Minnesota AD Coyle embarks on coach search with belief basketball program can return to prominence

By Canadian Press on March 14, 2025.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The challenge at Minnesota of growing the men’s basketball program into a consistent Big Ten contender has probably never been greater, considering the surging cost of competing in the current landscape of major college sports.

The Gophers don’t plan to sit still, though, as evidenced by athletic director Mark Coyle’s decision this week to fire coach Ben Johnson after four seasons. He has begun the search for a replacement with an unabashed belief he’s filling a desirable job.

“We had those four years. We had a good sample of what we looked like in nonconference, what we looked like in Big Ten play, and I just felt the timing was right now for a change, given some of the transformations we’re going through as an industry in college athletics,” Coyle said, reiterating his confidence Minnesota can be an annual NCAA Tournament team despite only three appearances in the last 15 seasons.

Coyle held a video conference call with reporters on Friday from Indianapolis, where he’s decamped with the NCAA Tournament selection committee he has served on for the last four years. Citing the basketball practice facility that opened in 2018, the department’s commitment to holistic athlete support, the big-city feel at the state’s flagship university and its presence in the powerful Big Ten, Coyle left no doubt about his expectation for the program.

“We’ve gotten calls from coaches who want to be a part of that. They understand the value of the Big Ten. They understand the value of Minnesota, what it means. Our media contracts are phenomenal in terms of the exposure we get and the exposure we can provide to student-athletes, as many of them have dreams to compete at the next level,” Coyle said. “We feel like we’re in a very, very good spot.”

Coyle, who will enter his 10th season on the job this fall, has overseen a whirlwind of change with the recent expansion of the Big Ten to 18 teams, the global pandemic that threw schedules, eligibility and overall health and wellness out of whack, and the NIL era that began shortly after the relaxing of the transfer rule that allowed athletes to switch schools and play immediately. Now revenue sharing is coming to further complicate the finances around power conference sports.

But Coyle said University President Rebecca Cunningham is committed to keeping up in this sport, even given the immense amount of resources necessary to do the same in football and the mandate to operate with a balanced budget.

“Our ideal candidate will be someone with experience in these landscapes, who understands a changing landscape,” Coyle said.

The Gophers first began playing organized basketball in the late 19th century, but sustained success has been fleeting no matter the head coach. Clem Haskins came the closest to fielding consistent Big Ten contenders, but the end of his 13-season run was infamously tainted by the academic fraud scandal from which the program has seemingly yet to fully recover more than a quarter-century later. Haskins took the Gophers to their lone Final Four appearance in 1997.

Williams Arena was a true advantage then and still can be when it’s packed for a premier opponent, but “The Barn” is now 97 years old with few upgrades made in the last two decades. The average over 19 home games of announced attendance figures was 8,923 per game, about 61% of the arena’s current capacity and a slight increase from last season. The average for 15 home games during Johnson’s first year was 10,267. The Big Ten average for last season was 11,934.

The mid-major route ought to present plenty of viable candidates should Coyle decide to go that way, starting with Colorado State’s Niko Medved, a native and alum of Minnesota who has previously coached at Furman and Drake. Coyle, a former Drake football player, could consider his alma mater’s basketball success under Ben McCollum, who in his first year led the Bulldogs to 30 wins after moving up from the NCAA Division II level at Northwest Missouri State. His predecessor, Darian DeVries, took Drake to the NCAA Tournament three times in six years before departing for West Virginia.

“There’s no doubt we need somebody who embraces Minnesota,” Coyle said. “We need somebody who’s going to generate excitement. At the end of the day, I’m a firm believer: When you’re winning games, people want to be a part of that.”

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Dave Campbell, The Associated Press

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