At least Ben Johnson can yell at most of his players and not worry about touching a nerve that sends them running to the transfer portal. That’s a benefit of bringing in players with only one year of eligibility left.
It represents Johnson’s approach to building a competitive team this season. It also is a reflection of how Johnson had to scramble to assemble a roster after seven players left a 19-15 team that was the first sign of progress in Johnson’s three seasons.
Now it feels like Johnson is starting over.
“I get how people could view that,” Johnson said. “From my standpoint, I’ve told my guys that we need to use last year as momentum for this year. So the guys who are coming back that experienced that, to be here as a team that just won 19 games and carry themselves as if they know what that’s like.”
But evaluators don’t like the roster. The Gophers are picked to finish last in the Very Big Ten this season. And Johnson has landed on a couple of preseason hot seat lists. He grimaced before Tuesday’s practice when I pointed out his inclusion on those lists despite a 10-win improvement from 2022-23.
This is Johnson’s fourth season leading the Gophers. That’s usually the year when a program should, or needs to, take off under new leadership. Instead, this is the second time he’s had to reset the roster and learn to remember a bunch of new names.
“The challenge for the new guys is, all right, those guys were much better than you, where that’s the true narrative?” Johnson said. “Or are you able to be as productive? So we are able to be on an upward trajectory and we are not doing the rebuild that some people might think because of the optics.”
Johnson watched his new team ease to an 80-57 victory over Oral Roberts on Wednesday in the regular-season opener. Lu’Cye Patterson, from Minneapolis but with the Gophers by way of Charlotte, led the newcomers with 10 points.