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.

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skiumah1 said:
The idea of Ben getting a buyout number in the millions is absolutely ridiculous. I understand how it works in this industry, but that is freakin' insane.
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The concept of paying someone millions NOT to do the job anymore is ridiculous. But such is the world of coaching.

It is an extremely difficult, and high stress job but if you can get to the top levels the financial rewards are significant.
 

tjgopher said:
In real terms, because of buyout language, the extra year potentially would cost the school an additional $975,000 (50% of $1.95m). Certainly not nothing, but also not $1.95 million.

There is also offset language that if Johnson gets another job in basketball, the school would stop paying him, much like with Pitino.

Bottom line, the cost to fire Johnson during or immediately after this season won't be all that much.
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I remember when Coyle extended Pitino for the last time, the reports stated that the extension did not increase the buyout (so it was a fairly meaningless extension). Is everyone sure that this extension did? Seems kind of hard to believe that Coyle would increase the buyout for Johnson after he let go of Pitino for as little as possible.
 





Zeppelin Gopher said:
Can't lie- our football and hoops programs mean more than anything to me besides my family and friends.

But there have been multiple times intrusive thoughts sitting in the Barn this season...WTF am I still doing here...
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Hopefully the 2026 NCAA bid will mean that much more to you.
 

Is Ben still asking players to ignore criticism now that it's an 0-5 start? 0-6? 0-7?
 

The fact that he hasn't been let go speaks to the administration being gutless. Why wait until the end of the season?

The product sucks, the trend sucks, and it's not going to get better.
 

kix4kix said:
The fact that he hasn't been let go speaks to the administration being gutless. Why wait until the end of the season?

The product sucks, the trend sucks, and it's not going to get better.
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Remember, you're not paying the buyout so you have no say in the matter. It may cost more to fire Johnson before the end of the season and Coyle has shown before that he's a cheapskate.
 



TwistingMyMelon said:
Remember, you're not paying the buyout so you have no say in the matter. It may cost more to fire Johnson before the end of the season and Coyle has shown before that he's a cheapskate.
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It doesn't. The buyout doesn't drop until May 1st. That is standard. Coaches agent's aren't dumb. If you want a discount on the buyout you have to handicap yourself severely and hire your coach after everyone else already has.
 


Otis said:
LMFAO at the thought of the U getting out of paying Ben if he gets hired elsewhere!

Does that include any job?
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Yes, any Division I or professional head or assistant coaching job. That's exactly what happened with Pitino and Ben's contract is the same.
 
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howeda7 said:
It depends how its written. Sometimes if they obtain "substantially similar employment" they get nothing. I believe that was the case with Pitino. There's almost no chance of that happening with Ben though.
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I believe Pitino agreed to his parting deal in exchange for the opportunity to turn around his won loss fortunes in year 8. Failing that, he made an agreement to go quietly.
 








howeda7 said:
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.
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Welp, that hasn’t happened has it?

If you play competitive sports at a high level, as in collegiately, you generally don’t check out in my experience, as you’re a competitor and live for competing and your teammates. For most of these seniors this is it, for playing organized hoops; Garcia can play overseas and maybe Asuma, but that’s the only obvious ones I see. The others will be hooping at a local gym.

This isn’t pro sports where you can go on a tropical vaca to forget about your crappy season or Jr. High where you haven’t invested years/thousands of hours in a sport you love as much as anything and are playing at a level only a small % of Jr. High hoopers ever achieve.
 
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Zeppelin Gopher said:
One of the major benefits (and there are more negatives) of having a basically senior only team is that i makes it much more unlikely of the team quitting on the season and coach.
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Yuppers.

Wish we had a longer time for them to gel together as a team.

I’m happy they’re chalking up some wins along the way - including Iowa, hopefully finish with a winning overall record, quality for the B10 tournament and with more conference wins than most expected (including two over ranked teams at home).
 

interesting
 

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