The Comparable 4: Minnesota (Johnson), Iowa State (Otzelberger), Penn State (Shrewsberry), Utah (Smith)

Donate To GopherHole
S

SelectionSunday

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 12, 2008
Messages
24,798
Reaction score
5,067
Points
113
Here's an update of the comparison I started on GopherHole last year of 2nd-year coaches at their current school. For clarity, I chose the other 3 coaches/programs because:

Otzelberger/Iowa State: Power 6 conference, regional (down the road on I-35 South)

Shrewsberry/Penn State: Same conference & like the Gophers regular Weakling Wednesday participants @ Big Ten Tournament

Smith/Utah: Power 6 conference, Minnesota guy, thought to be a gettable candidate when Ben was hired (for the record, I would've been on board with Smith, but Niko Medved was my top guy)

I'm tracking 3 things, and will update this throughout the season & their tenures:

1 Overall Record (exclude games vs. Non-D1 opponents)
2 Record vs. Power 6 Opponents (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big XII, Pac 12, SEC)
3 Postseason Appearances/Record (only NCAA & NIT)

Here's where we're at almost a year-and-a-half into their tenures. Coaches are listed in order of overall winning percentage.

1 Otzelberger -- 29-15 overall (65.9%), 17-15 vs. Power 6 (53.1%), 1 NCAA Tournament (2-1 record)

2 Shrewsberry -- 20-20 overall (50%), 11-19 vs. Power 6 (36.7%)

3 Smith -- 19-22 overall (46.3%), 8-20 vs. Power 6 (28.6%)

4 Johnson -- 17-22 overall (43.6%), 6-21 vs. Power 6 (22.2%)
 
Last edited:


Current offensive and defensive efficiency ranks (t-rank):

ISU: 164, 9
PSU: 52, 57
Utah: 84, 31
MN: 225, 165

Remember the song from Sesame Street about one of these things is not like the other,,,,
 

Judging 2nd-year college coaches on won-loss record.

Not judging them on recruiting.

Brilliant!!!
 

MNJay said:
Judging 2nd-year college coaches on won-loss record.

Not judging them on recruiting.

Brilliant!!!
Click to expand...
Coaches are paid to win, correct? I really don't give two sh*ts about recruiting rankings. I care about the results on the floor.

That's why I'm not making this a one-year thing. We'll check in on these guys over a lengthy period of time. Time has a way of sorting things out. Hopefully for Gopher fans down the road the order looks a lot different than it does now.
 
Last edited:



MNJay said:
Judging 2nd-year college coaches on won-loss record.

Not judging them on recruiting.

Brilliant!!!
Click to expand...
Recruiting doesn't change what's happening on the floor right now. Coaches only get judged on winning or losing at the end of the day. I like the roster, and was not expecting them to win big this year, but they don't even look close. Inexperience can be blamed when losing close games. You can reasonably expect that learning how to close out games against good opponents does take time. We are down 15 - 20 against every high major this year and looking lost at the same time. Big difference.
 

MNJay said:
Judging 2nd-year college coaches on won-loss record.

Not judging them on recruiting.

Brilliant!!!
Click to expand...

Tim Brewster had some nice recruiting classes too. How did that work out?

Wins/losses is ultimately what he will be judged upon. By the end of this year, he will be a distant fourth on that list. Year three will be very important.
 





golfing18now said:
Tim Brewster had some nice recruiting classes too. How did that work out?

Wins/losses is ultimately what he will be judged upon. By the end of this year, he will be a distant fourth on that list. Year three will be very important.
Click to expand...
At about this point in his second season, Brew had us 6-1 and worried Tennessee was going to steal him. Hopefully Ben's Gopher trajectory is an inversion of Brew's.
 

UPDATED THROUGH GAMES PLAYED 12/18/22
Coaches are listed in order of overall winning percentage.

1 Otzelberger -- 31-15 overall (67.4%), 17-15 vs. Power 6 (53.1%), NCAA Tournament Appearances/Record (1/2-1)

2 Shrewsberry -- 22-20 overall (52.4%), 12-19 vs. Power 6 (38.7%)

3 Smith -- 20-23 overall (46.5%), 8-20 vs. Power 6 (28.6%)

4 Johnson -- 18-23 overall (43.9%), 6-22 vs. Power 6 (21.4%)

NEXT UPDATE: 1/1/23
 
Last edited:













MNJay said:
Hot take.

If you can dish it out, you should be able to take it.
Click to expand...
Posting coaching comparisons is not "dishing it out". It just makes for conversation regarding coaches people on this board were interested in or are in a similar position to Ben in terms of conference/experience. We would all be ecstatic if Ben's current record to date was superior to all others mentioned.

Clem last coached 25 years ago, the college basketball landscape has changed drastically since then, whether we like it or not.

You can literally skip over this thread if you don't like the content of it. I suppose if you get enjoyment out of accusing others of being BADger fans on a Gopher board, I am not here to stop you.
 

I feel like adding "Returning Players," "Avg yrs on team," or "Avg age of team" as a metric seems relevant... No program has ever had the complete turnover that CBJ had to deal with, and then he essentially had to do it twice.
 

SS has been doing this academically and pretty much unbiased since the start of last year. I think there is at least one other thread out there with the rationale on each comp.

Edit: last year I advocated for Shaka to be on this list. There are some intriguing similarities (home state, local connections) and differences (name brand, known commodity) in the hiring strategy. Marquette had a good year with returning upperclassmen last year and are currently ranked 24 with a lot of underclassmen.
 
Last edited:

GopherBlood666 said:
Posting coaching comparisons is not "dishing it out". It just makes for conversation regarding coaches people on this board were interested in or are in a similar position to Ben in terms of conference/experience. We would all be ecstatic if Ben's current record to date was superior to all others mentioned.

Clem last coached 25 years ago, the college basketball landscape has changed drastically since then, whether we like it or not.

You can literally skip over this thread if you don't like the content of it. I suppose if you get enjoyment out of accusing others of being BADger fans on a Gopher board, I am not here to stop you.
Click to expand...
Oh noooo....this thread isn't dishing-it-out. The 'Ben Johnson is a Disaster' thread isn't dishing-it-out. Noooo...this is fair unbiased analysis.
 
Last edited:





You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom