"Ben Johnson is a basketball genius," - former guard E.J. Stephens

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Gophers7633 said:
Obviously being a good AC doesn't guarantee anything. But being a failure every step of the way doesn't help in my opinion.
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Maybe the kids at Xavier that made the tournament left our graduate it out and maybe the kids that Ben helped bring in started to be successful after he left but at the same time he helped bring those kids in
 

Gophers7633 said:
He's obviously not solely responsible for Xavier's failures while he was there, but he was a part of it. It was a failed AC tenure, no way of spinning that. He left to go to Xavier with them coming off being a #1 seed. Xavier was operating at the top of the sport. They couldn't even make the tournament while he was there. I'm sure if you asked him, he'd say it was a failure. I don't know how you can go to a program that prestigious, come away with those results and think anything else. Johnson just has no track record of being a success ANYWHERE he's been. Whether in charge or on staff. He's lucky he got this HC job, because he'd probably be an AC at a G5 school right now.
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Has CBJ ever been fired?
 


Rocksoldier said:
Maybe the kids at Xavier that made the tournament left our graduate it out and maybe the kids that Ben helped bring in started to be successful after he left but at the same time he helped bring those kids in
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It's Xavier. Yes, they lost production after he arrived. They were still expected to be a tournament team based on early season polls. And you'd be incorrect with your second statement. There was one player on last year's team that was a significant contributor that was recruited out of high school. Everyone else was a transfer portal addition, or committed before he arrived.
 




MonikerSchmoniker45 said:
Maybe. What's enough wins to keep him, in your opinion?
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Given our historically awful OOC, I'd say 19 wins at minimum, which would mean getting 8 B1G wins between the regular season and tournament. If he does somehow lose an OOC game, then he's gotta get to 9 B1G wins. Do I see him getting there? I do not.
 

Gophers7633 said:
Given our historically awful OOC, I'd say 19 wins at minimum, which would mean getting 8 B1G wins between the regular season and tournament. If he does somehow lose an OOC game, then he's gotta get to 9 B1G wins. Do I see him getting there? I do not.
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That's fair. I don't either but I'll wait and see before passing judgment.
 










Rockraven said:
Today “can’t keep everyone happy” is ancient history. 15 on the roster with 13 scholarship players. One of the most talented and balanced rosters in the league. We now know you are not serious. We don’t know your point.
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This idiot isn't helping Ben's case at all. Just makes it seem like anyone who supports Ben doesn't know the first thing about basketball and has an extremely grating personality.
 




Bayfieldgopher said:
Make the NIT. That is a reasonable goal. That would likely provide some of us here some hope and a solid springboard going forward into the 2024-25 season.
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That’s my minimum expectation. Anything less would be an F of a season. The bar is so low but those in charge of the program need to have respect for it.
 


Bayfieldgopher said:
Make the NIT. That is a reasonable goal. That would likely provide some of us here some hope and a solid springboard going forward into the 2024-25 season.
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That our fanbase feels making the NIT in year 3 would be a step in the right direction tells us all we need to know about how the first two years went. I would hope missing the NIT is the end of this tenure without much further discussion, and I don't know that just making the NIT would be enough to me want a year 4. Tough to be excited about a pretty bad season as potentally being the saving grace after two horrible ones.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
That our fanbase feels making the NIT in year 3 would be a step in the right direction tells us all we need to know about how the first two years went. I would hope missing the NIT is the end of this tenure without much further discussion, and I don't know that just making the NIT would be enough to me want a year 4. Tough to be excited about a pretty bad season as potentally being the saving grace after two horrible ones.
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Would you rather see another crappy season just to see Ben gone? Making the NIT or even close is a positive step and not a "pretty bad season". And year 4 would actually show the promise of putting a competitive squad on the floor. I'd much rather see that scenerio.
 

Bayfieldgopher said:
Would you rather see another crappy season just to see Ben gone? Making the NIT or even close is a positive step and not a "pretty bad season". And year 4 would actually show the promise of putting a competitive squad on the floor. I'd much rather see that scenerio.
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I'd absolutely rather us be better than worse. I'm just lamenting the fact that we have fallen so far that we would consider making the NIT any kind of accomplishment. We aren't that far removed from having fired a coach the same year he made the final 32 in the real tournament. Now we are hoping to make it back to the point where we are one of the 32 teams in the consolation tournament full of teams who didn't make the 68 team tournament.
 

WoodburyTim said:
This idiot isn't helping Ben's case at all. Just makes it seem like anyone who supports Ben doesn't know the first thing about basketball and has an extremely grating personality.
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I'll give you that there is one person on this board here who has a grating personality, and the amount of optimism is absurd. I'm a supporter of Ben, at least through this year. I think he's building something, and I think he can coach. But if this year is poor (many different definitions of "poor") I won't be a supporter of Ben's anymore.

So it "makes it seem like anyone who supports Ben doesn't know the first thing about basketball and has an extremely grating personality?" Because of this guys takes on Ben and the team? Wow. That's quite a leap-almost as extreme a take as the ones this guy spews out there all the time.

And I'd like to think after about 50 years of playing and coaching basketball I know a few things. And I'll have to credit my wife more than I do if she's put up with a grating personality for so long!
 

So.... the Dennis Evans thing isn't a bad thing for CBJ? I found it quite telling that a HC, who is supposed to be a fantastic recruiter, lands, then loses a top big man.

All this discussion of his time at Xavier and Nebraska has echos of him being oversold as a recruiter.

His strength was recruiting and he needed to take time to get into the coaching flow, now it looks like we were sold a bill of goods that had empty boxes in it. That is most concerning for me.
 

It does appear that Ben is not qualified to be a head coach in the big ten.
 

Let's let this season play out. This team seems to have better talent and depth compared to the previous two. None of us want a repeat of the past.

I stand by my expectation of a NIT bid. My take is Coyle also expects Ben to turn the corner this season and get his team to a competitive level.
 

Ewert86PC said:
So.... the Dennis Evans thing isn't a bad thing for CBJ? I found it quite telling that a HC, who is supposed to be a fantastic recruiter, lands, then loses a top big man.

All this discussion of his time at Xavier and Nebraska has echos of him being oversold as a recruiter.

His strength was recruiting and he needed to take time to get into the coaching flow, now it looks like we were sold a bill of goods that had empty boxes in it. That is most concerning for me.
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You do realize this was driven by NIL dollars and cents correct. I’m not so sure he lost him verses the money was too good from Louisville and his little birdy in the ear agent asked him to move on and collect some money.
 

Outsider said:
You do realize this was driven by NIL dollars and cents correct. I’m not so sure he lost him verses the money was too good from Louisville and his little birdy in the ear agent asked him to move on and collect some money.
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1. Evans was coming here.
2. All of a sudden, Evans is not coming here.

CBJ is supposed to be a great recruiter. This is the recruiting optics of the situation. CBJ has a recruit, then all of a sudden CBJ doesn't have a recruit. It is not good to the uninformed. Granted the UMN Admin has a sphichter strangling attitude about NIL that made it a problem, but as the point person, the leader of the program, it is not a good look. I understand the problem, with administration and athletics here, but not everyone does. They just look at who goes where and the "sparkly shiny diamonds" go elsewhere. The list of people who didn't want to go to play at UMN gets longer and longer with no outstanding play by the team to erase the general perception.

The results, which is what the general public sees, are still not attactive. Very few people look to see why situation 1 turned into situation 2. Those who do find it even less attractive than the embarrassment of a recruit doing an about-face on his commitment.
 

Lighten up Ewert.

Ben recruited Evans then NIL stole him away. Ben had no $$ to keep him. No fault of his. Maybe blame Coyle rather than Ben.

Sure, some good MN kids gave Ben the cold shoulder. Its happens in every state. I don't blame them for chasing other options. MN basketball the last couple of decades has a lot to be desired.

How about giving Ben some credit for who he has brought in: Payne, Christie, Garcia, Battle, Willis, Carrington, JOJ, and Betts & Asuma.

Lets see how this all plays out rather than being so "down and out".
 

Ewert86PC said:
1. Evans was coming here.
2. All of a sudden, Evans is not coming here.

CBJ is supposed to be a great recruiter. This is the recruiting optics of the situation. CBJ has a recruit, then all of a sudden CBJ doesn't have a recruit. It is not good to the uninformed. Granted the UMN Admin has a sphichter strangling attitude about NIL that made it a problem, but as the point person, the leader of the program, it is not a good look. I understand the problem, with administration and athletics here, but not everyone does. They just look at who goes where and the "sparkly shiny diamonds" go elsewhere. The list of people who didn't want to go to play at UMN gets longer and longer with no outstanding play by the team to erase the general perception.

The results, which is what the general public sees, are still not attactive. Very few people look to see why situation 1 turned into situation 2. Those who do find it even less attractive than the embarrassment of a recruit doing an about-face on his commitment.
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Agree with Bayfield Gopher. NIL is a game changer, and the big boys have big money behind them that BJ doesn’t have. But lets See how this season goes before throwing Ben under the bus.
 

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