 2.9 million dollar buyout. Coyle probably won't be able to help him like Pitino find an equitable job to avoid the buy out but Ben can take his money chill for a year and get a job like he had here under Pitino somewhere else If he wants to be an HC, might be able to get a bottom of barrel Summit league, Horizon league or MAC job if he wants it. If I were him I'd go the assistant route

 

[Strongazzoffer]

Does anyone need a beat writer to tell him that? Do you think that Ben Johnson won't be fired because a beat writer wasn't negative enough?

Apparently some of the constant complainers think that if people aren't complaining and haranguing 24/7 they must think everything is fine. What I believe many of them don't understand is that complaining and haranguing 24/7 only adds to the dreariness of a miserable situation.

Agreed and it's pretty obvious what's going to happen and if you've been following sport long enough it's also obvious what the timeline of events would look like as well. The horse beaten and dead it kinda just is what it is at this point. I don't think anyone believes a 14-2 conference run is happening so I think everyone hear knows we will be having a new coach next season and that process will begin early March and probably resolve it self in mid to late March.

 

[TwistingMyMelon]

Doubtful.....but gotta come up with something at this point to try and keep the players invested and motivated.

What you wrote there got me thinking about the other terrible team from two seasons ago. I wonder if it may have been easier to keep that team invested and motivated because they were young and developing for the most part and felt a greater desire to rise to the challenge. Most of these guys are in their final season. Perhaps they could be more likely to just want to get through the rest of the season.

I don't know. I guess we'll see. The team from two years ago lost their first four conference games before beating OSU but only the first two losses were blowouts. The third at Wisconsin was only by 3 points and the 4th to Nebraska was by two points in overtime. This team has been pretty consistent in its first three conference games: losing all three by a range of 15 to 20.

 

[howeda7]

What you wrote there got me thinking about the other terrible team from two seasons ago. I wonder if it may have been easier to keep that team invested and motivated because they were young and developing for the most part and felt a greater desire to rise to the challenge. Most of these guys are in their final season. Perhaps they could be more likely to just want to get through the rest of the season.

I don't know. I guess we'll see. The team from two years ago lost their first four conference games before beating OSU but only the first two losses were blowouts. The third at Wisconsin was only by 3 points and the 4th to Nebraska was by two points in overtime. This team has been pretty consistent in its first three conference games: losing all three by a range of 15 to 20.

This. And it's going to get worse as guys check out mentally more and more. You're in your last year of eligibility. Your team stinks and your coach is going to get fired. It's going to be hard to be motivated once it gets to 0-5, 0-6, 0-7. It's one reason they should make the move sooner than later.

 

[Spaulding!No!]

Has anyone made a guarantee that MN will not finish last? Asking for a friend.

 

[howeda7]

It would be nice if the local media, Marcus included, could hold this program more accountable than "they have no NIL. Poor Ben. What can he do?" and acknowledge how historically awful this is, what it's done to attendance etc. Both Ben and Mark should be held to some account.

 

[leib0039]

Does anyone need a beat writer to tell him that? Do you think that Ben Johnson won't be fired because a beat writer wasn't negative enough?

Apparently some of the constant complainers think that if people aren't complaining and haranguing 24/7 they must think everything is fine. What I believe many of them don't understand is that complaining and haranguing 24/7 only adds to the dreariness of a miserable situation.

So if I say everything is ponies and rainbows it will get better? The coach makes MILLIONS of dollars and the reporter is paid to talk about the team. I don't feel bad for either saying they should take some responsibility and at least acknowledge how bad it is. To me that pressure will help to show how much we need to re-energize this program. CBJ has played the pity card for 3+ years and Marcus puts no responsibility on him. Will admitting that change the results, no, but take some damn responsibility.

 

[USAF]

Does anyone need a beat writer to tell him that? Do you think that Ben Johnson won't be fired because a beat writer wasn't negative enough?

Apparently some of the constant complainers think that if people aren't complaining and haranguing 24/7 they must think everything is fine. What I believe many of them don't understand is that complaining and haranguing 24/7 only adds to the dreariness of a miserable situation.

It's our fault for what you acknowledge as the dreariness of a miserable situation?

Id say the miserable situation is the fault of those responsible for the miserable situation.

Some of you won't be happy until Johnson has driven the last person in the state still paying attention to give up.

 

[FinnGopher]

What you wrote there got me thinking about the other terrible team from two seasons ago. I wonder if it may have been easier to keep that team invested and motivated because they were young and developing for the most part and felt a greater desire to rise to the challenge. Most of these guys are in their final season. Perhaps they could be more likely to just want to get through the rest of the season.

I don't know. I guess we'll see. The team from two years ago lost their first four conference games before beating OSU but only the first two losses were blowouts. The third at Wisconsin was only by 3 points and the 4th to Nebraska was by two points in overtime. This team has been pretty consistent in its first three conference games: losing all three by a range of 15 to 20.

A lot of drinking in the hotel room this season, except for under age Asuma. Gotta feel for that kid with these seniors.

 

[TwistingMyMelon]

So if I say everything is ponies and rainbows it will get better?

A predictably witless response. No amount of talking (good or bad) will make it better. The only thing that could make it better is a complete reversal of fortune which to anyone following the team seems very unlikely to happen. Meanwhile, it just a slog to the end of the season unless the coach is fired before that.

 

[DarthGopher]

At this point, CBJ should just not say words. Circle the drain like a man, damnit.