Ben Johnson doesn't do radio interview after Gophers' blowout loss to Wisconsin

It's allegedly unprecedented in the past two decades for Minnesota's head coach to skip a postgame radio interview.

Gophers guard Lu'Cye Patterson drives against the Wisconsin Badgers. / Photo by Brad Rempel, University of Minnesota

After getting blown out by the Wisconsin Badgers 80-59 Friday night in Madison, Minnesota Gophers head coach Ben Johnson uncharacteristically skipped a postgame radio interview.

According to reports, it's the second time Johnson has no-showed the KFAN-FM 100.3 postgame show with play-by-play announcer Mike Grimm and analyst Al Nolen. It's unclear if the interview was scheduled, or if Johnson simply elected to head to the locker room rather than donate his time after a crushing defeat.

Andy Greder of the Pioneer Press alleges that coaches skipping the postgame radio interview was "unprecedented" in Grimm's 19 years on the job until Johnson didn't talk with him after the Gophers fell to Indiana in December.

Johnson and the players were then in the locker room for more than an hour after the game, with Marcus Fuller of the Star Tribune catching a comment from Johnson before the team was set to hop on a plane and fly to Maryland for another Big Ten game on Monday.

“I didn’t really say anything,” Johnson said of the long locker room meeting, according to Fuller. “It was positive and nothing negative. The good part about it was I didn’t really start it. Guys you could tell are trying to figure out why one 20 minutes looks a certain way and another 20 minutes looks completely different.”

The first 20 minutes of the game were golden for the Gophers. They jumped out to a 15-5 lead against their border rival and trailed 30-29 at the half. After taking a 31-30 lead in the early moments of the second half, the Badgers went bonkers and turned a one-point deficit into a 30-point lead over the next 17 minutes.

At the low point of the game, Wisconsin led Minnesota 77-47.

The loss drops the Gophers, who played one of the softest nonconference schedules of any major conference team in the nation, to 8-8 overall and 0-5 in the Big Ten.

The Badgers improved to 13-3 overall and 3-2 in conference play.