Chip: Mark Coyle, having gambled twice on Gophers basketball coaching hires, gets another shot


People wanted Ben fired like six games into his second season. If Coyle decides at some point to move on from Johnson, he definitely will have to take a flyer on his next hire as well. He will not have the pick of the lot...of any lot for that matter.
That was more than enough time to see he couldn’t coach. A B10 team, even bad, should destroy the garbage teams we played at the beginning of the year. Then when we played decent teams (Va Tech and UNLV, we got waxed…end game score was not as close to the actual game score as we ran up the score in the last minute on their 3rd stringers)
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People wanted Ben fired like six games into his second season. If Coyle decides at some point to move on from Johnson, he definitely will have to take a flyer on his next hire as well. He will not have the pick of the lot...of any lot for that matter.
I disagree. Of the 350+ D1 basketball programs there are about 70-80 that are P6. Almost (not all) all non P6 coaches would love to have the chance at a P6. Not all of course. There are some good non P6 programs that a coach would not leave. Obviously some coaches love their current non P6 set ups. I find it hard to believe that one of say 20 top non P6 head coaches or even D2 top head coaches wouldn't be interested in any/all available P6 head coaching jobs. Any of those coaches would have been a better choice than Ben.
 




the thread is supposedly about Coyle.

on that end:
Coyle hired a women's head coach who had never coached at any level.

Coyle hired a men's head coach who had never been a head coach before.

both of these hires were made at a P5 D-1 program.

maybe instead of just focusing on Johnson, it would be worthwhile to also put some attention on Coyle. Johnson would not have the job if Coyle had not hired him.

I know there are some who believe that "Coyle hired Fleck = Coyle is a great AD." Well, he may be great for football, but so far, not for basketball.

the upcoming women's coaching hire is going to be interesting to watch.
 

My unsolicited, simple advice to Mr. Coyle is:

do what you did with the Fleck and Motzko hires.


Honestly, how can that be wrong?
100%. Take the guy with experience that looks like the surest thing. Don't try to re-invent the wheel or out-smart everyone with the hire. It will cost more, that is the only thing.

If we had hired the guy that went to Utah, Mussleman or Dutcher this last go around, we would feel much better. Not sure why the chance was taken on Ben in the first place unless money is the only thing that matters to them.
 

That was more than enough time to see he couldn’t coach. A B10 team, even bad, should destroy the garbage teams we played at the beginning of the year. Then when we played decent teams (Va Tech and UNLV, we got waxed…end game score was not as close to the actual game score as we ran up the score in the last minute on their 3rd stringers)
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And UNLV ended up 7-11 in the Mountain West....
 

And UNLV ended up 7-11 in the Mountain West....
Didn't want to go there as I would be too much of a wet blanket, but yeah, they were not that good. Lots of people back in November thought they were the spitting image of the early 1990s running rebels the way they ran us off the court. But in reality, they were average at best, and we got crushed.
 



the thread is supposedly about Coyle.

on that end:
Coyle hired a women's head coach who had never coached at any level.

Coyle hired a men's head coach who had never been a head coach before.

both of these hires were made at a P5 D-1 program.

maybe instead of just focusing on Johnson, it would be worthwhile to also put some attention on Coyle. Johnson would not have the job if Coyle had not hired him.

I know there are some who believe that "Coyle hired Fleck = Coyle is a great AD." Well, he may be great for football, but so far, not for basketball.

the upcoming women's coaching hire is going to be interesting to watch.
Biggest cover for Coyle is people stating that Ben Johnson didn't follow Coyle's usual pattern of hires, and that there may have been more to it. Coyle said himself in the introductory presser that a search committee was used to make this hire. Genuine question, has he made that same statement in the past regarding the hiring process in other sports, or just basketball? I think at large people are more upset with the admin for making this hire then they are at Ben for taking the job.
 





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