A really emotional Ben Johnson postgame. You can just feel how much he wanted this one for these guys! (Video)

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Ben made some coaching mistakes tonight and admitted as much but you can tell how much he loves his players and this program. We can question if he was ready for this job but you can’t question his character. I really hope he gets this program turned around and while tonight doesn’t erase the dismal season it at least gives a ray of hope.
 


BleedGopher said:

Go Gophers!!
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One sign of a good coach is that they haven’t quit on him and you can tell the players like and respect him.

The player/color commentator in the postgame, Rafael something or other, shared how he was on a last place team and guys on the bus to the game we’re making spring break plans and naturally they lost.

If you’ve ever played on a sucky team, even in HS, then you know how hard is to keep focus/positivity, when you know you’ve got another L, most likely waiting for you when you step off the 🚌
 
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Gopher_In_NYC said:
One sign of a good coach is that they haven’t quit on him and you can tell the players like and respect him.

The player/color commentator in the postgame, Rafael something or other, shared how he was on a last place team and guys on the bus to the game we’re making spring break plans and naturally they lost.

If you’ve ever played on a sucky team, even in HS, then you know how hard is to keep focus/positivity, when you know you’ve got another L, most likely waiting for you when you step off the 🚌
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Pretty crazy, but they have won more games in March then they did in all of January and February combined.
 



Gopher_In_NYC said:
One sign of a good coach is that they haven’t quit on him and you can tell the players like and respect him.

The player/color commentator in the postgame, Rafael something or other, shared how he was on a last place team and guys on the bus to the game we’re making spring break plans and naturally they lost.

If you’ve ever played on a sucky team, even in HS, then you know how hard is to keep focus/positivity, when you know you’ve got another L, most likely waiting for you when you step off the 🚌
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The next step is seeing how many of the guys stay with Ben next year. If the core remains- that's a good sign: Payne, Henley, Garcia, Carrington, JOJ, Betts, Christie, Ihnen and Fox- those 9 are the keys going forward. I'd love to have Cooper and Battle back to play their proper roles as well. Then go get a stud guard and a bruiser to spell Payne in the post.
 

bmb5270 said:
Ben made some coaching mistakes tonight and admitted as much but you can tell how much he loves his players and this program. We can question if he was ready for this job but you can’t question his character. I really hope he gets this program turned around and while tonight doesn’t erase the dismal season it at least gives a ray of hope.
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Ironically, this is part of the reason I didn’t like his hire. He seems like a great guy who loves the school/program who was hired for a position he wasn’t qualified for, which put him in a really hard spot.

That’s the double-edged sword of high-level “affirmative action hires,” if that’s what this was (I think so). Sometimes they are prepared and crush it, and other times they’re in over their heads. Not because they don’t have the inherent qualities to succeed, but because they don’t have the training and experience at that point. I’ve seen this dynamic play out in the corporate and academic world too.

In any case, I hope he continues to learn on the job and that he succeeds. I’d take no pleasure in watching him crash and burn. The question is whether he adapts fast enough to get us out of the gutter, because another dismal season may doom him.
 

The emotions are probably a few things. It probably didn't help seeing Whalen get replaced after losing in the 1st round of the tournament. You can tell this team has improved and they needed a couple of these games to calm people down a bit heading into the off-season. To hold on for the final 9 minutes with Battle on the bench and getting him another game probably played into the emotion as well. Knowing we lasted another day beyond Wisconsin is emotional on its own merit.

The thing I took away last night is they played hard and moved the ball really well. Sometimes I see the pace other teams play with and say, why can't we move the ball a bit more. Nebraska was playing pretty well (Won 6 of last 8) and we pulled it off.

Cherry picking games: Won 3 B1G games by 3 or less. Lost 5 B1G games by less than 10. Couple breaks and the season could have been a bit better.
 



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