What grade do you give Ben Johnson for his first year?

What grade do you give Ben Johnson for his first year?

  • A

    Votes: 14 5.9%

  • B

    Votes: 75 31.8%

  • C

    Votes: 92 39.0%

  • D

    Votes: 41 17.4%

  • F

    Votes: 14 5.9%
  • Total voters
    236
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What grade do you give Ben Johnson for his first year?
 

C… basically what I expected at the start. No better no worse.
 

C…ish. What it is..what it is..
 


I've got a clear F grade. I could see a little better if you don't include recruiting in the mix and just the on court coaching (and REALLY value that non-conference start).

- Was not able to bring back local talent through the portal (Garcia, Thompson, Mitchell, etc)
- Was not able to attract any high major transfers through the portal
- Had to give scholarships to Daniels and Ogele just to field a roster
- His one recruit with more than 1 year to play didn't show anything to suggest he will play (Not crediting him/blaming him for Thompson)

- Put a lot of eggs in the Holloman basket and missed, doesn't have a PG recruit for '22
- Missed on every recruit that took a visit to another high major (to my knowledge)
+ Identified Payne early, Carrington seems like a solid recruit and should be Mr. Baskteball

+ Strong start to the season, team seemed to gel quickly
+ Strong effort/"Played hard" was very valid until they got back from Ann Arbor
+ Very nice plays out of timeouts in that early part of the season

- Team regressed in virtually all areas after Ann Arbor: the gang rebounding that was a hallmark of the early season success was nowhere to be found, the 3 point defense that was excellent early in the season was the worst in the Big Ten (at last check) during conference play.

+ Win against Rutgers with such a limited roster was notable

- No development of players individually during the year.

- Effort clearly lacking in a number of games: 2nd half at Iowa, at Ohio State, at Penn State, at Nebraska, home against Indiana, at Northwestern. Those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

- He didn't appear to have any nonnegotiables as a coach. People talk about a culture being built, but if said culture was being built...some things occurred on the court from an effort or body language standpoint that should have had a kid take a seat on the bench. I didn't see every minute of every game, but I never saw this happen.

- One of the slowest paces in NCAA basketball. This Spring is absolutely crucial to turn things around and kids will notice this when making a decision.

- 4-16 (17) This will always be unacceptable to me. If you want to use the roster as an excuse, they were also 8-12 (13) against the spread in conference games...so they didn't meet meager expectations 60% of the time.

- 4 new coaches to compare Ben to: As of now I rank Ben a distant third out of three in the region behind Otz and Shaka. In the conference I rank Ben quite a way behind Shrewsberry and behind Woodson as well. It would be tough to make an argument that Ben didn't have the worst start to a tenure of the 5.
 




bmb5270 said:
I’m going to say C. Record not where you want to be but team was for the most part enjoyable to watch. Ben cam in to a unique situation where he had to replace the whole roster while hiring a coaching staff.
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But how much of the roster turnover was his doing? It’s not like it was just foist on him.
 

Overall record exceeded expectations. Until the last three weeks they looked better organized than they had in years. As most others are noting the end of the season was a disaster and while a decent crop of recruits are coming in it’s not a world beating class. I think keeping guys who need to develop on the bench is poor decision making and a de facto push out the door. I’d give a C~ if I could. Combined with the push for Uber early ticket renewal and a not good team, I’m not real happy.
 



Giving an F is silly. I know we live in a time of knee jerk reactions but there wasn’t a soul that had this team finishing 4 games under .500 before the season started. Particularly with power conference road wins including the big one at Michigan. Despite being undersized and undermanned, they played up against Wisconsin both times and were a play or two away from pulling an upset. To me that matters when there’s a clear talent gap, we’re undersized and short on depth. Willis and Battle (who we get two more years of) were tremendous adds, if Ihnen and Parker Fox aren’t lost for the season, I think we’re on par or slightly better than PSU and Maryland. Payne’s arguably got the highest ceiling in the state and as mentioned before, Carrington’s looking like the front runner for Mr. Basketball. Henley’s also had an impressive year out in California.

the games that disappointed me most were @Nebraska, @PSU, @iowa and @NW, just inexcusable effort in those games. The front court transfers they brought in were not good, missing on Race and Dawson aren’t the end of the world but there were definitely better options out there. Would have been nice to have a bigger bodied 5 even if Ihnen and Fox were healthy. Another ball handler would have been nice too, Thiam was a questionable addition.

I’d give the season a C+. Slight overachievement with the strong non-conference showing. The roster overhaul was necessary IMO because I thought the culture was poor and the parts didn’t mesh to a point to produce good team basketball. In flashes, we saw a fluid offense with good floor spacing, a coach that maximizes timeouts, defensive creativity and flexibility despite clear disadvantages, a real sense of togetherness both on the court with effort and off the court with how united they were as a group. Also restoring a sense of pride with the return of some of the players of the past, hopefully that’s something that can be built on.

I feel positive about this staff in the longer term, both Johnson and each of his assistants are impressive in their own right. Obviously a big off-season coming up that likely shapes how this tenure will go, I believe we’ll see higher quality transfers and I’m hopeful we pull one of the big three in-staters before the summer’s out. Hang in there, we got through the rough transition year…wasn’t too dissimilar to Fleck’s first was it?
 
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I gave him a B. My only complaint would be that he didn’t play TT/ bench more. I loved the grit and passion of our seniors and Battle is a rock star. Excited to see Parker Fox play next season along with our new freshmen and hopefully we can get a few solid players from the portal. Overall enjoyed the entertaining and competitive play. Already looking forward to next season and yes I am a glass half full kind of person!
 

I don't know how you don't give him an F. The Gophers finished last and were the 14 seed for the first time ever in the Big Ten Tournament. That's not an F?

Compared to last season the offense was worse, the defense was just as bad, and somehow the bench was even shorter than under Pitino.

Now Ben has to completely rebuild the roster for the second year in a row to try and avoid finishing dead last again next season.
 

From the outside of the locker room, it looks to me like BJ did absolutely nothing to make Year 1 more promising than Year 0. He developed no returning players, and our team regressed all year. Next year is another complete roll of the dice in the transfer portal.

The only consistent positive I saw was his ability to draw up plays out of timeouts.

D
 



GopherWeatherGuy said:
I don't know how you don't give him an F. The Gophers finished last and were the 14 seed for the first time ever in the Big Ten Tournament. That's not an F?

Compared to last season the offense was worse, the defense was just as bad, and somehow the bench was even shorter than under Pitino.

Now Ben has to completely rebuild the roster for the second year in a row to try and avoid finishing dead last again next season.
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They finished last as predicted but I never thought they would get over 10 wins total. Add in the 4 conference wins and that deserves a D grade.
 
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I guess a C, but could be talked into one grade higher or even one grade lower. There were some fun games, but then there were some where you wondered why the hell were you watching. Unfortunately, they piled up the second half of the season. I know he's responsible for the roster, but I think they got worn down and scouted. Seems like a decent bunch of guys but there's only so many times most players deny reality and keep banging their heads against the wall. Sort of like Curry's 3 pointer yesterday. A "What the heck?" moment; nothing to lose.

I have no idea why Ben didn't play the freshmen. He and Thorson know a lot more about basketball than we do. They see them every day. They have expectations. Still, it's not a good look for recruits. Very interested in seeing what develops as far as them sticking around and who comes in from the portal. I think he has a much better base going forward than he did last year coming in.
 

Dean Smith, with his characteristic modesty, once reflected back on his coaching career as follows:

I'll call a time-out and design a play. Now, whether the ball goes in or not, well that's where recruiting comes in.

We have to start with recruiting as the critical factor. I don't know how good of a coach Ben is yet but I don't think he and his associates are horrible coaches. But, there's another old saying that is very appropriate in reflecting on this season: You can't make a silk purse out of a pig's ear.

The recruiting wasn't all bad, of course. He recruited two legitimate quality Big Ten starters in Battle and Willis. Stephens and Sutherlin at this point of their careers were good enough to be significant bench contributors at this level. Loewe was good enough to play maybe a dozen minutes a game while playing defense, shouldering relief ball handling duties, and scoring some points here and there.

Unfortunately, the rest of the roster was a disaster.

Curry deserves credit for heroically struggling through the season while he was just a shadow of his former self but he never should have had to play that many minutes and maybe he shouldn't have played at all. He did say at the end of last season that he was done with basketball.

Thompson may be a decent, perhaps even good, player some day but he just wasn't ready to contribute significantly. He is the type of player who would have languished on the bench for any Big Ten roster and perhaps any P6 roster. If Ben didn't make any effort to retain Pohto last offseason, then he deserves some jeers for that. Pohto at least showed that he could be a solid sub for a good program as a freshman while playing 27 games.

As to the rest of the scholarship players (Daniels, Thiam, and Ogele), perhaps the less said the better. Charlie appears to have reached the height of his abilities in averaging 12 minutes a game for Stephen F. Austin. Neither Daniels nor Thiam should be anywhere on a P6 roster and I don't think there are more than 20 D1 rosters where Ogele could see the light of day. I can see taking a flyer on Thiam but Ben never, ever should have settled for Daniels and Ogele.

Overall, this was at best a D roster at least for the P6 level. I'll give Ben a C- for recruiting because he had a harder job than most coaches. We have to remember that two veteran coaches under similar circumstances, Craig Smith and Tom Crean, did as bad or worse than Ben.
 

scools12 said:
They finished last as predicted but I never thought they would get over 10 wins total. Add in the 4 conference wins and that deserves a D grade.
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That’s a part of the problem and deserves to factor into the grade. Roster construction was so poor, which Ben is 100% responsible for, that this team was supposed to be terrible.

Man how far this program has fallen when a last place finish gets a B or a C grade. Last deserves nothing higher than an F.
 

Mulligan said:
I guess a C, but could be talked into one grade higher or even one grade lower. There were some fun games, but then there were some where you wondered why the hell were you watching. Unfortunately, they piled up the second half of the season. I know he's responsible for the roster, but I think they got worn down and scouted. Seems like a decent bunch of guys but there's only so many times most players deny reality and keep banging their heads against the wall. Sort of like Curry's 3 pointer yesterday. A "What the heck?" moment; nothing to lose.

I have no idea why Ben didn't play the freshmen. He and Thorson know a lot more about basketball than we do. They see them every day. They have expectations. Still, it's not a good look for recruits. Very interested in seeing what develops as far as them sticking around and who comes in from the portal. I think he has a much better base going forward than he did last year coming in.
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I’m not so sure the base is stronger. Very few returning contributors. Major reliance for significant contribution from players coming back from injury and freshmen who have promise but on paper aren’t the kind of guys who facilitate quick turnarounds. The saving grace of this year’s team was maturity in the supporting cast players beyond the two legitimate B1G players. From the beginning I thought that next year could be worse than this and I’ve seen nothing to change that perspective. Ben may be a great coach but he hasn’t left a good portion of the fan base a lot to be hopeful about next year.

Best of luck in the portal. Without a proven point guard and a serviceable big, we are in for some ugly losses next year.
 


EG#9 said:
I've got a clear F grade. I could see a little better if you don't include recruiting in the mix and just the on court coaching (and REALLY value that non-conference start).

- Was not able to bring back local talent through the portal (Garcia, Thompson, Mitchell, etc)
- Was not able to attract any high major transfers through the portal
- Had to give scholarships to Daniels and Ogele just to field a roster
- His one recruit with more than 1 year to play didn't show anything to suggest he will play (Not crediting him/blaming him for Thompson)

- Put a lot of eggs in the Holloman basket and missed, doesn't have a PG recruit for '22
- Missed on every recruit that took a visit to another high major (to my knowledge)
+ Identified Payne early, Carrington seems like a solid recruit and should be Mr. Baskteball

+ Strong start to the season, team seemed to gel quickly
+ Strong effort/"Played hard" was very valid until they got back from Ann Arbor
+ Very nice plays out of timeouts in that early part of the season

- Team regressed in virtually all areas after Ann Arbor: the gang rebounding that was a hallmark of the early season success was nowhere to be found, the 3 point defense that was excellent early in the season was the worst in the Big Ten (at last check) during conference play.

+ Win against Rutgers with such a limited roster was notable

- No development of players individually during the year.

- Effort clearly lacking in a number of games: 2nd half at Iowa, at Ohio State, at Penn State, at Nebraska, home against Indiana, at Northwestern. Those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

- He didn't appear to have any nonnegotiables as a coach. People talk about a culture being built, but if said culture was being built...some things occurred on the court from an effort or body language standpoint that should have had a kid take a seat on the bench. I didn't see every minute of every game, but I never saw this happen.

- One of the slowest paces in NCAA basketball. This Spring is absolutely crucial to turn things around and kids will notice this when making a decision.

- 4-16 (17) This will always be unacceptable to me. If you want to use the roster as an excuse, they were also 8-12 (13) against the spread in conference games...so they didn't meet meager expectations 60% of the time.

- 4 new coaches to compare Ben to: As of now I rank Ben a distant third out of three in the region behind Otz and Shaka. In the conference I rank Ben quite a way behind Shrewsberry and behind Woodson as well. It would be tough to make an argument that Ben didn't have the worst start to a tenure of the 5.
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Petty thorough analysis. I gave him a C because no one was arrested.
 


Holy Man said:
But how much of the roster turnover was his doing? It’s not like it was just foist on him.
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With the transfer portal most of the guys from last years team were out of here regardless of who the new coach. Johnson, Gach, and Kalscheur were the guys they had the best chance to keep but ended up leaving as well for different reasons. He missed on some transfer targets for sure. I think most would agree that the roster construction was sub par and that Ben is ultimately responsible but I also say there were reasons for that, some of which were beyond Ben’s control.
 

Holy Man said:
I’m not so sure the base is stronger. Very few returning contributors. Major reliance for significant contribution from players coming back from injury and freshmen who have promise but on paper aren’t the kind of guys who facilitate quick turnarounds. The saving grace of this year’s team was maturity in the supporting cast players beyond the two legitimate B1G players. From the beginning I thought that next year could be worse than this and I’ve seen nothing to change that perspective. Ben may be a great coach but he hasn’t left a good portion of the fan base a lot to be hopeful about next year.

Best of luck in the portal. Without a proven point guard and a serviceable big, we are in for some ugly losses next year.
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Liked your post because I think you provided a fair appraisal of the current season and an accurate perspective of where we stand today.

I will say that I'm going to keep a low flame of optimism for the moment. One can never tell about freshmen. Jordan Murphy was modestly rated for a P6 recruit (#167) coming out of high school but he emerged as the best player (albeit on a terrible team) as a freshman and had an outstanding career. Ben doesn't have to secure as many transfers as he did last year (maybe 3 or 4) and the majority of those should be guards where the supply of at least reasonable quality players is much larger.
 

bmb5270 said:
With the transfer portal most of the guys from last years team were out of here regardless of who the new coach. Johnson, Gach, and Kalscheur were the guys they had the best chance to keep but ended up leaving as well for different reasons. He missed on some transfer targets for sure. I think most would agree that the roster construction was sub par and that Ben is ultimately responsible but I also say there were reasons for that, some of which were beyond Ben’s control.
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Yes, he had a tougher recruiting job than most but there were a fair number of coaches across the country who had to replace 8 or more players from the transfer portal; there were about a dozen from the P6 conferences alone. I don't know how much he tried to get Pohto to stay with his commitment but even that would have helped because Pohto had size and a pretty good freshman year at Wichita.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
That’s a part of the problem and deserves to factor into the grade. Roster construction was so poor, which Ben is 100% responsible for, that this team was supposed to be terrible.

Man how far this program has fallen when a last place finish gets a B or a C grade. Last deserves nothing higher than an F.
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I agree this season doesn’t deserve a B or C. I get the F grade just felt they were slightly better than expected at least in the number of games won.

How the roster was constructed this year could mean next year as they get younger the team could be worse. I won’t have a problem with that. I rather see the program built mainly with high school recruits and only add supporting pieces through the transfer portal. Let the young guys take their lumps for a couple of seasons and hopefully there is a payoff in year 4 of the Ben Johnson era.
 

C-

CBJ certainly faced a ton of challenges as a first year coach in one of the top conferences in the land. I think it is important to differentiate how CBJ did himself, vs comparing CBJ to RP, which it seems some are doing.

  1. Game planning was good, imo. Usage of players to their skill sets seemed appropriate, with Battle and Willis the main offensive options.
  2. I see positives in ball movement, motion, and the like. Seems to show what he wants to do.
  3. Defensively it appeared better at times. After being told here that the D would be markedly better statistically this season, I was hoping it would show. Didnt really happen as much as I thought it might.
  4. Battle is a great offensive player. However, he can be neutralized by strong defenders. He will no doubt be the offensive focus next season, so that is somewhat worrisome.
  5. The "no sub" decision from last evening is really baffling/worrisome. CBJ said the players said to keep playing the starters. Since when do the players determine substitutions? And it was obvious the starters were going to be gassed mid second half if he didnt sub.

Now the real work begins for CBJ. He needs to sign top notch portal players in multiple positions, and recruit top flight high school kids and get them to sign here. Next season is key for CBJ and his tenure here. Needs to win, develop players that are on the team, and continue to sign top notch kids.

I wish him much more success than he had this season.
 

A big fat D

This year should have been about establishing an identity/system and developing players for the future. I think Ben did an OK job on the identity/system but gets a flat out F on developing players.

After 6 months of working with the roster, your bench is only able to contribute 1 minute in the last game of the year!! That's completely on the coaches failing to develop the roster.

And I not accepting the physically not ready to play justification. A good coaching staff figures out a way to get some positive contribution from everyone. Even if it's only a few minutes here and there each game. But those minutes add up over the course of the season.

The season ended worse than it should have because we regressed in the 2nd half due to exhausted players. That's completely on Ben. And makes me nervous for the future.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
That’s a part of the problem and deserves to factor into the grade. Roster construction was so poor, which Ben is 100% responsible for, that this team was supposed to be terrible.

Man how far this program has fallen when a last place finish gets a B or a C grade. Last deserves nothing higher than an F.
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Pitino had basically the same record in 2017-18 playing two fewer conference games, and finished 11th. It's pretty much a toss-up if you are in those last four spots. As mentioned earlier, Johnson was in an unenviable spot having to cobble together a roster in short order. They flat ran out of gas.
 

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