KJ Live - Ben Johnson

I mean anything and everything. I can imagine that you have had a pretty busy off season with recruiting and things of that nature. Can just talk a little bit about what your first off season has looked like as a head basketball coach in the visual one left, I can tell you this, it's a lot more enjoyable than

about a year ago. Uh, when I first got the job, and you're trying to navigate everything and build a whole roster from the ground up and staff and you know, figure out your exactly you know, philosophy and how you wanna you know, start this program from day one. So I'm unfortunate, you know, we we had a really good group that uh, you know, we had on the on the team this year and and fund kids that built it. And we've got a lot of kids returning that were a big piece of what we were trying to do

and the foundation we're trying to lay. And we're fortunate enough to get some some four key high school kids, UM, and so we didn't have to jump in the portal and get a crazy amount of guys like last year. But we're able to definitely add a couple of pieces with with Dawston Garcia and Tar Samuel's who's who's from Dartmouth, UM, just to kind of add some veteran leadership, UM and

some older bodies to our to our roster. And so right now, UM, you know, we just finished up with with the spring semester, so our guys are on break right now. UM. Then we'll we'll look forward to getting kicked in gear here for summer in about two weeks. You brought up last year the challenges with not only inheriting a program that being a first year coach, but

inherited program that lost around nine ten guys. Just talk to us about how challenging that was and the methods in your process that you went about to fill that roster with a quality roster that would be able to compete in the Big Ten. Yeah. So you know, when I first took the job over, um, you know, I knew it was the first year of the Portals, So there were gonna be kids that we're gonna make decisions based off that. They were gonna test it because it

was new, something exciting. I totally understood it with a coaching change, you know, I also get that piece of it. They didn't know me, I didn't know them, they didn't owe me anything. Um, A kind of end of the year tough and so there are a lot of decisions that you know, I just had to assume we're going to be made. And when I met with the team, you know, my biggest thing was to get a feel for them and for them to get a feel for me, to figure out if if this relationship was gonna work.

I wanted to make sure that from day one I was able to lay a foundation, um that I was comfortable with and the one that was gonna be able to, through wins and losses, be sustainable and set the tone for years to come. And so um, you know, after about a couple of weeks in and meeting with guys, and guys making decision. I ended up keeping one player. Um, so it was from the from the whole crew, the whole crew. There was there was one kid that stayed and um Isaiah and and and to his credit, um,

you know, it was a cruiting process. I mean it was about a two or three week deal where you know, I was meeting with him daily and working them out. UM. But he he decided to stay two feet in and and the kid was playing really good basketball. UM. Was was confident, was energetic, was was kind of really embracing

the change. And no lie the first week, I think the first day in the summer school towards a c L and so we legitimately put a team on the floor with no players that had that had really played, UM minus Eric Curry who decided to come back midsummer. Now, Eric was a kid I recruited out of high school that had a really really bright future and just had battled injuries. And Eric was playing on one foot um you know, the year before and and he got the

bug to come back and play. So I had Eric, and then I recruited Peyton Willis, and Peyton I recruited out of high school. He had you know, kind of been at a couple of schools in Minnesota being one of them. Uh, those are the only two players that had ever played high major basketball. Everybody else that we took or we added was either a freshman or somebody that came from Division two um or a low major

a mid major level. And so just kind of the challenge of making sure I got it right with the players that were in our locker room that was gonna be huge. Again your first year, when you're when you're that heavy into the portal, you don't know the type of talent that you're gonna get that's that's gonna translate to to like Big ten success, right, You don't know

if you're gonna get that all lead type players. So I just say, Okay, we gotta get the talent, but more importantly, we gotta get guys that we can lose with. We gotta get guys that we want to go to battle with every single day and practice. They're gonna fit

the culture, They're gonna set the tone. That's gonna be examples on and off the floor that are gonna be able to be coachable, that are gonna be able to show our fan base, you know, the type of basketball that we're gonna play, the type of program that we're gonna be offensively, defensively and yet still be competitive. And so that was kind of challenge. But to get it right with the with the right DNA, with the right

makeup was huge. I think we did that and we we definitely set the tone and the foundation for years to come. Yeah, it's establishing culture. Year one is the page. It's like playing seeds and the page it's diver ends later on down the line because you got recruits and other people that are watching this, watching the energy, watching the home games, looking at the crowd, seeing how engaged

wins and losses sometimes become secondary. We all want to win, coach, don't make no mistake, but if you lose a certain weight, it's encouraging versus losing another ways, you know, getting blown out. Every dog gone night. I December one, I want to talk about this seventy five sixty five at Michigan. Would you say that that was one of your biggest wins of your first year? Yeah, I would say without a doubt. Um, you know, it was a game that that I'll never

forget for a lot of reasons. Um, you know, one. We haven't won at Michigan and traditionally very often, and and so to win there, to win against the team that I have a ton of respect for a program I have a ton of respect for. Jawan does a great job. You know, they have a ton of talent. For are guys to be able to battle that environment.

Our first true Big ten road game was was phenomenal. Um, you know, you never know, uh, you know, how guys are gonna respond, especially guys that are new to the big tent um, and and for them to respond the way they did and for guys to step up and play the way they did with special I hadn't really thought about this. So after the game, um, you know, coach sent me a text and he just was, you know, saying congrats and and I hadn't even processed that, like

this was my first Big ten win. And he was like, man, congrats. I always remember where I was the first team, first time I won my first Big ten game. It's your first Big ten road game. On top of that, and and then I started process like, you know what, day, He's right, it's kind of cool, you know, to be able to win at a traditional powerhouse, you know, a national brand like Michigan against again a program of the

team that I really respect. Um, you know, it was great for our guys just to see them, you know, happy, and then the locker room and and celebrating. I mean, you know, as a as a player, like those are special moments. And it goes back to your point when you when you have a team of guys that you can lose with with the right type of character. Dudes, when you win games like that and that bus ride, in that plane ride, there's nothing like it. The sweet satisfaction. Uh,

winning at Michigan, I liken it to us winning at Arizona. Uh. You know, going into these you know these dog fights where it's you know, the odds just insurmountable, it seems, and it's gonna take your best game because hey, you

can't hear as much. You can't hear each other. So now it's definitie can't hear coach, so we gotta just look at the board and be just signed language like a So you know, all those factors kind of covered to play in those type of games, and so it makes the w at the end of it, at the end of the fight that much sweeter. When I was looking doing some background research on your coach. I saw that, you know, you're from the state of Minnesota. But the thing that stood out not only were you all stay

in basketball? Okay, you was top twenty in football or state? Is that? Did I read that right? Or what? Yeah? Yeah? No, I uh I had I had a little football in me. Okay, what position? So I went to Dealings South of High School, which is normally like a traditional football army basketball kind of power. Um, so we didn't have the numbers with football. So the best part about is back then, man, you got to play everything. So you was a wide receiver, you were. I was a cornerback. I was a kick return.

I was a punt return. I was a kickoff. I was still go protect like we we did everything. Um, and so uh you know I would I would definitely could admit that football probably was my first like love, like there's nothing like high school high school football, uh you know, and and and definitely enjoyed the times of playing.

But then I quickly realized as I was becoming a recruitable athlete that I don't know if I loved the lifting weights year round, the seven on seven, you can't just go to a to a field and play pick up football. Um, you know the practice, you know, five days, only played one day a week, and so my decision kind of became a little bit easier. And then, um, on top of it, you know college football, you've got some big boys. Man. Yeah, nobody loves to get hit.

So um ended up sticking with basketball on that one. And you chose Northwestern out of high school? What made you decide to go to Northwestern outside of you know, obviously one of the greatest academic institutions, but what about the program the school made you decide to choose there? So um, you know, I was recruited by Kevin O'Neill KYO so KO and KO and and then his assistant

Brian Gregory were the two guys that recruited me. So Printon, she's not actually the head coach at South Florida, got it? So um, so b g recruited me and those guys wrong me since my sophomore year, and just the relationship that developed with Ko, um, you know, it was really strong. He was a lot like my high school coach, State Dorson was now all my staff, just kind of a no nonsense, tough, hard nose, and that's kind of what

I was used to. Selfishly, I knew I was gonna be able to play right away as a true freshman. I was one of the kids I was just used to playing. Man. I wanted to be on the court, and you know, knowing that i'd be able to start and big b B be a big pieces as a true freshman was intriguing. And we had a young court. We were the youngest team in the country. We had some really talented freshman in my class. There were six of us that I really thought down the line we

could be really good. And it was in the big tent, and it was not too far from home, and so kind of all those opportunities. But really the relationship I had with with Ko probably put it over the top. And what made you decide to transfer back to Minnesota. So after my freshman year, um so b g left before I even got there, and he went to Michigan

State with Is. I would kind of hurt KO left and went with Van Gundy to the next And now I'm looking around and I loved my teammates and I have great relationships, but I'm like, dang, you know, the two big pieces of what I came here just took off, and you know, it kind of made me think, um, you know, all right, I gotta I gotta reevaluate and coach Karbody end up coming from from the Princeton's system, and I love Coach Karbody. I think, Um, I learned a lot from it, but it just kind of wasn't me.

And at the end of the day, and um, you know, after my sophomore ended up making a decision to transfer back home and playing for coach Musson. Now, did you have league aspirations or professional basketball aspirations at this time? I did, you know? After my my freshman year, Um, you know, I just sit down with with Ko and and UM, I was fortunately I had a pretty solid freshman year, and so there were some teams that were intrigued.

And at that time, you know, um, when you're young, as you know, if you're kind of on the radar, you're in a good position. And so, UM, you know

I was excited looking forward to that. Um. As I got older, UM and started to play more, you become a little bit more realistic and like, uh, you know, the dreams always there, but you get older and you realize, you know what I'm good, but I don't know if I'm that good, right, And so the dream never faded, but I think reality quickly hit me that I better get my butt into coaching if I wanted to stay

around the game. Um. And so that's kind of when I when I made the move to the other side and decided to try to to help the young guys that were that were more talented me get to that get to that level. I'll tell you what, though, coaches, it takes a level of maturity and forceight to to stop chasing the dream, if you will. Sometimes it's hoopers. We kind of you know, well, we'll chase that character forever, and you know, you'll miss out on a lot of life,

miss out on a lot of opportunities. And so it's important to recognize where you are and be real self evaluation. Did you have somebody in your life at that time that kept it real with you or did you kind of just make this decision where you you were kind of operating on your own and you saw what time it was and was like, look, I'm gonna do the coaching thing. Yeah, you know, I'm pretty I'm pretty. I

tried to find myself on being self aware. I think your point, I think that's huge and anything you do and we all have ego, and I think that's healthy. But then you also got to be smart. And you know, one of my one of my good friends is J. B. Bickerstaff, and so he was actually an assistant. He was a directive operations my last year at Minnesota, and I knew he was getting into coaching. Part of it was he had some injury so he was forced into get in

there a little bit earlier. Um, I knew he was gonna get into coaching, and just the way he talked about it and the way we would kind of talk about it. I had kind of always noticed high school something I wanted to do. And then I think I just realized, like, Okay, I'm young, I don't have a ton of responsibilities right now. I can start from the bottom up. I can take my time. I don't have pressure. Was of a wife for a family. Um, you know,

as you know the beginning stages, you're not making money. Um, you you're you could live wherever you want to and it it didn't matter. So I said, you know what, like let's do it. And it was it was one of those things where You're always gonna miss playing, you know it, like you could be fifty years old, right,

You're always gonna miss playing. That's never gonna go. So I said, why would I live a feeling that's never gonna leave me prevent me from diving in early and getting the head start on what I want to do. And so, um, it was a hard decision, but I know it was the right one for me, and I was able to get in the coach and bug and dive in at a young age. Fox Sports Radio has

the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live. And and your first stop as a grad assistant was with University Dayton and then ut Pan American, Yeah, Northern Iowa with Ben Jacobson to Nebraska with ten miles.

Just if you could take and I know this might be a little much, but take each stop that you had and tell me something that you learned that made you better as a coach from each stop or the man that you might have been mentored under. What I was, I was very fortunate. Um, I worked under unbelievable people that gave me a lot of responsibility and and you

not know, like that's not that's not rare. You know, sometimes guys that look like us can easily get pigeonholed or you're not giving freedom to to coach or the learner to grow. And I didn't have any of that. I was lucky. So I got my first job as a g A for Brian Gregory. He was head coach at Dayton at the time, and so he got me

into coaching. And you know on that staff was Reggie rankin scout scouting, yeah, with Golden State, Billy Schmidt who is now with with coach Donovan with the Chicago Bulls, by Buyer, who was a long time NBA assistant coach. I had an unbelievable tree. You know, those are guys. Billy was at Northwestern, Bible was a Northwestern, and Big was a Northwestern. So those were guys that all knew me. I knew them, um, so it was a great fit.

You know. I learned like unbelievable work ethic from from my stop at Dayton um to understand and respect to grind. It was old school. I learned the right way from b g On just how you operate every single day, how everything matters, the details matter, how perception is reality. Um. You know, he really kind of molded and gave me a good understanding at the early age of like, you know, you start from the bottom up and you you work with no ego, no expectation, and it's all about the

program and the players. I was fortunately after one year to get on with Tom Schubert at what used to be U T p A which now I think Real Grand for two years and it was the funnest I've ever had. And we were we were the lowest. It was independent Division one basketball, so it was like it was, you know, you're not even in the league. So we made up to our guys this fake lead that we're in there with all these other independence I mean, I'm

years sold, making eighteen thousand dollars. Um. I'm in charge of designing our gear, like legitimately the logos we're gonna have on our practice uniforms, on T shirts, on our hoodies. I'm designing the colors of our gear. I'm ordering our shoes, I'm doing film deck to deck um. Um. You know, recruiting all the time, which for the first year guy,

the freedom to recruit. I mean that was everything to me. Um. I'm able to have a skill group and individual and do actually do on the court, coaching and be in charge of the perimeters at twenty five years old, I'm able to make decisions and calls, and the head coach me that, and so Tim shoot with that. I'm forever grateful man Um. And you're able to make mistakes. I think that's the best part. Like I was at this in a situation where again everybody wants to win, is competitive,

but you're at a level where everybody's growing. All right, the A D S young, your s I D s young. These people at the scorers table are all first your graduates. The whole stat like everybody in the department is young. You're all growing together. And you know, there's nothing like you're getting on the six am flight. You're connecting in Houston to get to Salt Lake City. And we didn't even have we couldn't afford the charter vans, so you're driving the fifteen passenger buses. So I got one bus

another since and coaches got another. We weren't licensed to drive those things. We're going to drive those things, you know, getting it done, get it done, coach, And this is after you got up at four thirty, so like you're trying not to fall asleep as you'r you know, hits mid afternoon. But man, all those things were awesome. And then you're recruiting kid were all they wanted was a chance of Division one. So you're recruiting kids that were hungry,

that just were there for all the right reasons. Like it was just pure and you know, the valleys an unbelievable place. Love living there. It's eighty five degrees every day, it's sunny at eight in the morning. Um, it was awesome. So I'm there for two years. Um that I'm fortunate enough to get on with Ben Jacobson in Northern Iowa and that really kind of changed the landscape for me. Um, you know, phenomenal coach. We went to the Sweet sixteen.

Remember I remember that. I remember that was number one in the Countryman, this shot you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, that was you know, we won an unbelieva amount of games about four years. We went to the tournament twice, won the league twice, won the league tournament twice. But to experience that Sweet sixteen was the first taste of like the big stage, Like it's different. As you know, you walk out like the first round games are cool. You start getting that sweet sixteen of leade eight, the

lights hit a little bit different. Get hot, coach, you're living on press row. It's a little bit different faces on press rows. You start getting there, and and to get a taste of that at a young age, it was like, man, this is what I want to be. This I knew, you know what, this is the right choice. You get that bug, this is what I want to get back. You get that thirst. I need to get

back to this point. And um, you know, from there, I was able to get on with Tim Miles at Nebraska and that was my first He gave me my first opportunity at a Power five job, and that was you know, I was on cloud nine, you know, to be able to be and I think it was at that time one years old as a Power five assistant coach in the Big ten. Um, I was awesome and worked with a guy that I had known. You know, Tim was a Division two coach in Minnesota when I

was in high school. He recruited my high school starting point guard. So I've known coach Miles forever. And then when I was at pan Am, he was a since he was the head coach at North Dakota State, so they were also independent. So we were battling each other for those two years as independence. So I knew. I knew what Miles was about. Phenomenal coach. I knew offensively, he was gonna challenge me, and he was gonna teach a different style of different brand that was new to me.

It was excited about it. Was there with him for a year and they will never forget Man, this is just the type of guy. Is um. I me at my house in the spring and Tubby had just gotten let go, and he calls me and says, hey, man, you know I don't want you to go, but I also want to be you know, true to you. You gotta you gotta start thinking about trying to get on at Minnesota with this new coach. And I'm like, man, you know, and it ain't too many coaches that are

gonna do that. You know, He's just trying to build Nebraska. I was. I was in there in the fight with him and he's telling me, look, man, I don't want to lose you, but like you might have a really good opportunity to go home and being assistant for the program that you played at. And I didn't know Richard at all. Um. I think Richard was looking looking for a local dude. You know we met at the final four. Uh, you know, got a chance to meet with him for

the first time. The true chest was his dad was. That was what moving was in the National Championship Game. So I meet with him in Atlanta. We talked, We have a really good conversation. He's like, look, man, I think I want to hire you, but you gotta meet my dad. And I'm like, all right, great. You know how is this gonna go? You hear everything all these rumors about you know, coach p and and this and that. So you know his dad plays in the name champihip game.

They went it. Richard gets me called. He goes, hey, I need you to fly down to Miami to meet with my dad at his house. And I'm like, all right, cool. So I don't know what to expect. You don't know how that goes. I go fully sooner it's just gonna be you know what conversation of meeting and he calls me just says, hey, man, just how wide Like it's gonna be easy. He's on cloud nine. He just won

a national championship. So you know, I flow down there for a day and a half and met with Rick and at his house and could have been a better guy. I mean, we sating there and talked to old school basketball, We talked from a mashburn, We talked NBA Kentucky. You know, he talked about Louisville, he talked about Minnesota and explained Richard and kinda style of play and this and that,

and it was pretty cool. So was it sitting with Richard for five years and then went with coach Steele at Xavier for the last three and was fortunate enough to get this job here at Minnesota. So it's very rare. I'm a guy that I've seen the program from a young kid growing up, so watching it, to being recruited to it, to playing for it, to being an assistant and now to be a head coach. I understand the position, I mean and and blessed, but it doesn't happen that often. Man, No,

it doesn't. And you definitely are in a unique position. Why do you feel that kind of focusing on the local talent, local recruits and making sure that they stay home. Why is that important to build your program? I think if you look across the country, but especially in the big ten, the programs that are able to sustain success the ones that we're striving to be. If you look at their rosters, it's a lot of in state or

regional local talent. I think there's a different sense of pride um, there's a different sense of ownership, um of buying with local kids. And I don't care where you're at, you could be at U c l A, U s C. I mean those guys in l A. They grow up watching you know, you would think if the program is good, they're really good U c l A teams. So like U c l A should mean more to an l A kid or a Southern California kid than a kid from Tampa, Florida. Right, you see it all the time.

You've got a family member that maybe you went there. And then on top of that, we have really good high school coaches, we have really good high school basketball. You have really good talent, and talent that's good enough and it's proven to help you win on the biggest

scale in the biggest arena. And so whenever you can get it's a lot easier to get a kid that's enough that can help you move that you know, twenty minutes away, and if I got to hop on a flight and connect the dots and meet people and go out of area or just go deep further in the region. So I think whatever program you're at, you know, you gotta do a really good job in your backyard to get those kids that are local that can help you, and and do a really good job in the in

the community that you're at to build those relationships. Absolutely. Uh. When you look at U c. L A twenty something years ago, our national championship team which we won in ninety five, we had probably one guy that wasn't from l A on that on two Cameron Dollar from Georgia. I can want go from Houston, Texas, but you know ten guys that are l A bound and it and it does something with the fans because these fans have

been watching us. We're watching us through our our high school and the youth career, and there's like this level of allegiance and you know these guys and so you just have this loyalty. Is that am I hitting that on?

I mean and think about too, like those hands grew up reading about you, right, and so they followed your career all the way from maybe even junior high and especially if you have you know, we have a lot of former players who who's kids I either recruited that played for me when I was an assistant with The other cool thing you saw now is like you have some lineage. You know, I coached a Mirror Coffee and

recruited a Miror Coffee. His dad played at Minnesota. So now you have fans and boosters and season ticket holders who watched dad. Now they're watching the Mirrors. Now you have that buy in, you have that lineage, and so um, that part is cool. But without of doubt, you know, that's what fans do. Fan fans. They want to win at the end of the day. So I could have a team for the kids from Alaska we win in

can matter, but uh, you know what I mean. But at the same time, it's sweeter for them when they feel connected to the team because it's oh man, that's that's so and so that I used to watch in high school or when you know, my family grew up you know, knowing and reading and hearing about that name or that's Mr Basketball. You know, brain Carrington. Oh Man, I get to continue to watch him grow and become an end and play for our state school. I think

that's powerful. It is powerful. It's just that with the transfer port portal, the n I L and this game notoriety of the transfer portal, it seems like coaches like yourself are in a conundrum. They have a choice to make. Do you go and try to get older quick because everybody's doing it and we're trying to win and we're trying to you know because because because you got to compete against everybody that's doing it, or do you keep in mind that, hey, we can still have to develop

some young guys. We still gotta keep our ties into the local community, the grassroots aspect. We can't just go top heavy with portal guys. How do you what side of the equation do you land? Yeah, that's a great question. Um, it's a tough balance because I believe that you do you wanna you wanna develop a program from the high school stages. Um, you know, you put time in recruiting those kids. Hopefully they're with you for extended period of time.

You're invested in them, you're able to develop them the right way at the same time, though, the leagues are forever changing, and you might be forced to do more portal because if you can't stay old and everybody else is, that could be right. So they might force your hand, Like you might not want to the old league is staying old, you don't have the timeline to pay fan base and a d I'm gonna take a couple of years to develop these guys. They don't want to hear that,

you know what I mean. So if the league is going old, it might force your hand to go older more than you want. I think we're gonna try to have a balance, you know, I don't want to do portal where every year we're trying to go in there and get three or four kids. But I'm also realistic and knowing you know, the likelihood of us getting one or two every year, it's probably real, and so you're

trying to navigate that. But at the same time, it's it's not losing focus on At the end of the day, we want to build from the high school ranks on up, and we want to be able to use that. The also benefit of the portal is we have a lot of kids that Okay, maybe you don't get them on the first time that are from Minnesota or that a good pleasure recruited. Well, maybe you can use the portal and if they end up going in there, you you get them on the back end. Yeah. So there's a

lot of ways to do it. Um. I just think each coach is just up to kind of what their philosophy is. Yeah. I found it funny. I was watching one of your older press conferences and you describe the way that you pay attention to the portal as a sickness. Uh, you have me rolling on that because he and you said you got guys dedicated to it, and you know you might be on the recruit you might have a visit or something, the staff meeting, and you might get hit on your phone like yo, so sos in the

portal and you gotta respond. But that's that's sort of the new reality for college coaches and nowadays with with the new transfer portal and all this availability, you gotta basically, it's it's the wild wild West, and you gotta jump on things asap. Hunh. You do because it's it's it's speed dating. You know, it's it's recruiting on steroids. You know, you you don't you're not. You don't have the leucture of having a process of okay, you know, we'll be able to get to know him and and court them

a little bit. Like No, you gotta These kids want to be recruited right away. They want to feel the love right away. Then the minute they're in the portal that they're gonna have you know, five programs already talking about official visit dates. You know. Part of that is because when kids go on to portal, there's not a lot of guesswork because you can quickly go on Synergy and they have stats that back up what they've done. There.

There's equity, so you know what you're gonna get, so you can you can already say, look, let's get this kid on campus. We know what he is, he fits, there's here's his numbers, here's the data that backs it up. This is a no brainer. There's less risk, so you gotta be quick on it. You gotta have. That's why it's kind of that sickness. The kids like trying to hear the talk earlier. They want to know coach might

come to campus or not. You know, some of these kids have already been recruited there over that which is a good thing. They're ready to get down to the nitty gritty. They're ready to get down to the the nuts and boats and they want to see the place. So yeah, you gotta be on it. And I've had guys. Honestly, it would be a week courtship, which is is rare. But like they might know, boom this, I hit it off with this coach. They have a need for me.

Let's get it done. So again, you're you're sped up because you don't have the luxury of having time on your side. No, wow, was that a right roller? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can hear. I hear it, I hear I hear the grab. Yeah, I know exactly. I used to have a right while when I was when I was a youngster. He ended up passing away. But I grew up with right so yeah, I know what's up. Beautiful dogs man, beautiful beasts. Um. Staying on sort of these new developments

in college basketball. The n i L has been in the news as of late. Coach Nick Saban, coach Jim bow Fisher kind of had award words. Um. We've seen n i L deals done all over the country. University of Miami, Kansas state. I even saw university specific got a guy off a n I L twenty five tho dollars. What are your thoughts on the n I L and how much do you use that in your recruiting present day? You know it it. It's one of those things where if you don't figure it out in your own individual way,

you're gonna be left behind. UM. I really think it comes down to each coach gonna navigate it differently. I don't know if there's a right way or a wrong way to do it. I just feel like you gotta be comfortable as a coach with here's how I'm gonna handle and I'm either gonna be Some guys might go all in and might say, look, I want to get guys crazy deals and and and be able to go down that route. Other guys might say, I don't want to touch it, I don't want to deal with it.

Other guys might say I want to deal with it, but I want to get everybody kind of the same so my locker room, I'm not having to also deal with a salary differential amongst my guys. And that's where I kind of I lay where I'm realistic and who we are right now where we are as a program, who I am as a coach, Um, I'm not as veteran as a John Calipari, right, Mick Cronin guys that

have done it. And if our Hall of Fame type guys that are able to maybe have a different salary because of who they are, they can handle that type of locker room, it's it's more accepted. I gotta know, as a younger coach, I gotta focus on the things that are gonna help us and help our program, and I can't have a bunch of outside distractions and we're just not built like that. So for me, in an ideal world, UM, I love all our guys that kind

of be on an even play field. You know. That's where kind of everybody talks about the collective um, which I think could be a good thing. You know, if you're able to get a collective where you know, I'm all for guys being able to use name, image, likeness to generate money. I I completely get it. I think it's fair. I want to help our guys do that.

At the same time, you know, I don't want to locker room when one guy is making you know, X amount of money and another guy is, and then I got a new guy that hasn't even played a minute my program getting money, and I've got a guy that has been tributed it and has played and is getting either a little or nothing. Right to me, that's not I'm not balancing that. I think so much to college basketball, you have to win your locker room. And if you

can't win your locker room, you can win. But I think you have a ceiling and and I don't want to have to worry about that. So I'm gonna navigated probably a little bit different and and find the guys that understand that. And I think at the end of the day, no matter where you go, I don't care if you have a big deal or not. If that takes precedence over winning and getting better as a player, well then you've got more problems than than you think.

And at the end of the day, every coach want guys to be there for something bigger than an n I L deal or bigger than money that they have. They want to be there to get better, to improve, and to win. Yeah, I mean, you know it's sort of old school versus new school. Now, coach, we have that old school way of Hey, guys are getting better. We need to win a championship with getting our degree, and then there's a new school. I'm trying to get

paid coach. Um. But one of the biggest unintended consequences that I that I've I've heard you talk about and you talked about it right here is the locker room. What happens when the guy that you just got on the n i L deal comes in and you've got a guy for your contributor, blood, sweat and tears for the program, fan favorite, not getting nothing. It's the dynamics between the players. Now you have sort of a pro dynamic.

And and my question to you is, and this is the last one in the n i L when you have if if you were a coach and you had that dynamic in your program the University Minnesota sort of the salary cap nature of guy the best guys getting n i LS. Do you take more of the pro would you take more of a pro approach and coaching these guys or do you stay true to your guns and and you know they either buying in or it's

not gonna work. Yeah, I think you gotta have a little bit of balance, Um, But I also think you know, I'm all about having to talk early. Um, guy's got to know. Look, if if with much as given, much as expected, right, And I'm all for guys getting their money and getting deals, but they also understand that there's gonna come with a certain amount of price and it's not put on me. It's been going to be put

on like the general public. If there's a dollar amount attached to your name and it's public, we all know you got to produce. And if you don't, that's where you worry about. These aren't professional athletes. These are college athletes, but we're putting them in a professional forum. And so now what happens if you're the beat writer or you're the columnist, or you're the fan, and you know a dollar amount that's pretty high is on a player and their production isn't where it needs to be. How is

that now being handled? I need to have that talk with that player and say, look, man, I'm gonna protect you as much as I can, but this with with that with money, money changes a lot of things, and and and we're gonna have to work together to navigate through good and bad. And as you know, there's so many presures in college basketball as is with social media, take take the money out of it, which just social

media right with how it is in today's day and age. Um. That's why I think Dion Sanders made a great point. He talked about if we're gonna go this route, we better hire men or people male or female that know how to handle what all is about to come with money. Once you bring large amounts of money, the mentality in the mindset of everything changes. We better have staffs in at let departments that are equipped to handle and help these young men and young women navigate this new world.

You know, we can't expect that we can give them all this and there's not gonna be some side effects to it. And I think there's a lot of truth to that. Support is mando in these situations for the athletes, especially when you when you're seeing large sums of money, like financial literacy and money management. I think me of like some of the responsibilities should be on the college athletic department to offer the resources. Now, whether or not the athlete uses them or not, that's on them, but

at least to offer those resources would be great. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app search f

s R to listen live. Last thing, I was talking months ago to ESPN's College Basketball and on the Shan Farnham and he and I asked him that a similar question I asked you, coach, which is, I asked him, would he cover guys differently if there's the dollar amount associating if this guy now is a paid for professional athlete. He said yeah, He said, yeah, he's gonna he have to cover them differently because now the dynamic is different.

And I found that. I found that very interesting. Um, let's move on and kind of talk about the prospects for next season. Uh, you're coming off the heels of a in my opinion, a very good first year third teen in seventeen, which the record is deceiving. You started ten one. Uh, you you filled in the roster nine ten guys. Now fast forward a year, you got a full year under your built, You went through the the

the the gauntlet of the Big Ten Conference. You picked up some recruits, got some transfers out of the port or what or your season goals realistically for the Minnesota Golden Golfers. Coming into next year. I couldn't be more excited about in year two the guys that we have in our locker room. You know, I think we hit a home run with the four high school kids that we took. Um. I think they all bring a talent level that you need as you know, uh in the

big tent. They bring the physicality, they bring the athleticism, which is what we needed to size the measurables. We're able to get a couple of key transfers um that all fit what we're trying to do, and then we have kids returning that that we're trying to do. So we're gonna have death Like this past year, we just didn't have a bunch of depth. Um. You know, I only was able to play about six seven guys tops. Really this year we're gonna be you know about too

deep at every spot. So that's gonna help with practice. You know, if you can have competitive practices, it's that iron shop from is iron. Everybody gets better those competitive juices start flowing, you're able to to to develop as a team. Um, So that's gonna be exciting, you know.

I think the challenge for us is to not lose focus on the big picture, I think it's obviously everyone's going to make the Instant double A tournament, to try to win a Big ten championship, to try to make a second third, fourth weekend in the instan double A tournament. So the question is how do you do that? To me,

it's not worrying about that, that's the obvious. It's being built into the everyday grind, right, how do we get better today knowing that, like some days are always gonna be great, you might not always get all the way better, but then you gotta be able to respond on and come back the next day. So you're not doing this or you're not plateau and you're slowly getting better. So that's the challenge. Man. I take a lot of pride, and I'll watch the Miami Heat a lot. I do

a deep dive into's just how they go about. You look at the Heat, you look at the Spurs, you look at Mike Thomlin, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Sometimes it's methodical, it seems boring, it seems basic, elementary, But those programs do it every single day consistently, and I think that's the reason why you see them always contending for championships or going for on the playoffs, and that's what we

try to do. We try to do the the boring stuff, the monotonous stuff, the fundamental stuff that can every single day to get a little bit better each day. And I just tell like that that's our only going if we if we can blow it out and get better individually as a team a little by little every single day, and not get bored with that process, then we'll have

a chance to have a fun season. If we get caught up and looking too far down the road, or trying to win the Big Ten in the summer, or just getting consumed with like the pressures of that of making the tournament, I think it delays installs you being able to get better as a program versus if you just worry about the day to day and and get better today and maximize him today. Tell me about Jamison Battle. I I saw, you know, he's a six seven wing.

I watched a little bit of him, but as a coach coaching him up where some of his best attributes and are they enough? You know, the Big Ten player of the year next year. You don't have to answer that, coach, Uh. You know, it's interesting man um when you looked at James. I've known Jen was since high school. Um, when you look at guys in the portal and you see the numbers like Jamison average sixteen at g DUB, which is,

in my opinion, a really good league. Very rarely do those numbers and stats transfer, especially when you're going upper level, and Jamison's circumstance, they transferred, and and that is rare. And what I come to find out about him is he's a warrior, um competitive is all get out. One of the best tough shot makers I've been around. And I think that's a skill. Like his ability to make

contested tough threes and twos is off the charts. And if he's gonna be an NBA player, I think that is gonna be one of the things that helps him be an NBA player, because to me, that's what the NBA is. You gotta have guys. If you're a score, you know you know how good I mean, defenses are obviously really good, like you have to make shots to score versus really good defense maker. And that's where he is.

He's a tough shot maker. And so now his challenge is, um, you know, he played a lot of four for US now he's gonna play the four quote the four and the three to be able to make that transition, to be able to make the transition not only offensively, but defensively, which he took great strides in. He's done a really good job with his body physically, he's in the best shape of his life. But he's got an ug believable attitude. He wants it all in the right ways. Uh. He's

a team first guy through and through. Um, he's a guy that you want nothing but the best for and you want him to reach all of his individual and team goes because he's just he earns it and he works for it every single day. Yeah, when you guys start working out for summer workouts, So we will start. Guys will get here June five. We'll kind of give him that first week to do some physical testing and

they start class on that Monday. Um, they'll do all you know stuff that's non regulated and then we'll start that that next that next week, I leave on the twelfth or thirteen? Is it? Is it so you're on the court with them a lot in this summer or is that we can get yea, so we can get eight hours a week between basketball and strengthen conditioning. So we'll do um, you know, kind of like many stuff up with him on the court, in the in the and the allowed time that we're allowed to have on

them have with him. And now it's you know, kind of the balance. You know, it's old school. Back when I when I'm my freshman year, we weren't you know, when I was playing, we weren't allowed to you didn't

see coaches, you know. So now it's that balance of as a coach, you want to be greedy, but I also don't want the summer to feel like January, you know, because at some point I don't want our guys to hit that wall and now in January when we need them their shot because we've been grinding crazy hearts since August or since June or since July. And so it's kind of having that balance. So we'll mix up, you know, making a competitive summer will probably play a lot. Uh.

Let these guys get going up and down. We'll work on some skill stuff, but keep it loose, but just developed that work ethic and that love for being in the gym. To me, that's the biggest thing. If we can, especially with the new kids. Uh, freshman and transfers really established the culture of the work of love to be in the gym and putting in extra that I think

it's a it's a success. Do you have it so with this time that you're able to get in the gym in the summer, especially with the new guys and the transfers. Is it something and this is kind of a strategic type of question, is it something that you might want to look to implement or lay the foundation of offensively and defensively, maybe not full you know, going all the way one hunted, but to kind of some principles and this is what we do here. Yeah, no, exactly.

So you know, I don't know if we'll do a bunch of like close out drills and stuff like that, but you know, you definitely you want to give them a sense of like, okay, fellas, Defensively, here's kind of our core main principles UM. And then offensively, this is how we're gonna play. This is how we're gonna play in transition, off makes off mrs, and then in a half court. I'm big on I want to teach these

guys basketball. I'm not a guy that wants to come down and hammer out a set every single time, like just how my brain thinks and operate. So teaching them how do we call it flow? How to play and flow? Teach them on how to space and play that's the fun part um to to kind of play with that freedom. But I do I do think you learned that through a lot of up and down four or four or five on five. But teaching them you know, how to play in space and and we'll do a ton of that. Um,

both on both sides of the ball. No, that's that's that's great. Those are the best, not the best, but one of the best methods. I feel like, you know, because guys earlier you get them in there and you lock it in, you know. Then you come you get around fall in October and you know we're already up to speed. Uh, coach, one more question then I then

I'll let you go. UM. I wanted to talk to you briefly, just get a comment briefly about just the George Floyd situation in the state of Minnesota and if if you feel any responsibility as an African American person of color and high profile position in that state, is there any possibility for you that you feel to to speak out or is it something that you let you know, the nick kind of run its course, I just wanted to get your thoughts on that. Yeah, and also another

really good question. Um, I feel it's like my responsibility because I want to flip the narrative. I mean, obviously it hits home with me different because in the credit area that I grew up in, I got a you know, a sister that lives blocks away from where it happened. Um, it could have you know, I'm a minority. I deal with those same feelings that all of us deal um

at certain times in our life. But at the same time, I want to be a voice because I want to let everybody know I don't care what nationality you are, what race you are, where you grew up. If you

see social injustice, you should say something about it. Hopefully, you know we start to rail guy, is that we are all are a lot more similar than different at the end of the day, and that if we're going to change this, that we all, when there is injustice and inequality, are brave enough to speak on it and to be a voice for people who might not have that voice, and to show strength when it's hard to

show strength. You know, for my players, I want them to know it's important for them to see me fight the fight because they need to know that I am just like them. You know, we talked about that. Like I said, Fellas, you know, when you get pulled over, I I have the same feelings and anxiety that you might have um circumstances I've been through you might go through. We can relate on that note, but like you also need to understand that it comes down to just being

a good person. You know what, I think we kind of lose cited that we all want to categorize stuff, which I get and and and sometimes it needs to be categorized because if it if it happens to a certain demographic, a lot like it needs to be addressed. But also at the end of the day, if you're a good person, none of that stuff should matter. It

should just matter because you know it ain't right. And I think just trying to get our team and community to understand, you know, we can change it, but we all have to almost approach it from that standpoint of if you're a good person, this is what you do. You know, I don't care what the situation is if it deals with the female, it deals with the gay lesbian community, if it deals with a different you know, nationality,

different demographic, you know, different financial situation. Like good people help good people. When you see something that's that's right and you applaud it, when you see something that's wrong, you stand up for it, and um, you know, that's all I try to do. And you know, thankfully, I am in a position where I do have a voice, and I've just told anybody that will listen, you know, I am here to help. I think that's one thing that's cool about being in my position is you know,

I've gotten here because people have helped me. I didn't get here on my own, and I wouldn't have gotten here on my own. Somebody saw something in me and pushed me to to get to where I am, and somebody opened the door for me. So now that I'm in this position, I want to be able to help the next person, whether it's one of my former players, whether it's maybe somebody in the community that I don't know.

But if I can be that voice and I can help somebody and navigate a situation, or help somebody achieve a certain goal, or be a voice for you know, a different organization. UM, you know, I want to be able to do that because I think it's important when you're in a position that that that has you know, power, big time, big time stuff. Coach will let you go on that note, I appreciate you taking the time out from your busy schedule today and best of luck this

year to the Gophers. I I appreciate it, man. I love your show, love what you're doing, and I appreciate you having a Midwest guy on man. Yes, sir, thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen. Coach Ben Johnson