Why all the disappointment?

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GopherBlood666 said:
It has been said about many on here that this fan base is too willing to accept mediocrity. Now we hire an unproven coach with very little info to indicate he will be anymore successful than the last. Being critical of that now indicates there are anger issues at play and should consider supporting a WINNING program. Please keep sharing. USAF has already guaranteed this hire is guaranteed to work. You guys must be clairvoyant.
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I'm not saying that I am/was completely on board but am warming up to the idea. Not my first choice. I like him and he can hardly do worse than Pitino. I think he will do better but the question is how much better. Is it a blunder... or genius? Time will tell.

Of course I am just trolling everyone who are on here to complain about the decision. Here is some more for all those butthurt people (no disrespect intended - well, maybe a little):

People who are upset - leave. You should not accept this mediocrity. It's an outrage. Its barbarous, and a desecration of all that is holy with Gopher basketball. Vote with your pocketbook and the forums where you spend your time posting. There are other Big10 schools and St. Thomas is soon to be D1.
 

CPTMidnight said:
I'm not saying that I am/was completely on board but am warming up to the idea. Not my first choice. I like him and he can hardly do worse than Pitino. I think he will do better but the question is how much better. Is it a blunder... or genius? Time will tell.

Of course I am just trolling everyone who are on here to complain about the decision. Here is some more for all those butthurt people (no disrespect intended - well, maybe a little):

People who are upset - leave. You should not accept this mediocrity. It's an outrage. Its barbarous, and a desecration of all that is holy with Gopher basketball. Vote with your pocketbook and the forums where you spend your time posting. There are other Big10 schools and St. Thomas is soon to be D1.
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I certainly respect your honesty. Sport breeds passion, we will all be happy if he wins big. I have a shit load of gopher gear, tommies be damned!
 

GopherBlood666 said:
I certainly respect your honesty. Sport breeds passion, we will all be happy if he wins big. I have a shit load of gopher gear, tommies be damned!
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LOL

I think people here just wanted to feel like they did when Tubby Smith was hired.

The proof is not how you feel when you get a big name coach in the door - everyone is always going to feel like "we're saved!" The real proof is what happens Between '08 and '12. Im still pondering this hire as I already know that a big name and winning record means nothing.
 

SanDiegoGopherFan said:
Just like the people in charge at Boeing were not idiots over the software issues. You trust too much. Coyle is human, just like any of us, he does make mistakes.
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100% correct that Coyle might have made a mistake with this hire. But it is way too early for anyone to make that determination.
 

I preface this by saying I will support Ben and hope he proves me wrong. If he is able to land some great transfers this offseason, and start off by recruiting our loaded MN class well next year, then I will become much more optimistic.

But to question why people are disappointed? Ben has one of the worst resume's to ever be hired by a Big Ten school, at least in the modern era.

Where has he been a part of a winning culture?

As a player, he was a part of historically bad Northwestern teams, and the Minnesota teams he played on were not much better.

As an assistant, he's been a part of mostly losing programs
Dayton: Was 14-17 the one season he was there.
Texas Pan- AM: 33-28 - Head coach was fired the year after he left.
UNI: 93-44 - This is the one winning program he was a part of. Made the NCAA his first 2 seasons, then regressed his other two.
Nebraska: 15-18 - Tim Miles first season.
Minnesota: 90-78 - Under Pitino, overall record was ok, conference record was 31-59.
Xavier: 51-37 overall, 23-27 in conference. No NCAA tournament appearances in 3 seasons. The last time Xavier went 3 seasons in a row without making the tournament: 1979-1982, nearly 40 years ago.

So how is he going to bring a winning culture here, when he rarely has been a part of one himself? He has been a part of more historically bad teams than winning teams.

If he had worked for Chris Mack at Xavier, or a Scott Drew, or a Tony Bennett, or a Jay Wright, then I feel much better about this hire. But he hasn't, and this is why it's so hard to be optimistic.
 


I have no idea if Ben Johnson will be successful or not, but in about 30 minutes of scanning this board, I didn't see mention of a fairly obvious upside - if this does work out, he will be harder to poach by another school because of his maroon-and-gold circulatory system. In this league you've got lifers for their school at MSU, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Purdue off the top of my head, and those fanbases do not worry much about their coach leaving.
 

alaska said:
Maybe I am missing something huge, but what is everyone down on this hire? Other than Musselman, which was not coming here, not of the other mentions that we have talked about got me aroused at all. I would much rather go with a guy like Johnson and see what he can do, especially in the recruiting game than fail on a guy we bring in from a mid major who has had above average success, but has not real excitement around them. And there was no excitement for anyone outside of Mussleman.

Give Johnson a chance, Coyle is not an idiot, he is making a hire that is tied to his own success. I'm not sure why we don't trust that and give this young guy a chance to make things exciting around here again. As soon as he gets the first of our in state big recruits to stay home we will be praising him just like Fleck.
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Coyle is an English major🤮
 

formerlybis said:
he will be harder to poach by another school because of his maroon-and-gold circulatory system.
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he chose to play at NU and left the program to coach at Xavier. Heck, the U wasn’t in his top 5 when he chose to sign at NU. I suspect he will be easy to poach
 

SanDiegoGopherFan said:
Nothing about that press conference screams top recruiter. I'll support the team, but I think there are going to be lots of disappointed ppl after a few years.
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What at the press conference would scream top recruiter? Please elaborate.
 



I’m legitimately thinking about getting season tickets. So pumped! I’ll always be able to say, “I got in right when the glory days began and gopher fandom morale was at an all time low.” Ben’s gonna kill it!
 

GopherBlood666 said:
It has been said about many on here that this fan base is too willing to accept mediocrity. Now we hire an unproven coach with very little info to indicate he will be anymore successful than the last. Being critical of that now indicates there are anger issues at play and should consider supporting a WINNING program. Please keep sharing. USAF has already guaranteed this hire is guaranteed to work. You guys must be clairvoyant.
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And you must be clairvoyant that it’s not going to work.
 

Did anyone notice his comment re Williams arena?
 

alaska said:
Maybe I am missing something huge, but what is everyone down on this hire? Other than Musselman, which was not coming here, not of the other mentions that we have talked about got me aroused at all. I would much rather go with a guy like Johnson and see what he can do, especially in the recruiting game than fail on a guy we bring in from a mid major who has had above average success, but has not real excitement around them. And there was no excitement for anyone outside of Mussleman.

Give Johnson a chance, Coyle is not an idiot, he is making a hire that is tied to his own success. I'm not sure why we don't trust that and give this young guy a chance to make things exciting around here again. As soon as he gets the first of our in state big recruits to stay home we will be praising him just like Fleck.
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Couldn't agree more!

Half the threads from today are so unbelievably negative & whinny. & based on what I'm seeing on social media (and just by the general tone of the negative posts on GH - haha), I'm assuming most (not all) of the whinners are in the 65+ demographic. "Wahhhhh, I'm a boomer and I always get my way, why didn't we hire Craig Smith? Minnesota hired Johnson only because he's a minority, he's not qualified, harumph, I'm cancelling my season tickets and done supporting my favorite team because of this, can't wait for the next coach in 3-5 years"....

Seriously, it's so annoying for the rest of us actual fans that are excited to support our new head coach who 1. actually played basketball at a high level 2. has 17 years of experience as an assistant college basketball coach 3. was born and raised in Minnesota, played for the Gophers and quite obviously has the drive & determination to bring the basketball program to new heights (this is especially clear when compared to Tubby or Pitino) 4. clearly is a above average to excellent recruiter 5. Had an incredible first press conference 6. If he is successful, will probably end up at Minnesota for decades since it's his true dream job and 7. everyone with actual basketball knowledge (former players, coaches, insiders, etc.) are praising the hire

There's so many more positives to this hire than negatives, but at least half the posts today seem to be negative. What's the worst thing that happens? We have a .360 Big Ten win percentage during Johnson's tenure, whiff on almost every major in-state recruit and only make the tournament a quarter of the time?..... Oh wait......

All the complainers about this hire are the same people that cried about the Fleck hire because they didn't like his energy, enthusiasm and vigor!

Go to bed boomers! The rest of us want to celebrate this excellent hire without your constant blabbering & moaning!!
 




GopherDude said:
Couldn't agree more!

Half the threads from today are so unbelievably negative & whinny. & based on what I'm seeing on social media (and just by the general tone of the negative posts on GH - haha), I'm assuming most (not all) of the whinners are in the 65+ demographic. "Wahhhhh, I'm a boomer and I always get my way, why didn't we hire Craig Smith? Minnesota hired Johnson only because he's a minority, he's not qualified, harumph, I'm cancelling my season tickets and done supporting my favorite team because of this, can't wait for the next coach in 3-5 years"....

Seriously, it's so annoying for the rest of us actual fans that are excited to support our new head coach who 1. actually played basketball at a high level 2. has 17 years of experience as an assistant college basketball coach 3. was born and raised in Minnesota, played for the Gophers and quite obviously has the drive & determination to bring the basketball program to new heights (this is especially clear when compared to Tubby or Pitino) 4. clearly is a above average to excellent recruiter 5. Had an incredible first press conference 6. If he is successful, will probably end up at Minnesota for decades since it's his true dream job and 7. everyone with actual basketball knowledge (former players, coaches, insiders, etc.) are praising the hire

There's so many more positives to this hire than negatives, but at least half the posts today seem to be negative. What's the worst thing that happens? We have a .360 Big Ten win percentage during Johnson's tenure, whiff on almost every major in-state recruit and only make the tournament a quarter of the time?..... Oh wait......

All the complainers about this hire are the same people that cried about the Fleck hire because they didn't like his energy, enthusiasm and vigor!

Go to bed boomers! The rest of us want to celebrate this excellent hire without your constant blabbering & moaning!!
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Im not over 65, I want to avoid another stretch of conference basketball that bad, and I was 1000 percent behind the fleck hire because he had proven himself as a head coach. We all want him to win, not all thought he was the best hire of the choices available. I'm glad you're happy, but stop with the straw man please. He will have plenty of opportunities to silence his doubters. I really hope he does.
 

GopherDude said:
Couldn't agree more!

Half the threads from today are so unbelievably negative & whinny. & based on what I'm seeing on social media (and just by the general tone of the negative posts on GH - haha), I'm assuming most (not all) of the whinners are in the 65+ demographic. "Wahhhhh, I'm a boomer and I always get my way, why didn't we hire Craig Smith? Minnesota hired Johnson only because he's a minority, he's not qualified, harumph, I'm cancelling my season tickets and done supporting my favorite team because of this, can't wait for the next coach in 3-5 years"....

Seriously, it's so annoying for the rest of us actual fans that are excited to support our new head coach who 1. actually played basketball at a high level 2. has 17 years of experience as an assistant college basketball coach 3. was born and raised in Minnesota, played for the Gophers and quite obviously has the drive & determination to bring the basketball program to new heights (this is especially clear when compared to Tubby or Pitino) 4. clearly is a above average to excellent recruiter 5. Had an incredible first press conference 6. If he is successful, will probably end up at Minnesota for decades since it's his true dream job and 7. everyone with actual basketball knowledge (former players, coaches, insiders, etc.) are praising the hire

There's so many more positives to this hire than negatives, but at least half the posts today seem to be negative. What's the worst thing that happens? We have a .360 Big Ten win percentage during Johnson's tenure, whiff on almost every major in-state recruit and only make the tournament a quarter of the time?..... Oh wait......

All the complainers about this hire are the same people that cried about the Fleck hire because they didn't like his energy, enthusiasm and vigor!

Go to bed boomers! The rest of us want to celebrate this excellent hire without your constant blabbering & moaning!!
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I like the positive outlook, but you gotta be nuts with your theory on the demographics. It's a ridiculous take, and can't be reasonably applied to ANY age group. Fleck was a terrific hire, and Johnson may turn out to be also. Let's see what his staff turns out to be, initial recruits and leveraging the portal, etc. There will be some early indicators, but time will tell!
 

dlnavra said:
I like the positive outlook, but you gotta be nuts with your theory on the demographics. It's a ridiculous take, and can't be reasonably applied to ANY age group. Fleck was a terrific hire, and Johnson may turn out to be also. Let's see what his staff turns out to be, initial recruits and leveraging the portal, etc. There will be some early indicators, but time will tell!
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Most of the boomers were upset with the Fleck hire & most of the boomers appear to be even more upset with the Johnson hire. They were wrong then & they'll be wrong again.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
I preface this by saying I will support Ben and hope he proves me wrong. If he is able to land some great transfers this offseason, and start off by recruiting our loaded MN class well next year, then I will become much more optimistic.

But to question why people are disappointed? Ben has one of the worst resume's to ever be hired by a Big Ten school, at least in the modern era.

Where has he been a part of a winning culture?

As a player, he was a part of historically bad Northwestern teams, and the Minnesota teams he played on were not much better.

As an assistant, he's been a part of mostly losing programs
Dayton: Was 14-17 the one season he was there.
Texas Pan- AM: 33-28 - Head coach was fired the year after he left.
UNI: 93-44 - This is the one winning program he was a part of. Made the NCAA his first 2 seasons, then regressed his other two.
Nebraska: 15-18 - Tim Miles first season.
Minnesota: 90-78 - Under Pitino, overall record was ok, conference record was 31-59.
Xavier: 51-37 overall, 23-27 in conference. No NCAA tournament appearances in 3 seasons. The last time Xavier went 3 seasons in a row without making the tournament: 1979-1982, nearly 40 years ago.

So how is he going to bring a winning culture here, when he rarely has been a part of one himself? He has been a part of more historically bad teams than winning teams.

If he had worked for Chris Mack at Xavier, or a Scott Drew, or a Tony Bennett, or a Jay Wright, then I feel much better about this hire. But he hasn't, and this is why it's so hard to be optimistic.
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Thanks for putting the facts behind my disappointment. He has not proven he is a winner anywhere. That does not mean he can't be here but being concerned about this hire is understandable. I am sincerely hoping he proves all of us doubters wrong. This data also supports my response to the posters who compared Johnson with Whalen. Her Final 4 appearance, 4 WNBA championships and 2 Gold medals beg to differ. Go Gophers !
 

GopherOhana said:
he chose to play at NU and left the program to coach at Xavier. Heck, the U wasn’t in his top 5 when he chose to sign at NU. I suspect he will be easy to poach
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I think you're comparing apples to peaches there.
 

We just went through 8 years of an inexperienced coach learning on the job, with awful results. Countless Gophers fans spent the last season waiting for Pitino to be fired so we could start fresh with an experienced coach who's had success building programs at multiple stops. Then this. It takes a lot to demoralize me as a fan, but this hire did just that. It's like if Andy Dufresne crawled through that river of shit and came out of the pipe not to freedom, but to another cell.
 

WindyCityGopher said:
We just went through 8 years of an inexperienced coach learning on the job, with awful results. Countless Gophers fans spent the last season waiting for Pitino to be fired so we could start fresh with an experienced coach who's had success building programs at multiple stops. Then this. It takes a lot to demoralize me as a fan, but this hire did just that. It's like if Andy Dufresne crawled through that river of shit and came out of the pipe not to freedom, but to another cell.
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Reusse likes Ben but thinks Gopherhole is being too mean. So he says he might write a column ripping him so GH'ers have to defend him. Lol.
 

GopherDude said:
Couldn't agree more!

Half the threads from today are so unbelievably negative & whinny. & based on what I'm seeing on social media (and just by the general tone of the negative posts on GH - haha), I'm assuming most (not all) of the whinners are in the 65+ demographic. "Wahhhhh, I'm a boomer and I always get my way, why didn't we hire Craig Smith? Minnesota hired Johnson only because he's a minority, he's not qualified, harumph, I'm cancelling my season tickets and done supporting my favorite team because of this, can't wait for the next coach in 3-5 years"....

Seriously, it's so annoying for the rest of us actual fans that are excited to support our new head coach who 1. actually played basketball at a high level 2. has 17 years of experience as an assistant college basketball coach 3. was born and raised in Minnesota, played for the Gophers and quite obviously has the drive & determination to bring the basketball program to new heights (this is especially clear when compared to Tubby or Pitino) 4. clearly is a above average to excellent recruiter 5. Had an incredible first press conference 6. If he is successful, will probably end up at Minnesota for decades since it's his true dream job and 7. everyone with actual basketball knowledge (former players, coaches, insiders, etc.) are praising the hire

There's so many more positives to this hire than negatives, but at least half the posts today seem to be negative. What's the worst thing that happens? We have a .360 Big Ten win percentage during Johnson's tenure, whiff on almost every major in-state recruit and only make the tournament a quarter of the time?..... Oh wait......

All the complainers about this hire are the same people that cried about the Fleck hire because they didn't like his energy, enthusiasm and vigor!

Go to bed boomers! The rest of us want to celebrate this excellent hire without your constant blabbering & moaning!!
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Pssssttt.....this is a message board with a diverse set of opinions. We just hired our first coach in eight years. It’s not a Gophers rouser.
 


He’s gotta have some top kids in his back pocket right?
 

CPTMidnight said:
I'm not saying that I am/was completely on board but am warming up to the idea. Not my first choice. I like him and he can hardly do worse than Pitino. I think he will do better but the question is how much better. Is it a blunder... or genius? Time will tell.

Of course I am just trolling everyone who are on here to complain about the decision. Here is some more for all those butthurt people (no disrespect intended - well, maybe a little):

People who are upset - leave. You should not accept this mediocrity. It's an outrage. Its barbarous, and a desecration of all that is holy with Gopher basketball. Vote with your pocketbook and the forums where you spend your time posting. There are other Big10 schools and St. Thomas is soon to be D1.
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Sorry I can’t. I would love the gophers to be mediocre!
 

GopherDude said:
Couldn't agree more!

Half the threads from today are so unbelievably negative & whinny. & based on what I'm seeing on social media (and just by the general tone of the negative posts on GH - haha), I'm assuming most (not all) of the whinners are in the 65+ demographic. "Wahhhhh, I'm a boomer and I always get my way, why didn't we hire Craig Smith? Minnesota hired Johnson only because he's a minority, he's not qualified, harumph, I'm cancelling my season tickets and done supporting my favorite team because of this, can't wait for the next coach in 3-5 years"....

Seriously, it's so annoying for the rest of us actual fans that are excited to support our new head coach who 1. actually played basketball at a high level 2. has 17 years of experience as an assistant college basketball coach 3. was born and raised in Minnesota, played for the Gophers and quite obviously has the drive & determination to bring the basketball program to new heights (this is especially clear when compared to Tubby or Pitino) 4. clearly is a above average to excellent recruiter 5. Had an incredible first press conference 6. If he is successful, will probably end up at Minnesota for decades since it's his true dream job and 7. everyone with actual basketball knowledge (former players, coaches, insiders, etc.) are praising the hire

There's so many more positives to this hire than negatives, but at least half the posts today seem to be negative. What's the worst thing that happens? We have a .360 Big Ten win percentage during Johnson's tenure, whiff on almost every major in-state recruit and only make the tournament a quarter of the time?..... Oh wait......

All the complainers about this hire are the same people that cried about the Fleck hire because they didn't like his energy, enthusiasm and vigor!

Go to bed boomers! The rest of us want to celebrate this excellent hire without your constant blabbering & moaning!!
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This is one of the dumbest posts I've seen so far. I'm a Gen X before you go all "boomer" on me...which only dumb people say.

I wanted Smith and I was beyond happy with Fleck. I commented that he was almost a too good to be true hire.

I hope Johnson succeeds but anyone who doesn't get why so many people aren't thrilled with the hire are delusional.
 

It's like he is our son-in-law now. We have to be nice to him and give him a chance. He may surprise us very nicely.

They said that they interviewed ten candidates total in the news. The Prez and the AD sounded more convinced that he is the right hire.
 

tikited said:
This is one of the dumbest posts I've seen so far. I'm a Gen X before you go all "boomer" on me...which only dumb people say.

I wanted Smith and I was beyond happy with Fleck. I commented that he was almost a too good to be true hire.

I hope Johnson succeeds but anyone who doesn't get why so many people aren't thrilled with the hire are delusional.
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You sound suspiciously like a boomer in disguise with the "dumbest posts I've seen" comment...

My post is not referencing the people on GH that "aren't thrilled with the hire"... it's referencing the dozens of commenters who have said repeatedly that "he was only hired because he's black" or the hundreds of additional hysterical responses that are calling for Coyle's head, mentioning that they're going to take a few years off from Gopher basketball or examples like the one 9 posts above this comment, "It's like if Andy Dufresne crawled through that river of shit and came out of the pipe not to freedom, but to another cell."

There were literally hundreds of overly emotional (again, I'm not referencing the commenters who aren't thrilled, I'm talking the hysterical sh*t) responses today on GH and all I'm saying is the 20-25 people I've spoken with about this hire who are under the age of 40 are all cautiously optimistic-extremely excited. Maybe we just haven't been Gopher fans long enough and therefore we refuse to be full blown cynics about a new coach on day 1?

The funniest part of all this to me is that it gets announced today that Johnson was the lead guy/reason that Coffey & Oturu came to Minnesota and some of you still think that Craig Smith would have a better chance at landing in state Top 100 kids (because of his win percentage as a coach at South Dakota & Utah State) than the super well connected & respected (at least by the basketball royalty in the Minnesota Community) guy who was named our coach today.
 
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