Gophers men's basketball opens 'Ben Johnson Era' on Tuesday with biggest rebuild in recent history

Dan Monson inherited arguably the biggest rebuilding job in Gophers men's basketball history when he took over in the aftermath of the team's academic fraud scandal in 1999.

That was two years before a Northwestern guard named Ben Johnson transferred into the Gophers program.

Now, two decades later, Johnson has returned to his alma mater as the head coach, faced with the toughest rebuild since Monson arrived.

The Johnson Era begins Tuesday against Missouri-Kansas City with unanimous last-place Big Ten projections for the Gophers, who experienced the program's biggest one-year overhaul with 10 scholarship newcomers.

"We knew it was going to be like this," said Johnson, whose lone holdover able to play is sixth-year senior Eric Curry, after junior Isaiah Ihnen's season-ending knee injury.

As if being a first-time head coach and the youngest in the Big Ten wasn't challenging enough, the 40-year-old Johnson welcomes back the third-fewest returning minutes among all 358 Division I teams.

Only Tennessee-Martin's entirely new roster and Georgia at 7.2% has fewer than Minnesota's 7.9% returning minutes, according to barttorvik.com.

"I know he's a terrific young guy and everybody's pulling for him," ESPN college hoops analyst Fran Fraschilla said of Johnson. "But his level of talent I'm not sure is going to be good enough his first year."

The Gophers aren't favored in any Big Ten games this season, per KenPom.com. They're the only Big Ten team outside of the top 100 in KenPom's preseason rankings, and ahead of only Pittsburgh (145th), Boston College (146th) and Georgia (159) among the lowest rated in major conferences.

The last Gophers team that finished worst in the Big Ten was tied with Northwestern at 2-16 in Clem Haskins' first year in 1986-87. Not even Haskins, who lost 21 straight in the Big Ten before going to the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, had as many newcomers as Johnson in the first year.

"I don't care where we're ranked," Johnson said. "I don't care what people are going to say. I know it's not going to be easy."

'Outmanned most nights'

Some of the biggest rebuilds in the Big Ten in the past 10-plus years shed some light on how long a turnaround could take Johnson and the Gophers.

Fred Hoiberg inherited a shell of a team when he took over Nebraska two years ago, a mass departure like the Big Ten hadn't seen since Tom Crean had 13 open scholarships to start at Indiana in 2008-09.

Hoiberg's first Cornhuskers roster in 2019-20 had just two returning players, but only Thorir Thorbjarnarson played the previous year, averaging just 2.0 points and 1.0 rebounds.

"We had to fill 11 scholarships in 34 days," Hoiberg said. "The biggest thing was trying to get us to go out and compete. We were outmanned most nights."

The Huskers were 7-25 and 2-18 in the Big Ten in Hoiberg's first year.

Hoiberg added 11 newcomers again last season, finishing last in the Big Ten for the second year. But he saw growth toward the end of the year, including in a win vs. Richard Pitino's Gophers.

"We knew were going to take our lumps," said Hoiberg, who signed a top-20 recruiting class. "But I wanted to establish a style of play that would give us long-term success."

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In 2017, Northwestern reached the NCAA tournament for the first time in team history, becoming the last major conference team to do it. That was four years into Chris Collins' rebuild.

Collins talked to Johnson this summer about being a young first-time head coach in the Big Ten, telling him to "attack recruiting" and focus mostly on improving his younger players.

"For us, the strategy was invest in player development," Collins said. "It was a three-year window for us to bring guys in and throw them into the fire, understand there were growing pains with that."

Portal problems

Well before the mass player exodus, the Gophers were ranked as high as No. 16 last season. Injuries led to a late collapse; they lost 11 of their final 14 games and missed the NCAA tournament.

Pitino was fired on March 15 after finishing 14-15 in his eighth season. A week later, the Gophers hired Johnson, a Xavier assistant who was unaware most of Pitino's players were already thinking of transferring.

Instead of inheriting the core of a once Top 25 team, Johnson lost nine players to the transfer portal in his first month on the job. None of them blamed Johnson.

"If they wanted to be here and were willing to buy in with what we were doing, I wanted guys to stay," Johnson said. "There were certain situations you knew it probably wasn't going to happen."

Six of the departed players transferred to high major programs, including All-Big Ten guard Marcus Carr (Texas) and Big Ten blocks leader Liam Robbins (Vanderbilt). Gabe Kalscheur played at DeLaSalle for new U assistant Dave Thorson and was recruited by Johnson in high school, but Kalscheur left for Iowa State.

"I encouraged him to do that if he needed that fresh start," Johnson said. "I didn't want him to have a bad experience here. I didn't want him to stay for the wrong reasons."

Johnson's 10 newcomers (six seniors) joined the Gophers with faith in his vision about building a foundation — and that takes time. They aren't giving up on success in Year 1, though.

"I know our guys are excited," William & Mary transfer Luke Loewe said. "Coach Johnson and the coaching staff are pumped. I'm just looking forward to going out there and showing people what we're all about."