Gophers face coaching conundrum: Where do they invest their money?

There's a massive cloud looming over Minnesota basketball.

Nov 16, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Golden Gophers head coach Ben Johnson answers questions during a post game interview after the game against the Yale Bulldogs at Williams Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

As the calendar turns to March, the biggest story surrounding the Gophers men's basketball is not on the court. After back-to-back disappointing losses at home to Penn State and Northwestern, the air has been sucked out of the season and any hope of a postseason run looks murky, which raises serious questions about the future outlook of the program.

Ben Johnson is wrapping up his fourth season as Minnesota's head coach. There has been plenty of talk about the financial struggles the program has faced in the new Name Image Likeness (NIL) and transfer portal era, but no matter who's on the roster, the product on the court hasn't always been pretty.

With no hope of an NCAA Tournament at-large invitation for the fourth straight season, there's growing talk about making another head coaching change. On Saturday's ESPN College GameDay, National reporter Pete Thamel did a coaching carousel segment and raised an interesting question surrounding Minnesota's program.

"The final conundrum hanging over this carousel is what schools like Arizona State, Oklahoma and Minnesota do," Thamel said. "Do they either pay a buyout to fire their coach or reinvest that money into their roster for 2025? That will also determine how busy we are this March."

If Minnesota opts to move on from Johnson, his contract buyout is $2.92 million. That would be a hefty price for the Gophers to pay roughly 12 months after losing Elijah Hawkins and Pharrel Payne to the transfer portal, almost exclusively due to financial reasons.

On the other side of the argument, Johnson had an NCAA Tournament-caliber roster in 2023-24 with Hawkins, Payne, Cam Christie and Dawson Garcia, and their season ended in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT). The biggest question Minnesota's administration will have to ask this offseason is whether or not they think Johnson can perform with an improved roster. Do they invest that $2.92 million back into the team or cut their losses and rebuild the program with a new head coach?

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