Neal: Moving forward with Ben Johnson is the only option for Gophers men’s basketball

Even before the Gophers' come-from-behind victory at UCLA on Tuesday, it was clear that the men’s basketball program did not need a regime change.

Head coach Ben Johnson has guided a team that was picked to finish last in the Big Ten preseason poll to within range of a .500 finish in the Big Ten, if they can get a couple of breaks.

The way the last month has gone, they are capable of making their own breaks.

It’s enough to wonder what Johnson can do if his roster can stay relatively stable. More resources, which requires name, image and likeness (NIL) support, would increase Johnson’s chances to prove he’s the right person to make Gophers basketball relevant.

Johnson has made a roster of unheralded college basketball veterans — plus likely All-Big Ten first-team selection Dawson Garcia, into a functional unit. I’m not claiming that they will go on a run during the conference tournament, but the Gophers will be the wrong team to have a bad day against.

USC, coached by Bill Musselman’s son, Eric, found that out Saturday when it blew a 10-point lead against Minnesota. UCLA found that out Tuesday after Garcia’s electrifying second half brought the Gophers back after they trailed by as many as 17 points in the first half.

The impressive road trip can’t be overstated.

The Gophers and Michigan are the only two teams to win both ends of a Trojans-Bruins trip this season. Michigan State’s first two losses in conference play — it has since lost a third — came during the road trip to the Galen Center and Pauley Pavilion. Iowa and Penn State were swept in their visits there.

Johnson has had challenging moments and held tough conversations with his team to get to this point. Just a month ago, the Gophers dropped four consecutive conference games and were 8-9 overall. They were 0-6 in conference play, and that was the proper time to wonder where Johnson was headed with the program.

Now we know.

As it turns out, Garcia gets enough help to make it a little more than a one-man show. Lu’Cye Patterson is the embodiment of the team’s hard-nosed approach. Mike Mitchell Jr. provides perimeter shooting. Femi Odukale and Frank Mitchell hit the glass as hard as they can. Parker Fox is the energy guy.

These ingredients have combined to make Minnesota more difficult to play than expected. Johnson has made it work.

Court-storming victories over Michigan and Oregon helped Johnson’s case. His last two victories make it a no-brainer. They have won six of their last nine conference games, four on the road.

They are 13th in a conference in which the top 15 teams qualify for the Big Ten tournament. And have winnable games against Penn State, Northwestern and Rutgers coming up.

This is not building a résumé to make the NCAA tournament. It’s to keep the phrase “dismissed by Gophers,” off Johnson’s résumé.

So, the conversation has changed to this: Where does Johnson take the program from here?

His roster was thrown into dismay when Pharrel Payne, Elijah Hawkins and Joshua Ola-Joseph elected to play elsewhere this season. Cam Christie was the biggest loss when he opted to enter the NBA draft. Imagine what a Garcia-Christie one-two punch would have looked like.

Coaches have to work around players who hit the portal and declare for the draft, but Johnson must find roster continuity through this. This season has been a moderate surprise, to his credit. But no one is going to back a perennial 15-win program.

Revenue sharing hit the NCAA, beginning next school year. That will help some in adding and retaining talent. Will it be enough to boost Johnson’s roster-building so he can churn out 20-win seasons?

Freshman guard Isaac Asuma, averaging 24.7 minutes a game, definitely is part of the future. The incoming class includes four-star big Parker Jefferson. The portal is always there to giveth and taketh away, so stacking quality recruiting classes is the annual challenge.

Johnson can pitch to newcomers that the 2024-25 Gophers avoided adversity and are moving forward.

And, for now, that means moving forward with Johnson.