The Minnesota dismissed coach Ben Johnson early Thursday morning, in an announcement published on social networks at 2:19 am, after the team’s end -of -season defeat on Wednesday in the first round of the Big Ten tournament in Northwestern.
A former Minnesota, Johnson has led to the program in the last four seasons and went 56-71, having not brought his Alma Mater to the NCAA tournament.
“I met Ben in-person early this morning when the team returned to Minneapolis of the male basketball tournament of Big Ten and I informed him that we were making a change of leadership,” said Minnesota sports director Mark Coyle said in a press release. “I thanked him for his dedication and for guiding the program, which he cares deeply, in the past four years. Ben is a great person, and we wish him good luck.
“These decisions are difficult and are made after a careful consideration and evaluation,” said Coyle. “The expectation of our program is to compete for the championships, and unfortunately, we have not done this in the past four years.”
The way Johnson was canned was atypical in this regard: Coyle is part of the male basketball selection committee, which started its process to build the field of the NCAA tournament in Indiana yesterday. Coyle came back in secret to Minneapolis Wednesday evening to dismiss Johnson.
“It was ruthless,” said a source at CBS Sports.
Johnson led Minnesota to a record of 15-17 in 2024-25, which ended with five defeats in the last six outings of the team. Gophers 2023-24 went 19-15, the only year in which they were above 0,500 under the supervision of Johnson. The program for the last time did the NCAA tournament in 2019, when Richard Pitino was the coach.
The Minnesota ranked in the last two or three in the Big Ten in Nile Resources during the term of Johnson’s mandate, according to industry sources. Johnson and his staff were responsible for raising almost all of the minnesota’s zero budget – about $ 2 million for last season, according to a source. The team was all the more handcuffed by key losses from the portal last spring, including the leader Elijah Hawkins (Texas Tech) and the Power Pharrel Payne (Texas A&M) striker, who had much more important financial opportunities to play elsewhere. In addition, two other players have released and promising Cam Christie left for the NBA.
Johnson’s passage to Minnesota was his first as a head coach after the deputy coach’s stops in northern Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and Xavier. Originally from Minneapolis, he played two seasons for the Golden Gophers and ended his university career in Minnesota before training two decades ago.
With open work, there is an obvious candidate that Minnesota should interview his research: Niko Medved, from the State of Colorado, is from Minneapolis and led the Rams to the NCAA tournament twice during the previous six seasons. CSU, 22-9 and the 2 seeds in the Mountain West tournament, embodies Nevada on Thursday.
