Ben Johnson looks to the past to build a future with the Gophers
In the late 1990s, Ben Johnson was a standout player at DeLaSalle. A 1998 Mr. Basketball finalist, Johnson starred under Dave Thorson as the Crusaders captured two state titles.
Fast forward 23 years and Thorson and Johnson are entering their second year at the University of Minnesota. Thorson was one of the first hires when Johnson took over the program last season and as he prepares for a new year, the goal to bring the Gophers back to prominence has Johnson looking in the past to build a better future.
"If you would have told me even 10 years ago I was going to be the head coach [at Minnesota] and he was going to be the assistant, I would have probably said you're crazy," Johnson said on The Bare's Den podcast with Matt Bare this week. "It's just kind of unique and funny how the world works."
As much as Johnson knows about the coaching world, he also has a wealth of knowledge about amateur basketball in Minnesota. After Johnson's standout high school career, he played two seasons for Northwestern before transferring to the Gophers prior to the 2002-03 season.
After playing two years at Minnesota, he spent 16 years rising through the coaching ranks and was even an assistant on Richard Pitino's staff from 2013-18. After three years as an assistant at Xavier, Johnson got the call to replace Pitino and made his own call for Thorson to join his staff.
"To have him here has been big for me because it's a guy that I've known since sixth or seventh grade," Johnson said. "I have the utmost respect and trust for him. I know that he has my back."
Thorson is more than a right-hand man for Johnson, as he has his own place in Minnesota's high school basketball lore. Thorson was an assistant with the Gophers from 1990-94 before becoming the head coach at DeLaSalle, where he guided the Islanders to a state record nine state championships in 23 years, including six in a row from 1998-2002.
Along the way, Thorson made connections throughout the state, which has helped Johnson and the Gophers on the recruiting circuit.
"I think the relationships [he's made] are huge," Johnson said. "Just knowing the Minnesota landscape and understanding the people here and knowing the high school coaches and the AAU coaches and just the way Minnesota basketball works and operates...he understands the history, so he gets that standpoint."
Johnson is hoping that understanding can help revive Gopher basketball.
While he didn't take over a broken program, Johnson took over one in need of a reboot. The Gophers had gone to the NCAA tournament just twice in Pitino's eight seasons at and when Johnson arrived, 10 players entered the transfer portal.
That led Johnson scrambling for replacements, and that scramble turned up some gems in his first recruiting class. Payton Willis and Jamison Battle became All-Big Ten honorable mentions and the Gophers started the season 10-1, including a signature win at Michigan on Dec. 11.
Unfortunately, the Gophers slumped to a 13-17 record and a 4-16 record in the Big Ten, but Johnson believes the 2021-22 group set the tone for what he wants to accomplish in the future.
"You want to compete and you want to win, but I think what our guys did is they showed what [the program] should look like," Johnson said. "That's what was important to me. I wanted players, recruits, our fan base, our community...and anybody that followed Gopher basketball to at least get a glimpse into what we wanted to look like and what it's going to look like for years to come."
It appears that the showcase has already created some benefits on the recruiting trail. Johnson's 2022 recruiting class landed several homegrown talents including Brooklyn Park's Braeden Carrington, Osseo's Joshua Ola-Joseph and Park's (Cottage Grove) Pharrel Payne. With Alexandria's Treyton Thompson also expected to earn an increased role, Johnson feels like each of those players is an example of the type of player he wants to build the program around.
"I really, really, really like our young guys," Johnson said. "They seek coaching. You don't always get that. They don't fight it and let us coach them. They push to be really good and no one wants to be the weakest link. They come every day with that growth mindset and I think they're talented, they're guys that deeply care about winning. I think it's going to be a fun group."
That youth will also be mixed with plenty of veteran talent. Prior Lake's Dawson Garcia transferred to Minnesota after spending the past two seasons at North Carolina but Johnson specifically spoke about Battle, who he believes could be an All-Big Ten player this season.
"He's gone through the gauntlet of the Big Ten so he knows exactly what's coming at him," Johnson said of the junior. "...He's really going to have a target on his back but I know it's a responsibility that he's looking forward to and that he's wiling to shoulder. He's a winner and he wants to make sure we take a step as a program."
Battle, Garcia and a young nucleus are just some reasons the Gophers appear to have a bright future, but Johnson believes those steps can't be achieved without acknowledging the past.
Small things such as bringing back the player benches at Williams Arena and making a trip to support Willis in the Vegas summer league are just some ways Johnson is putting his stamp on the program. Entering his second year with Minnesota, he hopes he can make some history of his own.
"I think it’s important for our guys on this team to understand that the players before them really kind of set the tone and we want to continue to build on the history of our program," Johnson said. "I want them to be excited about laying their own footprints and doing things that people maybe didn’t think that they could do or we could do and setting the table for the players that are coming for the future.”
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