Press Conference: Ben Johnson meets the media following the start of summer workouts (video)

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Ben gets it. A year from now you will be grateful he is our coach. No microwave strategy to build this team. For the first time he has a deep balanced roster. He is putting it together the right way.
Go Gophers!

Sorry , no Fleckspeak from him. Both work.
 

Listened to it.
Lot of b.s. on Wilson
Fox and Ihnen seem to be coming along. He said trust the medical staff….
Carrington heathy, stronger, gained confidence.
Ecstatic about having 3 groups. Duh! (We’ve been trying to tell him that for a couple of years.)
He hangs his hat on the phrase “it is what it is”.
Says Dawson is more confident.
Says Payne knows what it takes now.
Mentioned Joshua being a leader and working hard.
Said “iron sharpens iron” a few times.
Didn’t seem like he was too excited to compete with the incoming Bruins and Trojans. (Who knows if he will get that chance?)
 



fan of Ray Williams said:
Listened to it.
Lot of b.s. on Wilson
Fox and Ihnen seem to be coming along. He said trust the medical staff….
Carrington heathy, stronger, gained confidence.
Ecstatic about having 3 groups. Duh! (We’ve been trying to tell him that for a couple of years.)
He hangs his hat on the phrase “it is what it is”.
Says Dawson is more confident.
Says Payne knows what it takes now.
Mentioned Joshua being a leader and working hard.
Said “iron sharpens iron” a few times.
Didn’t seem like he was too excited to compete with the incoming Bruins and Trojans. (Who knows if he will get that chance?)
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To me it sounds like he thought USC, UCLA will make recruiting the coast possibly easier and it seems like an area they already seem to be focused on. It was a decent little news conference. He’s optimistic like every coach in the country right now but it’s nice to hear as a fan .
 


fan of Ray Williams said:
Listened to it.
Lot of b.s. on Wilson
Fox and Ihnen seem to be coming along. He said trust the medical staff….
Carrington heathy, stronger, gained confidence.
Ecstatic about having 3 groups. Duh! (We’ve been trying to tell him that for a couple of years.)
He hangs his hat on the phrase “it is what it is”.
Says Dawson is more confident.
Says Payne knows what it takes now.
Mentioned Joshua being a leader and working hard.
Said “iron sharpens iron” a few times.
Didn’t seem like he was too excited to compete with the incoming Bruins and Trojans. (Who knows if he will get that chance?)
Click to expand...
I tried. I got halfway ... thanks for the recap! I was more excited before I listened to 10 minutes..
 

60's Guy said:
I tried. I got halfway ... thanks for the recap! I was more excited before I listened to 10 minutes..
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Ben does not help at all with the building of excitement. He really does not sell the program to the fans well. I get that he is concerned about tempering expectations but cmon man, throw us a bone.
Fans don't get real excited about getting chatted up about process- even though it is the right way to go about things.
 



5 - Payne
4 - Betts
3 - Christie
2 - Carrington
1 - Asuma
2025 Starting Lineup?
 

bga1 said:
Ben does not help at all with the building of excitement. He really does not sell the program to the fans well. I get that he is concerned about tempering expectations but cmon man, throw us a bone.
Fans don't get real excited about getting chatted up about process- even though it is the right way to go about things.
Click to expand...
And the process only matters if the process is correct. Otherwise it's bs to hold back the incoming tidal wave.
 

Sane24 said:
5 - Payne
4 - Betts
3 - Christie
2 - Carrington
1 - Asuma
2025 Starting Lineup?
Click to expand...
I think Mitchell has two years? If so I would think that Asuma would back him up. The more I watch clips of Asuma the more excited I get. He is one of those athletes that is just super smooth and poised.
 

bga1 said:
I think Mitchell has two years? If so I would think that Asuma would back him up. The more I watch clips of Asuma the more excited I get. He is one of those athletes that is just super smooth and poised.
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I was thinking three years from now when Payne, Carrington and JOJ are seniors and Mitchell, Hawkins and Garcia have graduated.
 



bga1 said:
I think Mitchell has two years? If so I would think that Asuma would back him up. The more I watch clips of Asuma the more excited I get. He is one of those athletes that is just super smooth and poised.
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I think Sane was way on out there. 25-26. When Payne, We won’t have all those guys without a surge of NIL.
Sane24 said:
I was thinking three years from now when Payne, Carrington and JOJ are seniors and Mitchell, Hawkins and Garcia have graduated.
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Going to take a surge of NIL to keep them around.
 

Ugh I couldn’t help but hope Ben does well enough to make me want him to have another year. Maybe we can “get old” and hold on to players. I hate to say it (I was all for getting rid of him last year when it fell apart), but now I can’t help but see a future where we put it together. Summer optimism I guess, despite knowing this season probably won’t be much more than embarrassing once the B1G season starts up.
 

Sane24 said:
I was thinking three years from now when Payne, Carrington and JOJ are seniors and Mitchell, Hawkins and Garcia have graduated.
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I think Payne will leave after Jr year. Perhaps Christie too if anything like his brother. Could be a great lineup though.
 

Drake University Gopher said:
Ugh I couldn’t help but hope Ben does well enough to make me want him to have another year. Maybe we can “get old” and hold on to players. I hate to say it (I was all for getting rid of him last year when it fell apart), but now I can’t help but see a future where we put it together. Summer optimism I guess, despite knowing this season probably won’t be much more than embarrassing once the B1G season starts up.
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The non-conference schedule should be a pretty good indicator. Our schedule so far is weak, but if we are handling these teams and winning by 20 it will be a better sign than last year. We struggled and barely held on to beat cupcakes, it wasn't much of a surprise how their conference season turned out.
 
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GopherWeatherGuy said:
0% chance all of those players will still be on the roster in 2 years.
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0% chance they won't be replaced by the transfer portal players like Mitchell, Hawkins and Wilson or recruits like Betts, Christie and Asuma.
 

bga1 said:
Ben does not help at all with the building of excitement. He really does not sell the program to the fans well. I get that he is concerned about tempering expectations but cmon man, throw us a bone.
Fans don't get real excited about getting chatted up about process- even though it is the right way to go about things.
Click to expand...
And then there will be the bunch who label him a "phony, blowhard, salesman, etc." See current football coach as Example 1A. It's disappeared for the most part on GH but it's still out there in the general public.
 

bga1 said:
Ben does not help at all with the building of excitement. He really does not sell the program to the fans well. I get that he is concerned about tempering expectations but cmon man, throw us a bone.
Fans don't get real excited about getting chatted up about process- even though it is the right way to go about things.
Click to expand...
He also doesn't seem to make much effort to do local media podcasts/shows. I'm not sure if that is on him, or there is just zero interest in Gopher hoops, but I suspect it's at least partially the former.
 
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formerlybis said:
Not gonna waste 21 minutes - did he address the nonconference schedule?
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Not that I recall. But why would he? He did talk about important things like Wilson, Ihnen, and Fox. I think he exposed Howie’s lies about their rehab. Some folks can’t hate enough to suit themselves.
 


The average winning percentage of head coaches in D1 mens hoops who were fired:
42.2%
Average tenure: 6.9 years.
Average NCAA Apperances: 0.8

Ben is at
Overall22–39 (.361)
 


Rockraven said:
Not that I recall. But why would he? He did talk about important things like Wilson, Ihnen, and Fox. I think he exposed Howie’s lies about their rehab. Some folks can’t hate enough to suit themselves.
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Did he call out @howeda7 by name?
 


Rockraven said:
Not that I recall. But why would he? He did talk about important things like Wilson, Ihnen, and Fox. I think he exposed Howie’s lies about their rehab. Some folks can’t hate enough to suit themselves.
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There is no reason to praise the rehab until they actually see the floor in a real game. The fact remains that neither are cleared for full contact yet, so they are still exactly where they have been the last 2 seasons. Both reinjured themselves after being cleared previously as well. I look forward to your gloating though when they are both an effective part of our rotation. I want to see both of them play as much as anyone else on the roster, just hard to pencil them in until they can see the floor healthy. I hope summer workouts go well for both.
 


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