"VIFAN, JUST FACE IT!! THE GOPHERS' MENS HOOPS TEAM SUCKS AND MARK COYLE MADE A HUGE MISTAKE IN HIRING BEN JOHNSON!! JUST QUIT WITH THE POSITIVITY AND BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF!!!" I will be hearing some version of that, AND PROBABLY MUCH WORSE, the whole year, I am guessing!!!
There is one more available scholarship for next year and no stars on the horizon to recruit for next season with that remaining scholarship. So recruiting will be focused on 2022 and 2023.. But now Ben Johnson and staff basically know the makeup of the team next season. Very few if any Gopher fans expect much. I am guessing most if not all pundits in the press will pick us last in the Big Ten. So what is Ben Johnson to do with this year's team????
This is my take from coaching albeit at a high school level.. The principles are the same. First, it is extremely important that the staff is on the same page with one another.. That is an ABSOLUTE "HAVE TO" for Ben to establish. To delegate roles to assistants and develop trust between each coach, including himself.. You have to build your strength from your innermost circle, outward. That innermost circle is the staff. They may need to take a staff retreat or something to just clear themselves from the press and negative talk in the Twin Cities. Whatever it takes to get the staff to bond, to start. They have to learn to lean on and depend on one another because no one else is going to be there for them.
Next, is to identify leadership within the team and closely develop a verbal relationship between team leadership and coaching. That is harder to do when all the players are new but they have to watch for that. Identify if there are younger players that are capable of taking on a team leadership role, as well. In a situation like this, you need to have extensions of the coaching staff on the floor. Important in the transition period and it will give the other players confidence in leadership of the team both with coaches and fellow players to know who assumes those roles. Players have to help kind of 'self police' things so that the team can come together. Leadership has to be earned so that is important the coaching staff identify players who are self sacrificial in those leadership roles. Guys that other players respect yet also reflect the style of play and values that the coaching staff endorse.
Smaller programs that beat the bigger programs in the NCAA tournament usually have players that have played with each other for a long time.. We dont have that luxury.. Every year in the NCAA tournament, we see a smaller school upset bigger schools and the things I mentioned above are in place. We are a big time program that is starting fresh with players from smaller schools. We will need to develop an identity and stick with it through thick or thin. To trust something, you have to have a relative degree of consistency in what you want to do both defensively and offensively.
In practice, you want to see how guys mesh and which guys seem to mesh the best. We dont have a dominant big man so we can try a bunch of combinations of perimeter players to see how they fill roles. It is vitally important that we concentrate on what we do well as opposed to spending too much time on scouting reports of opponents. Our guys know that no one is going to think we will even be competitive. That may be the case but that is not how you want to coach. You emphasize the value of each possession and not turning the ball over on offense to get the shots you want.. That DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN TO SLOW DOWN ON OFFENSE.. In fact, it may mean to speed things up. I dont know. But you have to establish an identity of what to work for in the offense. FUNDAMENTALS ARE AT A PREMIUM, especially on defense and rebounding. You have to do what it takes to create a confident lineup, even if we are severely overmatched in each game. You cant just say, "I agree with the fanbase that we suck and we will get blown out by 40 or more points every game" You will never get any future recruits of high rating if that is your attitude.
Ben is going to learn a lot about head coaching at a BiG D1 SCHOOL, this year. He will face the heat at post game press conferences. He has to find the "players that will go to war with him" and those that will support him. He has to start somewhere and that time to do that is starting now for the upcoming season.
There is one more available scholarship for next year and no stars on the horizon to recruit for next season with that remaining scholarship. So recruiting will be focused on 2022 and 2023.. But now Ben Johnson and staff basically know the makeup of the team next season. Very few if any Gopher fans expect much. I am guessing most if not all pundits in the press will pick us last in the Big Ten. So what is Ben Johnson to do with this year's team????
This is my take from coaching albeit at a high school level.. The principles are the same. First, it is extremely important that the staff is on the same page with one another.. That is an ABSOLUTE "HAVE TO" for Ben to establish. To delegate roles to assistants and develop trust between each coach, including himself.. You have to build your strength from your innermost circle, outward. That innermost circle is the staff. They may need to take a staff retreat or something to just clear themselves from the press and negative talk in the Twin Cities. Whatever it takes to get the staff to bond, to start. They have to learn to lean on and depend on one another because no one else is going to be there for them.
Next, is to identify leadership within the team and closely develop a verbal relationship between team leadership and coaching. That is harder to do when all the players are new but they have to watch for that. Identify if there are younger players that are capable of taking on a team leadership role, as well. In a situation like this, you need to have extensions of the coaching staff on the floor. Important in the transition period and it will give the other players confidence in leadership of the team both with coaches and fellow players to know who assumes those roles. Players have to help kind of 'self police' things so that the team can come together. Leadership has to be earned so that is important the coaching staff identify players who are self sacrificial in those leadership roles. Guys that other players respect yet also reflect the style of play and values that the coaching staff endorse.
Smaller programs that beat the bigger programs in the NCAA tournament usually have players that have played with each other for a long time.. We dont have that luxury.. Every year in the NCAA tournament, we see a smaller school upset bigger schools and the things I mentioned above are in place. We are a big time program that is starting fresh with players from smaller schools. We will need to develop an identity and stick with it through thick or thin. To trust something, you have to have a relative degree of consistency in what you want to do both defensively and offensively.
In practice, you want to see how guys mesh and which guys seem to mesh the best. We dont have a dominant big man so we can try a bunch of combinations of perimeter players to see how they fill roles. It is vitally important that we concentrate on what we do well as opposed to spending too much time on scouting reports of opponents. Our guys know that no one is going to think we will even be competitive. That may be the case but that is not how you want to coach. You emphasize the value of each possession and not turning the ball over on offense to get the shots you want.. That DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN TO SLOW DOWN ON OFFENSE.. In fact, it may mean to speed things up. I dont know. But you have to establish an identity of what to work for in the offense. FUNDAMENTALS ARE AT A PREMIUM, especially on defense and rebounding. You have to do what it takes to create a confident lineup, even if we are severely overmatched in each game. You cant just say, "I agree with the fanbase that we suck and we will get blown out by 40 or more points every game" You will never get any future recruits of high rating if that is your attitude.
Ben is going to learn a lot about head coaching at a BiG D1 SCHOOL, this year. He will face the heat at post game press conferences. He has to find the "players that will go to war with him" and those that will support him. He has to start somewhere and that time to do that is starting now for the upcoming season.
Last edited:
