College media outlet gives Gophers' Ben Johnson bulletin board material
Ben Johnson was ranked by the outlet as the worst coach in the Big Ten.
Minnesota is home to some of the biggest stars in sports but for some reason the Land of 10,000 Lakes remains flyover country to the mainstream.
Justin Jefferson has paved his own path to stardom and attention in the NFL. Anthony Edwards is one of the most electrifying players in the NBA but it was evident throughout the regular season that the national media was just starting to figure out how good he is. Kirill Kaprizov has put together three straight 40-goal seasons in the NHL and he doesn't get the same respect from national media that other stars receive. In Minnesota, we're used to it. And so too (probably) is Ben Johnson, who might have the imprint of a hand on his face after the slap he took from a media outlet called College Basketball Report.
College Basketball Report unveiled its Big Ten men's basketball head coach rankings on Sunday and down at the bottom of the list is Johnson. And no, they didn't rank Johnson 14th in the current Big Ten; they ranked him 18th in the new Big Ten that includes USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon.
Matt Painter and Tom Izzo at the top of the list are deserving. Eric Musselman at USC, after years at Arkansas, is also deserving even though he hasn't coached a game at Southern Cal. Mick Cronin has taken UCLA to a Final Four. Brad Underwood just led Illinois to the Elite Eight. Dana Altman has taken Oregon deep in the tourney multiple times. All deserving.
At No. 7 is Dusty May who was just hired at Michigan. May took Florida Atlantic to back-to-back NCAA tournaments and guided his club to the Final Four in a shocking run in 2022-23. He's a great coach but has yet to prove it in the Big Ten.
Fran McCaffrey at Iowa, Greg Gard at Wisconsin and Fred Hoiberg at Nebraska are all good coaches and their time on the bench warrants them being ranked ahead of Johnson. What Chris Collins has done at Northwestern – two straight seasons with 12 conference wins – is incredible, so it's certainly fair to keep him above Johnson. Then the list starts to get questionable.
Steve Pikiell has guided Rutgers to one NCAA tournament win since taking over 2016. Danny Sprinkle was just hired at Washington after taking three mid-majors (Montana State and Utah State) to three straight NCAA tournaments. But he hasn't yet proved anything in the Power 5 whereas Johnson was a Coach of the Year candidate in the Big Ten who was reaped tremendous amounts of praise from Izzo, Painter and other respected coaches.
Kevin Willard has a nice track record from his years at Seton Hall and he's taken Maryland to the tourney once in two seasons. Mike Rhoades took VCU to three tourneys after taking over for Shaka Smart, but his first year at Penn State finished 9-11 in conference play.
Mike Woodson is a very respected coach at both the college and pro levels, but his Hoosiers haven't lived up to expectations in three seasons at Indiana.
Jake Diebler literally coached half a season at Ohio State and is ahead of Johnson? Yet, even he is ranked above Johnson, who comes in dead last at No. 18.
Johnson has battled through significant roster turnover in three seasons at the University of Minnesota. He replaced Richard Pitino three years ago and 10 players entered the transfer portal, forcing him to build a roster almost entirely from scratch without a full recruiting cycle. After setting a foundation in 2022-23 he came back in 2023-24 and took a Gophers team that was predicted to finish dead last in the Big Ten to middle of the pack.
“First I’d like to give credit to Minnesota,” Izzo said after the Big Ten Tournament matchup between the Gophers and Spartans. “They played well. (Gophers coach Ben Johnson has) done an unbelievable job with the program. They could be the No. 1 team in the league next year. So hat’s off to them.”
Izzo sees it clearly. Whether College Basketball Report does is up for debate. But one thing is certain: Johnson has some powerful bulletin board material thanks to the rankings.
