MINNEAPOLIS – Ben Johnson has arrived at the home of Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle, already dressed for the job he was there for an interview.
Johnson wore a Gophers sweater, making a strong first impression. His first task as head coach of the men’s basketball team will be to persuade more Minnesota kids to wear that brown and gold.
“We have great high school coaches, great AAU coaches and kids who feel good and know how to play basketball, so we have to do our job in the state to keep those guys at home,” said Johnson, who spoke at a conference. social media on the team’s practice field on Tuesday, two days after meeting with Coyle and university president Joan Gabel to present his vision for the program, having previously been a player and assistant.
Johnson, 40, grew up in Minneapolis, played at DeLaSalle High School and spent two seasons at Northwestern before moving to the Gophers in 2001. His coaching career took him from Dayton to Texas-Pan. American in northern Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, where he was on Richard Pitino’s team for five years. He went to Xavier, where he spent the last three seasons.
When Pitino was fired last week with a 54-96 record in the Big Ten, Johnson quickly found himself on Coyle’s shortlist of potential replacements, despite never being head coach.
“Every kid in the state, like me, has to look forward to one day playing at Williams Arena. They have to look forward to trying to become a Gopher and create that energy and enthusiasm,” Johnson said.
Five years later, Coyle became impatient with the lack of traction the program had at a time when state high school talent was never greater.
Of course, the best local recruits went to destination programs like Duke or Gonzaga. However, Colorado (McKinley Wright IV), Texas (Jericho Sims) and Wisconsin (Brad Davison and Nate Reuvers) were among the teams in this season’s NCAA tournament, with outstanding seniors from Minnesota.
“We’re looking around the area and the number of kids who’re not here. We’re going to bring them here,” said Coyle, who also had Brian Dutcher (San Diego State), Craig Smith (Utah State), Dennis Gates ( Cleveland State) and Ben Jacobson (Northern Iowa), among others, on his radar.
Of course, Pitino had a few key players in the state. Amir Coffey and Daniel Oturu now play for the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA, and Johnson was a major reason why they chose to stay home. Shooting goalkeeper Gabe Kalscheur, the best defender of the current team, is another home player.
With the musketeers, Johnson also helped head coach Travis Steele sign consecutive top 30 recruiting classes in the past two years.
“I don’t worry about things in the game,” Coyle said. “He knows how to ‘X’ and ‘O’ with anyone. He’ll learn how to do timeouts. He’ll be surrounded by great staff.”
Johnson, who has an annual base salary of $ 1.95 million and a five-year contract, chose patience when asked what he thought would be his biggest initial challenge. He named former Nebraska coach Tim Miles, Jacobson, Steele, Pitino among his many mentors. He then referred to Michigan State’s Tom Izzo (26 seasons) and Purdue’s Matt Painter (16 seasons) as role models for identity and stability.
“You can tell Purdue players and Michigan players. That will be our goal. I want our fans to say, ‘This is a guy from Minnesota,'” Johnson said. “We are proud of our state and our schedule and we will not fail.” .
Johnson also joins the athletics department at a time when any other Gophers head coach is white. In a two-week report published by the Star Tribune, Minnesota was found to be the only current Big Ten institution without a school president, athletic director or head coach of color.
Historically, Gophers circles have been among the leaders of the top ten in the area. Since Wisconsin made Bill Cofield the first men’s basketball coach of the conference in 1976, Michigan (Juwan Howard, Tommy Amaker and Brian Ellerbe) and Minnesota (Johnson, Tubby Smith and Clem Haskins) are the only programs that have had more than two .
Rutgers has had three black coaches over time, Eddie Jordan being the most recent, but he has only been in the Big Ten since 2014. Four teams have never had one. With the exception of interim replacements, Johnson’s first year will mark 22 for the black-lead Gophers in the 46 seasons since Cofield’s reference job. Wolverines will be next with 13.
“Boys like me have not been offered these opportunities in the past. This is the elephant in the room, right? Our leadership intensified and offered me this platform. Now it’s my job to do everything I can and I hope I can open doors for the next guy, “Johnson said.” I have many friends who are very capable coaches. I was lucky that there were a lot of things that put me in a position today and I am humiliated by that and I realize it. There are a lot of guys who could be up here. I understand this. I don’t think I’m a guy who thinks I have all the answers, but I know I’m the right guy for the job. “