STrib: Gophers men's basketball working to catch up after falling behind in NIL era

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Per Marcus:

One huge challenge facing the current coach, Ben Johnson, is that Gophers athletes aren't making as much NIL money as their counterparts at other high-major programs.

"It's a tough balance," Johnson said. "Compared to last year, [NIL] has probably been more heightened as far as the conversations amongst kids that we're recruiting."

"When you're trying to really move the needle and make a jump, [NIL] is a big factor," Johnson added. "... There are things that I know we're doing and we're working hard to do to try to get caught up and be competitive. Because that is kind of the new wave of recruiting."

m.startribune.com

Noor Adwan

Adwan is Opinion Audience Editor and a member of the Minnesota Star Tribune Editorial Board. She creates and optimizes Strib Voices content for digital platforms. She graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2023, and spends her free time painting and collecting rocks.
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Go Gophers!!
 

Pay for Play was always going to be biggest in basketball where it only takes a small number of players too drastically shift the fortunes of teams. Will be interesting to see how it evolves and if any sort of regulations are ever put in place to try and make NIL actually NIL as opposed to pay for play.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Pay for Play was always going to be biggest in basketball where it only takes a small number of players too drastically shift the fortunes of teams. Will be interesting to see how it evolves and if any sort of regulations are ever put in place to try and make NIL actually NIL as opposed to pay for play.
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As opposed to "strong ass offers". :(


Just get it out in the open. We know it's corrupt as hell.
 

gee, another article about NIL that doesn't explain the difference between the 'original intent' version of NIL and the 'handing out cash' version of NIL.

bottom line remains the same - until or unless there is federal legislation, programs that will not or can not play the 'big-money' NIL game are putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage.

virtue is wonderful - but if most of the other players in the game are cheating, and you refuse to cheat, then you have to accept the reality that you are making it much harder for you to win.

but the Gopher players have some really sharp T-shirts to sell you........
 





NIL aside I’m curious as to what Johnson means by a big jump. He’s going to use NIL as an excuse as to why he takes 13th next year
 

gopherbadgerman said:
Why is no one bitching about NIL in hockey?
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Is NIL helping or hurting our hockey team? I can't recall ever hearing about an NIL deal in hockey so have no clue how big of a factor it is or is not.

On a National level our hockey program is in a much better position than our basketball and football programs. In those other sports we are always fighting an uphill battle to catch up to the big boys.....in hockey we are one of the premier programs.
 



MN has been behind for 25 years. Why not choose to LEAD?
 


MNVCGUY said:
Is NIL helping or hurting our hockey team? I can't recall ever hearing about an NIL deal in hockey so have no clue how big of a factor it is or is not.

On a National level our hockey program is in a much better position than our basketball and football programs. In those other sports we are always fighting an uphill battle to catch up to the big boys.....in hockey we are one of the premier programs.
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Also the elite players in college hockey turn pro - sounds like for multiple Gophers, their final game this year won’t be on Saturday.
 




Gopher_In_NYC said:
Awesome

Can’t wait for another seven months of these zingers🎉🍾
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I’m being somewhat sincere. Is a big jump moving up 2 spots in the conference or making an NCAA tourney? The vagueness of coach talk is fine but after two awful years a defined goal he hopes to achieve seems fair.

And he already uses the NIL angle to make it seem like this can’t be prevented.
 

Floor for me is 6+ wins and zero 30+ point Ls
Ceiling to me is NIT tournament

If he’s not in that chasm, then asta la vista Benny
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
I’m being somewhat sincere. Is a big jump moving up 2 spots in the conference or making an NCAA tourney? The vagueness of coach talk is fine but after two awful years a defined goal he hopes to achieve seems fair.

And he already uses the NIL angle to make it seem like this can’t be prevented.
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Like it or not the top programs in college basketball have been paying their players for years and with "NIL" there are more teams openly getting in on it now as well. So the pool of teams paying players has almost certainly gotten bigger in the past couple years with Pay for Play now being essentially legal under the guise of NIL.

Johnson would be crazy to come out with a defined goal at this point. I am sure he knows what has to happen for him to keep his job but he isn't going to go public with that. The fanbase is negative enough already, no reason to give them even more amo.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Like it or not the top programs in college basketball have been paying their players for years and with "NIL" there are more teams openly getting in on it now as well. So the pool of teams paying players has almost certainly gotten bigger in the past couple years with Pay for Play now being essentially legal under the guise of NIL.

Johnson would be crazy to come out with a defined goal at this point. I am sure he knows what has to happen for him to keep his job but he isn't going to go public with that. The fanbase is negative enough already, no reason to give them even more amo.
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I’m pro NIL as I don’t honestly think it will remain as impactful as it has been. But time will tell. Money will dry up for many teams and rules will be implemented.

If he’s afraid to say what his goals are—he shouldn’t be leading a team.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
I’m pro NIL as I don’t honestly think it will remain as impactful as it has been. But time will tell. Money will dry up for many teams and rules will be implemented.

If he’s afraid to say what his goals are—he shouldn’t be leading a team.
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I'm all for NIL as intended as well. Less supportive of the pay for play BS being labeled as NIL. But it is what it is. Most of that pay for play money was almost certainly already out there in Basketball anyway.

Was Johnson specifically asked in the story what his goals are and refused to answer? I highly doubt he would be afraid to say what his goals are but I also don't think he would go out and try to pin an absolutes on win totals and things like that. Very few coaches would do that because they don't know how things are going to go in terms of injuries and other factors.
 

MNVCGUY said:
I'm all for NIL as intended as well. Less supportive of the pay for play BS being labeled as NIL. But it is what it is. Most of that pay for play money was almost certainly already out there in Basketball anyway.

Was Johnson specifically asked in the story what his goals are and refused to answer? I highly doubt he would be afraid to say what his goals are but I also don't think he would go out and try to pin an absolutes on win totals and things like that. Very few coaches would do that because they don't know how things are going to go in terms of injuries and other factors.
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I don’t think I asked for win totals or anything of the sort. The fact that Ben has the “we improved” card to play is the issue without a defined goal. Unless they finish bottom in more categories than last year they will have improved. I said no where to go but up after year one and was proved wrong. Now I think it’s impossible to go lower. So improvement needs to be defined.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
I don’t think I asked for win totals or anything of the sort. The fact that Ben has the “we improved” card to play is the issue without a defined goal. Unless they finish bottom in more categories than last year they will have improved. I said no where to go but up after year one and was proved wrong. Now I think it’s impossible to go lower. So improvement needs to be defined.
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The problem with defining expectations is that it is a moving target. We don't even have the full roster in place at this point so to try and set any sort of expectations for 22-23 right now outside of generic ones like improvement seems like an exercise in futility.

Have said many times that I think there is a bar the team has to reach in year 3 for Ben to get year 4 but what exactly that bar is remains to be seen and will be based on a lot of different factors.
 

MNVCGUY said:
The problem with defining expectations is that it is a moving target. We don't even have the full roster in place at this point so to try and set any sort of expectations for 22-23 right now outside of generic ones like improvement seems like an exercise in futility.

Have said many times that I think there is a bar the team has to reach in year 3 for Ben to get year 4 but what exactly that bar is remains to be seen and will be based on a lot of different factors.
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I don’t think the roster needs to be decided to set the bar. Because the person responsible for the roster is the same person who has to clear the bar. If he can’t good enough players here to be .500—that’s on him. Not some other external factors.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
I don’t think the roster needs to be decided to set the bar. Because the person responsible for the roster is the same person who has to clear the bar. If he can’t good enough players here to be .500—that’s on him. Not some other external factors.
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That's fair to a degree but what happens if one week into the season Garcia goes down with a season ending injury? Expectations for the season are going to change quite a bit.

It's the reason I rarely take part in the # of win to be a success threads that always pop up before seasons.

There will be a bar, but that bar will also almost certainly move over the course of the year.
 

MNVCGUY said:
That's fair to a degree but what happens if one week into the season Garcia goes down with a season ending injury? Expectations for the season are going to change quite a bit.

It's the reason I rarely take part in the # of win to be a success threads that always pop up before seasons.

There will be a bar, but that bar will also almost certainly move over the course of the year.
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That would suck. But as far as Ben goes, too bad. You used up all your mulligans already. You need everything to go right this year, including injuries, or it's time to move on. For me, no worse than 16-15 in the regular season and no worse than 8-12 in the B1G. No excuses.
 

MNVCGUY said:
That's fair to a degree but what happens if one week into the season Garcia goes down with a season ending injury? Expectations for the season are going to change quite a bit.

It's the reason I rarely take part in the # of win to be a success threads that always pop up before seasons.

There will be a bar, but that bar will also almost certainly move over the course of the year.
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If Garcia going down makes you a 9 win team again—the coach is the issue.

I don’t disagree the bar can move but it’s year 3. Not being bottom 8 in the country is OK.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
If Garcia going down makes you a 9 win team again—the coach is the issue.

I don’t disagree the bar can move but it’s year 3. Not being bottom 8 in the country is OK.
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I think we are basically on the same page. There have to be signs of tangible progress in year 3. I don't necessarily tie that progress to a win total, but another year at the bottom of the conference would make it really hard to justify keeping Johnson around for another one.
 

MNVCGUY said:
I think we are basically on the same page. There have to be signs of tangible progress in year 3. I don't necessarily tie that progress to a win total, but another year at the bottom of the conference would make it really hard to justify keeping Johnson around for another one.
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And not just bottom of the conference. A historically inept team in many categories. Like shooting percentage
 


bga1 said:
Because college hockey is barely on the radar screen in most areas of the country. It is just not a major sport in the way that basketball and football are.
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And hockey and baseball are very different than football and basketball. In the former two, players are drafted out of high school, and in the case of hockey, the NHL club that drafts the player holds their rights for a number of years. I remember it was a huge deal when the Islanders convinced Kyle Okposo to leave the Gophers mid-season - that just wasn't done.
 

MNVCGUY said:
The problem with defining expectations is that it is a moving target. We don't even have the full roster in place at this point so to try and set any sort of expectations for 22-23 right now outside of generic ones like improvement seems like an exercise in futility.

Have said many times that I think there is a bar the team has to reach in year 3 for Ben to get year 4 but what exactly that bar is remains to be seen and will be based on a lot of different factors.
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Yes there is. Not in last place at a minimum
 

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