How many more wins for Ben to lose the disaster level?

Wins to drop disaster label?

  • 10 - plus another season

    Votes: 7 8.4%

  • 9

    Votes: 1 1.2%

  • 8

    Votes: 3 3.6%

  • 7

    Votes: 5 6.0%

  • 6

    Votes: 8 9.6%

  • 5

    Votes: 19 22.9%

  • 4

    Votes: 18 21.7%

  • 3

    Votes: 5 6.0%

  • 2

    Votes: 4 4.8%

  • He has already earned an extension!

    Votes: 13 15.7%
  • Total voters
    83
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Otis

Otis

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Ok, we are at 5-5 and most of us thought this would be like the first 2 CBJ years.

So how many more wins gets Ben off your hook?
 

When his overall record is .500 he is no longer a disaster. This is a baseline achieved by all men's coaches who coached for more than 1 year since Carl Nordly in 1943-1944.

So +10 from today.
 

Otis said:
Ok, we are at 5-5 and most of us thought this would be like the first 2 CBJ years.

So how many more wins gets Ben off your hook?
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Did you actually poll to come to this conclusion? I know I didn't feel that way and quite a few others around here didn't either. I think the majority of posters here thought this season would be better than last year to some degree. The disagreement was about how much better.

As far as your question, the answer depends upon who you ask. To some, Ben Johnson was, is, and always will be a disaster.
 

mnsportsgeek said:
When his overall record is .500 he is no longer a disaster. This is a baseline achieved by all men's coaches who coached for more than 1 year since Carl Nordly in 1943-1944.

So +10 from today.
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+10 would be a 15-5 conference season!

Which would be a pretty amazing record!
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
Did you actually poll to come to this conclusion? I know I didn't feel that way and quite a few others around here didn't either. I think the majority of posters here thought this season would be better than last year to some degree. The disagreement was about how much better.

As far as your question, the answer depends upon who you ask. To some, Ben Johnson was, is, and always will be a disaster.
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Shoot me for generalizing!
 


Otis said:
+10 would be a 15-5 conference season!

Which would be a pretty amazing record!
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I didn't say it had to be this year. I assume he'll get another year to prove he's not the worst coach since the 40s.
 


We haven't gone even .500 in the league since 2016-17, when we went 11-7 under Pitino.

Before that- Tubby went 9-9 in 2009-10.

Point being, we aren't exactly in a position to scoff at a .500 Big Ten record, regardless if people want to say the league is relatively weak this year.
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
We haven't gone even .500 in the league since 2016-17, when we went 11-7 under Pitino.

Before that- Tubby went 9-9 in 2009-10.

Point being, we aren't exactly in a position to scoff at a .500 Big Ten record, regardless if people want to say the league is relatively weak this year.
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Amen
 



He needs to make an NCAA tournament within 4 years or that's brutal.

On track to do it next year I'd say depending on how this year finishes, players retained, players added.

Hell, make it this year - Let's go!
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
We haven't gone even .500 in the league since 2016-17, when we went 11-7 under Pitino.

Before that- Tubby went 9-9 in 2009-10.

Point being, we aren't exactly in a position to scoff at a .500 Big Ten record, regardless if people want to say the league is relatively weak this year.
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Look at Musselman- He will be sub .500 3 out of 5 years in the SEC and people think he's amazing. He has finished in the bottom half of the league more than the top half. BUT he has had 3 nice tournament runs. Hovering around .500 should be the goal with nice tournament runs at times. 1 significant season per 5 is pretty good.
 

4 more wins to finish 9-11(especially with a 5th in tourney) will not only lock in his job, but also make it a reasonable decision.

Personally I still don’t think he’s a good in game coach. And not sure he will be anytime soon. But if they finish 9-11 he deserves the 4th year to prove that right or wrong.
 

mnsportsgeek said:
When his overall record is .500 he is no longer a disaster. This is a baseline achieved by all men's coaches who coached for more than 1 year since Carl Nordly in 1943-1944.

So +10 from today.
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That's not a good approach. With each progress point reached - give credit. As long as the progress continues- then keep doing it. This particular season, while bumpy is not at the present time a disaster. Hypothetically in your view, if he goes 12-8 he would still be a disaster. For a coach and team that was predicted by nearly everyone to finish last- that's a borderline coach of the year performance.
 




He needs to make a postseason tournament.

The last coach to coach at least 3 seasons and not make at minimum the NIT once in those 3 years was John Kundla in the 1961-62 season. Even Dan Monson went to the NIT in years 2, 3, and 4.

If Ben fails to make the NIT this year, he is still a disaster.

If he gets a 4th season and fails to make the NCAA tournament next year, he will also still be a disaster, and go down as the worst coach in MN basketball history.
 

I voted 0. He has the team playing better.... they are competing. seems all the faithful fans are on board for the most part.

.... and I know he will not go 0-10 on the last 10 games of the season..... Team is to good for that.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
He needs to make a postseason tournament.

The last coach to coach at least 3 seasons and not make at minimum the NIT once in those 3 years was John Kundla in the 1961-62 season. Even Dan Monson went to the NIT in years 2, 3, and 4.

If Ben fails to make the NIT this year, he is still a disaster.

If he gets a 4th season and fails to make the NCAA tournament next year, he will also still be a disaster, and go down as the worst coach in MN basketball history.
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I think you’re unfairly comparing eras. Until recently the NIT was almost exclusively about the ability to sell tickets. Big schools with big arenas had a big advantage. That isn’t there anymore so to make that comparison is apples to oranges.

I’m not completely convinced that the NIT is a better idea than getting on the portal recruiting trail, either.
 

In his career? Because that's what we're talking about when it comes to a coach.
 

Some of it isn't about the number of wins, is about who you can beat. If we play the worst non conference schedule in the country every year and go 12-0 in that it means nothing. CBJ still has yet to beat a ranked team. Yes all wins are good, but if you can never beat anybody who is really good that doesn't say much. This year is obviously not a disaster like years 1 and 2, but I would still like to see wins vs better teams. The NW win was a good win for sure, keep that up and surprise a Purdue or Wisconsin, to me at this point that trumps a loss to a bad team or two.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
If Ben fails to make the NIT this year, he is still a disaster.
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That's not a good metric- it was way easier to make the NIT in Monson's era than it is right now (he had teams with 5-11 Big Ten records make the NIT in 2001 and 2006).

Back in those days, any power team going .500 overall was a borderline lock for the NIT. Which is obviously no longer the case today.
 
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bga1 said:
Hypothetically in your view, if he goes 12-8 he would still be a disaster. For a coach and team that was predicted by nearly everyone to finish last- that's a borderline coach of the year performance.
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I wouldn't say borderline even. Pitino won the award for an 11-7 conference record the year after his two conference win season.

I agree that only progress from this point should be considered. Scott Drew's first four seasons at Baylor were losing but he's now been there over 20 years.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Look at Musselman- He will be sub .500 3 out of 5 years in the SEC and people think he's amazing. He has finished in the bottom half of the league more than the top half. BUT he has had 3 nice tournament runs. Hovering around .500 should be the goal with nice tournament runs at times. 1 significant season per 5 is pretty good.
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Well...one of those years was his first year at arkansas, and that was the covid year.

Then 3 years of Elite 8, Elite 8, Sweet 16 (8-10 in conference), so that buys him a little slack.

I still think he's a scumbag, and never want to see him coach here, but there is a legitimate reason why people are/were enamored with him.
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
That's not a good metric- it was way easier to make the NIT in Monson's era than it is right now.

Back in those days, any power team going .500 overall was a borderline lock for the NIT. Which is obviously no longer the case these days.
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That has more to do with conference expansion than it does with who goes to the NIT.

When Monson went to the NIT in his 2nd season, 18 of the 32 teams were non P6. Last year it was 19. It is still mostly the next 32 teams who miss the NCAA tournament who get in.
 
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Gopherbbdude said:
I voted 0. He has the team playing better.... they are competing. seems all the faithful fans are on board for the most part.

.... and I know he will not go 0-10 on the last 10 games of the season..... Team is to good for that.
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You voted for a 10 game losing streak.
 



TwistingMyMelon said:
Likely, he'll hit the portal again but maybe not for any critical players this time. Fingers crossed.
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There will always be critical needs. I'll list power forward as one that is almost automatic this off season.

I'll also go out on a limb and suggest we will lose at least one critical player with eligibility left, not including Garcia. That's the world we live in.
 

Holy Man said:
There will always be critical needs. I'll list power forward as one that is almost automatic this off season.

I'll also go out on a limb and suggest we will lose at least one critical player with eligibility left, not including Garcia. That's the world we live in.
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Needing a PF is interesting. Right now we have Garcia, Fox, JOJ, Betts, Grove, Ihnen (should be a PF) and possibly even Keinys who are PF's.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Needing a PF is interesting. Right now we have Garcia, Fox, JOJ, Betts, Grove, Ihnen (should be a PF) and possibly even Keinys who are PF's.
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You have read through my current confidence in the lineup. And that includes my belief that Garcia won't be back. I don't see any of the guys you mention as being able to consistently eat up a lot of minutes effectively.
 

I voted 4 as that matches my prediction of 9 in my poll
 
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