coolhandgopher
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Ever since I saw the all caps headline posted by Bleed informing us that BEN JOHNSON WAS THE NEW COACH and the rapid, breakneck reaction to the hire on this board (1245 responses and counting), I've found myself reflecting on the program and our expectations and experiences as fans of the program. As most of us were, I was dumbfounded initially. I'm in the optimistic camp now, if for no other reason than I'd rather spend the subsequent months hopeful rather than dismayed. But that's neither here nor there, at least for now.
When did you get hooked on Gopher hoops? Can you go way back to when Lou Hudson and Archie Clark were the highlight makers for a Gopher squad blocked from the Big Ten title by the Cazzie Russell-led Wolverines? Did you jump on board with Bill Musselman's arrival and subsequent whirlwind four years in Dinkytown? Was it during the Dutcher era-perhaps the reputed best Gophers team ever in '77 with Mychal Thompson and crew, waylaid by NCAA sanctions? Or the '82 Big Ten title team? Maybe it was the team that rose out of the ashes of scandal, with Clem Haskins leading Willie Burton, Melvin Newbern, Shik, Richard Coffey, Kevin Lynch to deep NCAA runs in two consecutive years, with a Lynch jump shot from the corner just a shade off from launching the Gophers into the Final Four? Or you could have grown into the program in that glorious season of '97 that we're told doesn't exist, but our memories and YouTube highlights remind us of the Bobby J lead squad that brought us a Big Ten title, #1 seed, and the program's one and only trip to the Final Four. (for me, it was '82, when as a 9 year old boy I watched Darryl Mitchell sink free throws against Iowa in overtime, with time expired, to vault the Gophers towards the Big Ten championship).
Chances are, it was somewhere within this timespan listed above that you became a fan. I know it doesn't cover everyone that posts on this board, but I'd bet it covers most of us. And for those of us who fell into our fandom between 1971 (Musselman's arrival) and 1999 (Gangelgate), it means we're somewhere between the ages of 32 and 65 (estimate mating age 10 was the start of your fandom-so you could be a shade younger when you began). If you're under the age of 30, you've only experienced the Gopher program as a middling Big Ten team that has reached the NCAA tournament 6 times over the last 22 years, with two wins in the tourney. It's been 24 years since '97, which was the last time the program made it to the second weekend of the tournament.
Some may scoff at the span of '71-'99 as glory years. Within those years was the major black eye of the Ohio State brawl, Musselman's departure followed by NCAA sanctions, the Mitch Lee-led debacle which forced Jim Dutcher to resign, and of course, at its tail end, Gangelgate, which subsequently wiped away years from the official record book of Gopher basketball. Even with all that happening in just shy of 30 years, the three coaches brought talented players from all over the country, put competitive and compelling teams on the court and particularly as the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams, made regular excursions to March Madness. And while Minnesota wasn't a total barren wasteland of talent (Olberding, McHale, Landsberger, Lingenfelter, Breuer, Jim Pederson, Lynch, John Thomas and Sam Jacobson were all MN preps who spent some time with the Gophers and in the NBA), the Gophers largely relied on talent from outside of the state. Consider the '78 recruiting class, perhaps the best ever brought to campus--Trent Tucker, Darryl Mitchell, Mark Hall, Leo Rautins, and Cookie Holmes--two players from Florida, plus Michigan, Massachusetts, and Toronto. How did the Gophers procure such talent? I'd guess that Dutcher and Jimmy Williams were ace recruiters but I'd also consider how different college basketball was at that time. I'm no historian, but the major conferences in the mid '70s were the Big Ten, ACC, SEC, and Pac-10 with the SWC and Big 8 also present. The Big East had yet to arrive and ESPN wasn't being broadcast into millions of homes. Even as ESPN grew and the college basketball landscape continued to flatten out, Dutcher and Haskins had to rely on outstate talent and they did so quite adeptly. However, if a blue chipper did develop in-state, that kid was staying home and going to the “U”-they might transfer out later, but it seems it was a given through the ‘70s and ‘80s that any D-1 worthy MN prep was destined to the “U”, And when that prep talent began trickling out of state (Troy Bell, Darius Lane, Jake Sullivan) to other high D-1 programs, it was because they were under recruited by Clem, with Khalid El-Amin’s situation a notable outlier.
Another factor within those years was that even with the abrupt transitions between coaches, the program held together quite remarkably. Dutcher kept ahold of Thompson, Flip Saunders, and Osborne Lockhart, while Clem was able to maintain Dutcher's final recruiting class of Burton, Newbern, and Shikenjanski. It's pretty astounding that not only was Haskins able to keep them on board, but in year three he had the Gophers in the Sweet Sixteen. Seismic changes happened in the program, but there was never a prolonged dip that lasted for years. When Dan Monson wrangled Rick Rickert away from Lute Olson and Arizona, I think many of us (certainly myself) thought a similar quick renaissance was in order for the program. Alas, it did not happen and subsequently the program from Monson to Tubby to Richard has been a slog of frustrations and what might have beens-what if that '02 team hadn't melted down against Illinois? What if Kris Humphries had passed the ball? What if Royce White hadn't gotten into trouble the moment he arrived on campus? What if Rodney Williams had developed his game? What if Jordan Murphy hadn't been injured in the NCAA tournament? What if Marcus Carr would have had immediate eligibility? Of course, when a fanbase finds itself asking this question too often, it leads to sentences like: six NCAA tournament appearances in 22 years.
Conversely and frustratingly, from a Gophers fan perspective, the prep talent in Minnesota has exploded over the last 20 years, just as the program has become stuck in mediocrity. It's tantalizing in the sense that while Minnesota's national profile is probably at the lowest it has ever been in maybe forever, the available pipeline of talent is there, if you have the coach to tap into it. Consider the in-state class of '22-nine players in the top 200. Nine! How unfathomable that is for someone who grew up seeing the list of Mr. Basketball's in the state playing their college ball at the likes of Augustana, Eastern Kentucky, NE Illinois, and St. Cloud State.
I think what has been jarring for many of us, certainly myself, is to see the decline of the program correspond with the rise of Minnesota's prep talent and that talent indifferently casting their eyes past the "U", not only towards the likes of Duke, Kansas, North Carolina and Michigan State, but also to Wisconsin and Marquette. Gonzaga and Baylor are extending their national brand with Minnesota preps--25 years ago they were barroom trivia questions, as John Stockton's strange sounding alma mater and the town where David Koresh set up camp. Sons of prominent alums (Race Thompson, Chet Holmgren, presumably) have went elsewhere; Matthew Hurt bypassed playing with his older brother at Williams Arena--teenage and college age me could never have foreseen such a scenario. I recall rumblings of animosity of some in the fan base towards Rick Rickert because he didn't outright choose the "U", having reneged on his verbal commitment to Arizona. The world of college and prep basketball has changed immeasurably in the last quarter century, and the cognitive dissonance between what seems like yesterday for so many of us and today's reality is a wide gap.
Times have changed for the "U" and Minnesota prep basketball and the more I consider the hire of Ben Johnson, the more I see its logic and the opportunity to right this ship that most of us invest so much time and energy and dollars into. If you're an up and coming, hot shot coach without MN ties, would you have extended your neck out to this job when you see how it's went for the last three head coaches? If you are Coyle, you might have had an eye towards Medved or Craig Smith, but as already pointed out by bga, would their hires have reinforced the local AAU circuit to guide their players elsewhere?
Johnson is a gamble, as any assistant coach being hired would be a gamble (and mid-major coaches making the jump to P6 jobs are gambles too). But he may be the safest gamble that Coyle could have taken among his possible choices. The in-state talent, even beyond the Holmgren's, and Sugg's and Jones' level, is strong and deep and I don't think it's going to be an aberration. When things have historically been cooking for the "U" the occasional in-state talent supplemented a deep roster of players from elsewhere; Johnson is being brought on to flip that script. The program's success will be dependent upon procuring and developing the local prep talent. We're in brave new territory and I find it exhilarating--a bit terrifying, but for nearly 25 years the program's been mired in mediocrity with a laundry list of out of state players who were not Big 10 ready. If Johnson can build this up? Well, the mentions of Izzo and Painter in his press conference today were pretty heady territory, but that's where I want him aiming.
End of novel.
When did you get hooked on Gopher hoops? Can you go way back to when Lou Hudson and Archie Clark were the highlight makers for a Gopher squad blocked from the Big Ten title by the Cazzie Russell-led Wolverines? Did you jump on board with Bill Musselman's arrival and subsequent whirlwind four years in Dinkytown? Was it during the Dutcher era-perhaps the reputed best Gophers team ever in '77 with Mychal Thompson and crew, waylaid by NCAA sanctions? Or the '82 Big Ten title team? Maybe it was the team that rose out of the ashes of scandal, with Clem Haskins leading Willie Burton, Melvin Newbern, Shik, Richard Coffey, Kevin Lynch to deep NCAA runs in two consecutive years, with a Lynch jump shot from the corner just a shade off from launching the Gophers into the Final Four? Or you could have grown into the program in that glorious season of '97 that we're told doesn't exist, but our memories and YouTube highlights remind us of the Bobby J lead squad that brought us a Big Ten title, #1 seed, and the program's one and only trip to the Final Four. (for me, it was '82, when as a 9 year old boy I watched Darryl Mitchell sink free throws against Iowa in overtime, with time expired, to vault the Gophers towards the Big Ten championship).
Chances are, it was somewhere within this timespan listed above that you became a fan. I know it doesn't cover everyone that posts on this board, but I'd bet it covers most of us. And for those of us who fell into our fandom between 1971 (Musselman's arrival) and 1999 (Gangelgate), it means we're somewhere between the ages of 32 and 65 (estimate mating age 10 was the start of your fandom-so you could be a shade younger when you began). If you're under the age of 30, you've only experienced the Gopher program as a middling Big Ten team that has reached the NCAA tournament 6 times over the last 22 years, with two wins in the tourney. It's been 24 years since '97, which was the last time the program made it to the second weekend of the tournament.
Some may scoff at the span of '71-'99 as glory years. Within those years was the major black eye of the Ohio State brawl, Musselman's departure followed by NCAA sanctions, the Mitch Lee-led debacle which forced Jim Dutcher to resign, and of course, at its tail end, Gangelgate, which subsequently wiped away years from the official record book of Gopher basketball. Even with all that happening in just shy of 30 years, the three coaches brought talented players from all over the country, put competitive and compelling teams on the court and particularly as the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams, made regular excursions to March Madness. And while Minnesota wasn't a total barren wasteland of talent (Olberding, McHale, Landsberger, Lingenfelter, Breuer, Jim Pederson, Lynch, John Thomas and Sam Jacobson were all MN preps who spent some time with the Gophers and in the NBA), the Gophers largely relied on talent from outside of the state. Consider the '78 recruiting class, perhaps the best ever brought to campus--Trent Tucker, Darryl Mitchell, Mark Hall, Leo Rautins, and Cookie Holmes--two players from Florida, plus Michigan, Massachusetts, and Toronto. How did the Gophers procure such talent? I'd guess that Dutcher and Jimmy Williams were ace recruiters but I'd also consider how different college basketball was at that time. I'm no historian, but the major conferences in the mid '70s were the Big Ten, ACC, SEC, and Pac-10 with the SWC and Big 8 also present. The Big East had yet to arrive and ESPN wasn't being broadcast into millions of homes. Even as ESPN grew and the college basketball landscape continued to flatten out, Dutcher and Haskins had to rely on outstate talent and they did so quite adeptly. However, if a blue chipper did develop in-state, that kid was staying home and going to the “U”-they might transfer out later, but it seems it was a given through the ‘70s and ‘80s that any D-1 worthy MN prep was destined to the “U”, And when that prep talent began trickling out of state (Troy Bell, Darius Lane, Jake Sullivan) to other high D-1 programs, it was because they were under recruited by Clem, with Khalid El-Amin’s situation a notable outlier.
Another factor within those years was that even with the abrupt transitions between coaches, the program held together quite remarkably. Dutcher kept ahold of Thompson, Flip Saunders, and Osborne Lockhart, while Clem was able to maintain Dutcher's final recruiting class of Burton, Newbern, and Shikenjanski. It's pretty astounding that not only was Haskins able to keep them on board, but in year three he had the Gophers in the Sweet Sixteen. Seismic changes happened in the program, but there was never a prolonged dip that lasted for years. When Dan Monson wrangled Rick Rickert away from Lute Olson and Arizona, I think many of us (certainly myself) thought a similar quick renaissance was in order for the program. Alas, it did not happen and subsequently the program from Monson to Tubby to Richard has been a slog of frustrations and what might have beens-what if that '02 team hadn't melted down against Illinois? What if Kris Humphries had passed the ball? What if Royce White hadn't gotten into trouble the moment he arrived on campus? What if Rodney Williams had developed his game? What if Jordan Murphy hadn't been injured in the NCAA tournament? What if Marcus Carr would have had immediate eligibility? Of course, when a fanbase finds itself asking this question too often, it leads to sentences like: six NCAA tournament appearances in 22 years.
Conversely and frustratingly, from a Gophers fan perspective, the prep talent in Minnesota has exploded over the last 20 years, just as the program has become stuck in mediocrity. It's tantalizing in the sense that while Minnesota's national profile is probably at the lowest it has ever been in maybe forever, the available pipeline of talent is there, if you have the coach to tap into it. Consider the in-state class of '22-nine players in the top 200. Nine! How unfathomable that is for someone who grew up seeing the list of Mr. Basketball's in the state playing their college ball at the likes of Augustana, Eastern Kentucky, NE Illinois, and St. Cloud State.
I think what has been jarring for many of us, certainly myself, is to see the decline of the program correspond with the rise of Minnesota's prep talent and that talent indifferently casting their eyes past the "U", not only towards the likes of Duke, Kansas, North Carolina and Michigan State, but also to Wisconsin and Marquette. Gonzaga and Baylor are extending their national brand with Minnesota preps--25 years ago they were barroom trivia questions, as John Stockton's strange sounding alma mater and the town where David Koresh set up camp. Sons of prominent alums (Race Thompson, Chet Holmgren, presumably) have went elsewhere; Matthew Hurt bypassed playing with his older brother at Williams Arena--teenage and college age me could never have foreseen such a scenario. I recall rumblings of animosity of some in the fan base towards Rick Rickert because he didn't outright choose the "U", having reneged on his verbal commitment to Arizona. The world of college and prep basketball has changed immeasurably in the last quarter century, and the cognitive dissonance between what seems like yesterday for so many of us and today's reality is a wide gap.
Times have changed for the "U" and Minnesota prep basketball and the more I consider the hire of Ben Johnson, the more I see its logic and the opportunity to right this ship that most of us invest so much time and energy and dollars into. If you're an up and coming, hot shot coach without MN ties, would you have extended your neck out to this job when you see how it's went for the last three head coaches? If you are Coyle, you might have had an eye towards Medved or Craig Smith, but as already pointed out by bga, would their hires have reinforced the local AAU circuit to guide their players elsewhere?
Johnson is a gamble, as any assistant coach being hired would be a gamble (and mid-major coaches making the jump to P6 jobs are gambles too). But he may be the safest gamble that Coyle could have taken among his possible choices. The in-state talent, even beyond the Holmgren's, and Sugg's and Jones' level, is strong and deep and I don't think it's going to be an aberration. When things have historically been cooking for the "U" the occasional in-state talent supplemented a deep roster of players from elsewhere; Johnson is being brought on to flip that script. The program's success will be dependent upon procuring and developing the local prep talent. We're in brave new territory and I find it exhilarating--a bit terrifying, but for nearly 25 years the program's been mired in mediocrity with a laundry list of out of state players who were not Big 10 ready. If Johnson can build this up? Well, the mentions of Izzo and Painter in his press conference today were pretty heady territory, but that's where I want him aiming.
End of novel.
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