Minnesota fired coach Ben Johnson early Thursday morning, in an announcement posted to social media at 2:19 a.m. ET, following the team’s season-ending loss Wednesday in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament to Northwestern.
A Minnesota alumnus, Johnson coached the program for the past four seasons and went 56-71, failing to bring his alma mater to the NCAA Tournament.
“I met with Ben in-person early this morning when the team returned to Minneapolis from the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament and informed him that we were making a change in leadership,” Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle said in a statement. “I thanked him for his dedication and for guiding the program, one he cares deeply about, for the last four years. Ben is a terrific person, and we wish him well.
“These decisions are difficult and are made after careful consideration and evaluation,” Coyle continued. “The expectation for our program is to compete for championships, and unfortunately, we have not done that in the last four years.”
The way Johnson was canned was atypical in this regard: Coyle is on the men’s basketball selection committee, which began its process to build the NCAA Tournament field in Indiana yesterday. Coyle flew back in secrecy to Minneapolis late Wednesday to fire Johnson.
“It was ruthless,” one source told CBS Sports.
Johnson led Minnesota to a 15-17 record in 2024-25, which ended with five losses in the team’s final six outings. The 2023-24 Gophers went 19-15, the only year in which they were above .500 under Johnson’s watch. The program last made the NCAA tourney in 2019, when Richard Pitino was the coach.
Minnesota has ranked in the bottom two or three in the Big Ten in NIL resources for the duration of Johnson’s tenure, according to industry sources. Johnson and his staff were responsible for raising nearly all of Minnesota’s NIL budget — approximately $2 million for this past season, per a source. The team was handcuffed all the more by key losses in the portal last spring, including point guard Elijah Hawkins (Texas Tech) and power forward Pharrel Payne (Texas A&M), who got much larger financial opportunities to play elsewhere. Additionally, two other players portaled out and promising freshman Cam Christie left for the NBA.
Johnson’s stint at Minnesota was his first as a head coach after assistant coaching stops at Northern Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and Xavier. A Minneapolis native, he played two seasons for the Golden Gophers and finished his college career at Minnesota before going into coaching two decades ago.
With the job open, there is an obvious candidate Minnesota is expected to interview in its search: Colorado State’s Niko Medved is a Minneapolis native and has led the Rams to the NCAA Tournament two times in the previous six seasons. CSU, 22-9 and the 2-seed in the Mountain West Tournament, plays Nevada on Thursday.
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