Minnesota Sports Forum

So what are people's takes on this hire? I know he has a good rep as a recruiter but I hope he also has some coaching chops also. This is an interesting hire and not exactly a splashy one.

If Im being honest I hated the hire. I just don't think he is that great of a recruiter and I think the in-state recruiting is that big of a deal and is overrated. I could care less where a player is from as long as they are good. Also Pitino didn't have a good relationship with Minnesota HS coaches but I did a thing that he was having similar success keep in state talent in minnesota as other states of keeping their in state talent. I understand why pitino was fire though even though I think his in state recruiting is really over blown. The reason I think Johnson is overrated at recruiting also. He is know for 3 players in his minnesota years and those three were Oturu, Coffey and Murphy. Obviously 3 gopher "greats" and 2 NBA players. The thing is Johnson lost 2 of those 3 recruiting battles. Coffey was going to Iowa St. before Hoiberg took the NBA job and Murphy was going to VCU until Shaka Smart took the Texas job.

This next year gophers team is going to be extremely old. The roster right now looks like this.

Both Gach: 4th year in college (Pitino player)
Isieh Ihnen: 3rd year in college (Pitino player)
Parker Fox: 5th year in college, D2 all american and has 2 year of eligibility left
Jamison Battle: 3rd Year in college, transfer from George Washington played at DeLasalle HS
EJ Stehpens: 5th year in college, transfer from Lafayette
Luke Loewe: 5th year in college, transfer from William and Marry
Sean Sutherlin: 5th year in college, New Hamsphire transfer, from Irondale minnesota
Payton Willis: 6th year in college, transfering back to the gophers where he started 2 years ago, what a college path, played 2 years at Vandy, transferred to the gophers, sits 1 year, starts at the gophers for a year, transfers to College of Charlston and now is transferring back.
Treyton Thompson: Top 150 recruit originally from Alexandria Minnesota, played at a prep school in Indiana.

Other players that are linked to the Gophers Brandon Johnson (Gopher starter last year, declared to the draft but kept his college eligibility rumors are he will come back for his 5th year), Cashus Mcnielly, former 4 star recruit from A&M who didn't play last year but his uncle will be on the staff. Emanuel Miller from Texas A&M who is a sophomore and would be the gophers best player averaged 17 and 8 and A&M and a coach on the gophers got Miller to commit to A&M out of HS. Chet Holgrem #1 recruit in the nation from Minnehaha academy. I give it .1% he is gopher.

The gophers will have a really weird year with so many old players and a lot of players playing a power 5 conference for the 1st time. Johnson needs to dominate this Minnesota 2022 class though it has 7 top top 150 recruits and 9 top 200 recruits. If Johnson strikes out on that 2022 HS Minnesota class I am really worried.

I wish him the best, I want him to succeed but I think it was a bad hire. I really hope I am wrong.

So not a single player who started his career as a freshman with the Gophers. That's crazy.

I know the NBA has become more transient. But I wasn't expecting this kind of turnover in the college ranks... even with the special Covid transferring rules.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:So not a single player who started his career as a freshman with the Gophers. That's crazy.

I know the NBA has become more transient. But I wasn't expecting this kind of turnover in the college ranks... even with the special Covid transferring rules.

Ihnen started his college career with the gophers but your point still stands. It is going to be really interesting going forward in college basketball. Im enjoying this NCAA free agency I guess because the gophers have a new coach and feels like they needed a start over but will I like it when there is so much turnover year after year. I do not think so.

kekgeek1 wrote:If Im being honest I hated the hire. I just don't think he is that great of a recruiter and I think the in-state recruiting is that big of a deal and is overrated. I could care less where a player is from as long as they are good. Also Pitino didn't have a good relationship with Minnesota HS coaches but I did a thing that he was having similar success keep in state talent in minnesota as other states of keeping their in state talent. I understand why pitino was fire though even though I think his in state recruiting is really over blown. The reason I think Johnson is overrated at recruiting also. He is know for 3 players in his minnesota years and those three were Oturu, Coffey and Murphy. Obviously 3 gopher "greats" and 2 NBA players. The thing is Johnson lost 2 of those 3 recruiting battles. Coffey was going to Iowa St. before Hoiberg took the NBA job and Murphy was going to VCU until Shaka Smart took the Texas job.

This next year gophers team is going to be extremely old. The roster right now looks like this.

Both Gach: 4th year in college (Pitino player)
Isieh Ihnen: 3rd year in college (Pitino player)
Parker Fox: 5th year in college, D2 all american and has 2 year of eligibility left
Jamison Battle: 3rd Year in college, transfer from George Washington played at DeLasalle HS
EJ Stehpens: 5th year in college, transfer from Lafayette
Luke Loewe: 5th year in college, transfer from William and Marry
Sean Sutherlin: 5th year in college, New Hamsphire transfer, from Irondale minnesota
Payton Willis: 6th year in college, transfering back to the gophers where he started 2 years ago, what a college path, played 2 years at Vandy, transferred to the gophers, sits 1 year, starts at the gophers for a year, transfers to College of Charlston and now is transferring back.
Treyton Thompson: Top 150 recruit originally from Alexandria Minnesota, played at a prep school in Indiana.

Other players that are linked to the Gophers Brandon Johnson (Gopher starter last year, declared to the draft but kept his college eligibility rumors are he will come back for his 5th year), Cashus Mcnielly, former 4 star recruit from A&M who didn't play last year but his uncle will be on the staff. Emanuel Miller from Texas A&M who is a sophomore and would be the gophers best player averaged 17 and 8 and A&M and a coach on the gophers got Miller to commit to A&M out of HS. Chet Holgrem #1 recruit in the nation from Minnehaha academy. I give it .1% he is gopher.

The gophers will have a really weird year with so many old players and a lot of players playing a power 5 conference for the 1st time. Johnson needs to dominate this Minnesota 2022 class though it has 7 top top 150 recruits and 9 top 200 recruits. If Johnson strikes out on that 2022 HS Minnesota class I am really worried.

I wish him the best, I want him to succeed but I think it was a bad hire. I really hope I am wrong.

I'm no expert but I think his good recruiting rep is based on the context of some of the schools he has worked at. They aren't exactly top of the food chain schools. Maybe he upped that when he was at Xavier.

I'm a Nebraska fan and Ben Johnson was there with Tim Miles for a year before he went back home to be an assistant for the Gophers. The big 10 is a REALLY tough conference for basketball and now football too. There aren't really any schools in either sport that are doormats. What are reasonable expectations for Ben Johnson? What type of program is he going to run? Tim Miles did a pretty good job here considering it was Nebraska. He played the transfer game and it was a mixed bag. It seemed like he couldn't always manage those guys he brought in and was better when the team had no expectations and sometimes it felt like he did better when he wasn't relying on talent. Hoiberg was basically supposed to be the higher version of Miles and obviously would attract even more high end talent from the jump. So far it hasn't exactly worked well but it's been a weird couple of years. Meanwhile Isaiah Roby is Nebraska's first NBA player in a long time is doing well for OKC.

Minnesota is easily a step above Nebraska as a basketball school but I menetion the above because the conference is so competitive. How will Ben Johnson grow the program more than Pitino? If he is a good coach it might work out. I think you have a right to be skeptical.

kekgeek1 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:So not a single player who started his career as a freshman with the Gophers. That's crazy.

I know the NBA has become more transient. But I wasn't expecting this kind of turnover in the college ranks... even with the special Covid transferring rules.

Ihnen started his college career with the gophers but your point still stands. It is going to be really interesting going forward in college basketball. Im enjoying this NCAA free agency I guess because the gophers have a new coach and feels like they needed a start over but will I like it when there is so much turnover year after year. I do not think so.

I think a big factor is the transient nature of this is college coaches moving around a lot. If a coach can leave whenever they want to why should a student athlete be stuck somewhere? I don't love the transient thing all that much either but I also think athletes should be able to decide what they want to do with their lives/careers/whatever. Personally there is so much moving around anyway I think they should just get rid of having to sit for a year when you transfer unless there are some sort of very specific reasons they need to. It's not keeping athletes from transferring now and it honestly seems very arbitrary when they say one athlete has to wait and one doesn't. You shouldn't be able to transfer in season there should be a specific window in the "offseason" when you decide. I could see some exceptions made after that window closed but before a season starts if there was some legit life altering factor in the student's life.