Big Names Lining Up to be Next Minnesota Gophers Head Basketball Coach…?
Ben Johnson and the Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball team got back in the win column on Saturday afternoon, defeating Fairleigh Dickinson by 14 points, in front of an announced Williams Arena crowd of (supposedly) 9,000 people. They were -16 point favorites.
With yesterday’s win, Minnesota moved to 7-5 on the season. All seven of their wins have come against FCS level schools, or worse. And some of those victories were by the skin of their teeth, like beating Omaha by four points, and Central Michigan by three.
| 2024-25 Gophers MBB Wins | Score |
|---|---|
| Oral Roberts | 80-57 |
| Omaha | 68-64 |
| Yale | 59-56 |
| Cleveland St | 54-47 |
| Central Michigan | 68-65 |
| Fairleigh Dickinson | 74-60 |
In both early conference games — vs Michigan St (72-90) and Indiana (67-82) — the Minnesota Gophers were blown out by 15+ points. They also fell to both Wake Forest and Wichita State, in the ESPN Thanksgiving tournament. Oh, and they paid North Texas to come into The Barn and beat them early in the non-conference schedule.
The end is near for Minnesota Gophers basketball coach Ben Johnson
Next up is Morgan State, in what might be the last chance Minnesota has to win a game this season. No, that is not sarcasm or hyperbole. In his 4th season as head coach at the University of Minnesota, Ben Johnson will be lucky to find one win on the 2024-25 Big Ten schedule.
That’s how bad this Gophers team is, and it’s why Ben will be fired by the end of this season. For his own sake, hopefully it happens sooner. We didn’t know it at the time but Ben was the worst hire Athletic Director Mark Coyle could have made, in the moment.
But… who is going to take over for Johnson, who’s 48-59 overall as Minnesota Gophers head basketball coach, 15-46 in the Big Ten? The program’s next leader will be tasked with saving an operation that is so badly “out of order”, there are questions as to whether or not it can be fixed at all.
But as it turns out, there are a lot of proven college coaches who already have reported interest in being the next U of M head coach. How big are the names? We’ll let you see the growing list of candidates, which is now up to five, and then you can be the judge.
Big names arise as candidates to replace Johnson
In Sunday’s Pioneer Press, longtime local insider and columnist, Charley Walters, named former Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Ryan Saunders as an expected candidate, should Johnson get the boot. He also mentioned Dallas Mavericks assistant Sean Sweeney, who has local ties, along with the headliner… 58-year-old Tom Crean, formerly the head coach at Georgia, Indiana and Marquette.
In fact, little birdies are telling Walters (a University of Minnesota alum) that the two-time Big Ten champ “would love to have the Minnesota job”. Saunders, Sweeney and Crean join the previously reported names, Niko Medved (Colorado State) and Craig Smith (Utah).
Two more names expected to receive consideration if the Gophers men’s basketball team makes a coaching change at season’s end: Ryan Saunders, the former Gopher from Wayzata who’s an assistant with the Denver Nuggets, and Sean Sweeney, the former University of St. Thomas and Cretin-Derham Hall star who’s the top assistant with the Dallas Mavericks.
Besides Colorado State head coach Niko Medved, the former Gophers team manager from Roseville, Utah head Craig Smith, who is from Stephen, Minn., is also expected to be considered. And word in coaching circles is that Tom Crean, the fiery former Georgia, Indiana and Marquette coach, would love to have the Minnesota job.
Charley Walters – Pioneer Press
Obviously, Ryan Saunders is best known for his failed head coaching stint with the Minnesota Timberwolves, but he also played for the Minnesota Gophers from 2004 to 2006. Tom Crean started his very successful college coaching career at Marquette, who he took to a Final Four in 2002-03, with Dwyane Wade as his star player.
Gophers fans know Crean best for his run at Indiana from 2008-2017, where he made four NCAA Tournaments and won two regular season Big Ten championships. He also coached at Georgia, for Anthony Edwards’ one-and-done season. In his 22 years of collegiate head coaching, Tom Crean is 403-306.
Ben Johnson tenure devastating for U of M basketball
The Minnesota Golden Gophers men’s basketball program is at the lowest point since the early 2000s, right after it was hit by some of the most devastating sanctions in college basketball history. Overzealous punishment that a then Final Four program never recovered from.
He was hired to keep Minnesota kids home, based on close personal relationships and deep-running ties within the MN high school basketball circuit. But immediately after he was hired, college athletics was taken over by Name, Image and Likeness. Pretty much overnight, personal relationships were no longer important.
Related: Local Insider Floats the “Logical Choice” for Next Gophers MBB Head Coach
Unfortunately, Johnson had no interest in fundraising NIL money, which turned out to be the death of his head coaching run with his hometown Minnesota Gophers. Most of the candidates listed above were available and interested in the when Ben Johnson was hired. So was Eric Musselman.
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