The Path To Success For Gophers Men’s Basketball

With all the attention being cast into March Madness, there’s another area that is going on in college basketball for some schools that aren’t involved in the post season tournament, and that’s the season of finding a new head coach.  

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The Minnesota Golden Gophers find themselves in that situation after firing Ben Johnson last week after they lost in the opening round of the Big Ten tournament. 

So where do they go from here? There are a few names swirling around out there and I’m not here to get into those, what I want to address is not who you hire, but how you hire for now and then the plan for future. 

Whoever is hired will have the expectations of being able to return the Gophers to a challenging position for the Big Ten title and gain a berth in the NCAA tournament, something The Gophers have only done six times since 2004. 

To do that, takes a commitment from the school and a bit of forecasting as well.  

What I mean is that you need to be able to offer a competitive salary to the coach and make sure that he and his staff have a solid Name, Image and Likeness fund to try and attract the best players possible. But, if Minnesota is just looking at what those numbers need to be for the next few years, I fear they’re being short sided. 

Let me explain more, if you have the success you want to have, you know that other schools will be looking to poach away your coach. They’ll likely offer better facilities and more money. When The Gophers hire this coach, hopefully they’re also working on a plan to counter those efforts that will come if you win. 

On the flip side of that coin, Minnesota also needs to prepare in case this next hire doesn’t go well, and you need to fire the coach before the end of the contract and pay him to go away. Where does that money come from? 

I believe in giving a new head coach three years before you really start considering replacing them, they need time to establish culture and philosophy. Plus, the fact that it is so easy for players to transfer without penalty makes it like the coach is starting from square one each year.  

A report from the Sports Business Journal last July said that the expected budget for the entire athletic department would be around $150 million for 2024-25, which was said to be 14th of 18th Big Ten Schools. 

Financial planning is extremely important for what the Gophers hope to be able to do in the not-so-distant future, but also for what they may have to do if they wins don’t come. 

There are fans around Minnesota that are clinging to hope that the next hire is the one that can return Gophers Men’s Basketball back to prominence.