Minnesota Gophers Fans and Media Need to Stop Making Excuses for Ben Johnson

The Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball team will be lucky to win a game in the Big Ten this season. Three games into the conference schedule, that may seem hyperbolic or panic-driven now, but it won’t feel that way, come mid-February.

On Thursday night, head coach Ben Johnson and his 2024-25 Golden Gophers held tough with No. 21 ranked Purdue for 3/4 of their early-season contest. But in the end, they fell by 20 points, in what will go down in the Big Ten history books as a 81-61 route.

Braden Smith simply being Braden Smith 😤@3bradensmith x @BoilerBall pic.twitter.com/cUsWQf2fIV

— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) January 3, 2025

Next up are the Ohio State Buckeyes on Monday. They have won three straight, including a 20-point win over No. 4 Kentucky. After that, they will go to the Kohl Center to play Wisconsin, whose only losses on the season have come against No. 5 Marquette and two teams that will probably be ranked next week, in Michigan and Illinois.

Speaking of Michigan, the Minnesota Gophers start a brutal stretch to finish January that kicks off with Michigan on January 16, before going to (10-3) Iowa, No. 9 Oregon and No. 18 Michigan State. If you are hoping to find a W in that New Year schedule… good luck.

Is Ben Johnson the worst head coach in Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball history?

As of today, Ben Johnson is 49-59 in 3.5 years as Golden Gophers head basketball coach. His .454 winning percentage is by far the worst of any head coach in program history, who had the job for more than three seasons. The only other Gophers men’s basketball coach to make it three seasons with a worse winning percentage than Ben is Harold Taylor, who held a 19-30 record (.388) in 49 games between 1925 and 1927.

Not a Richard Pitino fan? He went 141-123 (.534) during his tenure in Dinkytown? Are you old enough to hate John Kundla, who was run out of town after 9 seasons and 0 NCAA Tournament appearances from 1960-1968? He went 110-105 at Minnesota, good for an above .500 win percentage. Kundla was a U of M alum, just like Ben Johnson is.

So why isn’t the entire basketball town calling for the firing of inarguably the worst coaching tenure in program history, since long before the three-point line was invented? When Pitino was coming to the end of his tenure, every writer, radio personality and fairweather Minnesota Gophers basketball fan was demanding he be fired.

The Name, Image and Likeness excuse

For Ben Johnson’s Gophers, instead of anger, we get mostly apathy. Why? There’s one reason all of the Ben Johnson apologists cling to: Name, Image and Likeness. It goes something like this: ‘Well, yeah they are bad. But what is he supposed to do. He has no NIL money…’.

For example — and I do not mean to pick on this local insider, because you can find it all over the place — on Thursday’s episode of the Mackey & Judd Show on SKOR North, Darren “Doogie” Wolfson (KSTP) brought up the desolate state of the Gophers men’s basketball program.

Related: Dawson Garcia Gave Minnesota Gophers a Massive 50% Off NIL Discount to Stay Home

But instead of discussing his imminent firing, and how Ben Johnson wasn’t ready for his moment as a power four basketball coach, he took the NIL excuse route. First he gets into how the Gophers aren’t losing because of X’s and O’s, they are losing because of the Jimmy’s and Joe’s.

Then he goes into how Elijah Hawkins left for $400K and Pharrell Payne didn’t want to leave, but got offered $500K to sit on Texas A&M’s bench. Those, Doogie correctly points out, are the offseason losses that buried Ben Johnson and the 2024-25 Golden Gophers.

“I feel bad for Ben Johnson. I get it, we can nitpick: the North Texas game or Wichita State game. Schematically, there are some things that could have been done differently, where the Gophers would have won the game. But if Mike Mitchell Jr was healthy for those games, like at 100%, especially the North Texas game, I think the Gophers win.

Elijah Hawkins declared in April that he is coming back. Then, an agent brokers a deal to get him paid at Texas Tech. Pharrel Payne, credit to Pharrel for getting over $500,000 [at Texas A&M], right? But deep, deep down, did Pharrel really want to leave? Maybe a little bit, but still…”

Darren Wolfson – Mackey & Judd Show (SKOR North)

They only allow 60 second clips on YouTube, so I had to cut this one into two different clips, so bare with me, because Doogie’s intentional ignorance on this subject really triggers me. Nobody (and I mean nobody) is pointing at Ben Johnson’s ability to coach X’s and O’s as why he needs to be fired.

Duh: Not enough talent… that is the problem

Honestly, I can’t even allow my basketball brain to get into that part of his coaching. All I know about Ben’s Gophers is that they always play really good defense, but that it takes far too long to get into their half-court offense, especially given how far out from the basket their hand-off actions often times take place.

But again, that is so far beyond the worry with this Minnesota Gophers team. So, Wolfson is correct, Ben Johnson has a talent problem. So… I guess we just throw up our hands and say, “poor Ben”, like Darren and others in media are doing? I guess this is just our lot in life?

That’s what they believe. Listen to this next 30 seconds, when the local sports insider even goes as far as to say that other coaches who have been rumored as replacement candidates for Johnson would have the same struggles as he does. This clip begins right where the last one left off.

Until the NIL situation is fixed with the Gophers men’s basketball program, clearly it is moving in the right direction for the football program. But with the men’s basketball program, until [the NIL problems are] fixed, I don’t care if Niko Medved, Tom Crean, Tim Miles… You name the individual… Archie Miller, Sean Miller… whoever it is. I don’t care who the next head coach is. Until you have more NIL backing, it’s going to be hard to win.”

Darren Wolfson – Mackey & Judd Show (SKOR North)

This part of Darren Wolfson’s sermon on behalf of Ben Johnson legitimately triggers me. Call it gaslighting or “networking” (Ben is huge in the local basketball community, where Doogie frequently hangs out), this type of coverage should not be accepted as okay.

Minnesota Gophers NIL problems are Ben Johnson’s fault

I love how he brushes by PJ Fleck and the Minnesota Gophers football program, and how it is in a much better NIL place than the basketball team, like it isn’t important to this conversation. Why is it better for football? It’s because the head football coach has made NIL fundraising a fundamental focus of his program.

He works with Dinkytown Athletes in a type of harmony that most head coaches around the country do not. Why? because he knows how important it is. Gone are the days where recruiting relationships are the most important thing in acquiring talent.

Related: Big Names Lining Up to be Next Minnesota Gophers Head Basketball Coach…?

These kids are now getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. That type of money will always take precedent. Just asky yourself why you go to work every day or why you are going to college. Money matters.

While other coaches were adapting, Ben Johnson did not, leaving the Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball program in shambles under his watch. That isn’t just a bad luck issue. That is a Ben Johnson issue.

There is nobody at the University of Minnesota who hold more control over NIL backing for the men’s basketball program than the head coach. The fact that this program is so deficient in that area isn’t an excuse for why Ben deserves to keep his job. It’s the No. 1 reason why he deserves to be fired.