Ben Johnson addresses coaching status with Gophers: ‘I don’t focus on that.’

The Gophers men’s basketball team has completed 25% of its Big Ten schedule, and has zero wins to show for it.

Now in his fourth season at the U, head coach Ben Johnson is on pace to have his worst conference record, and he was 2-17 in his second season at Minnesota in 2022-23.

With a road game at Maryland on Monday, the Pioneer Press asked Johnson on Sunday if he feels like he is coaching for his job.

“I don’t focus on that,” Johnson said. “That’s obviously out of my control, so that’s something — I got other things that you got to pour energy into. That’s, honestly, if I get consumed with that, you lose focus on the stuff that you can control, that really matters. So that’s the farthest thing from my mind.”

Despite a blowout loss to rival Wisconsin on Friday, Johnson said his team remains in good spirits. “These guys want to win; that is the common denominator,” he said. “They are competitive. We just had a really, really good practice (Sunday) morning. Their attitude hasn’t changed. Their mindset hasn’t changed. The biggest thing is we are all figuring out, for this team, what is necessary — individually and as a group.”

After the 80-59 loss to the Badgers, the team stayed in the visiting locker room at Kohl Center for more than an hour. It was reminiscent of the more than 30 minutes spent in the visiting locker room at Assembly Hall after the 82-67 defeat to Indiana in Dec. 9.

Johnson said the meeting after the Hoosiers game was led by him. “That was just kind of a come-to-Jesus (situation), more me,” he said. “More of a head-coaching, leadership moment.”

On Friday, it was the players circling the wagons.

“We do our normal talk and we normally break,” he said. “And they kind of got together and started asking questions and wanted feedback and wanted to talk to each other.”

The Gophers are trying to grasp why games slip away from them. Johnson has been using the buzzword “poise” for how his teams need to step up in crunch time. They had narrowed the gap over the first four games to lose in double overtime to Ohio State last Monday, but the Badgers outscored them 50-30 in the second half in Madison.

As the Big Ten’s only winless team in conference play, the Gophers are in line to miss the Big Ten tournament, which now only grants access to the top 15 of the 18 programs now in the league.

If Gophers Athletics Director Mark Coyle fires Johnson, the U will have to pay Johnson a buyout of approximately $3 million after the season.

A primary part of the problem for this Gophers team is the majority of the new transfers have not been consistent contributors to help out returning veterans Dawson Garcia, Mike Mitchell and Parker Fox.

Last year, Johnson went 9-11 in Big Ten play and finished 19-15, but center Pharrell Payne transferred to Texas A&M and point guard Elijah Hawkins transferred to Texas Tech. Bigger NIL deals were available for both in the Lone Star State. Payne is averaging nine points, five rebounds and a block and a half per game for the 10th-ranked Aggies, while Hawkins is averaging nine points, six assists and two steals for the Red Raiders, who just fell in overtime to third-ranked Iowa State on Saturday.

The Gophers NIL (name, image and likeness) fund has grown in the last few years, but still lags behind the top tier in the sport.

“It is the most important single thing that any program can have,” Johnson said. “And if you don’t have it, is going to be really, really hard, period. If you have it, you’re going to give yourself a chance. And it’s so competitive out there. And there right now is a big gap and the haves and the have-nots, and that makes a difference.”

Johnson brought up how UCLA coach Mick Cronin compared it to Major League Baseball. “Mick Cronin kind of hit the nail on the head: You got some teams out there, like the Dodgers, and you got some teams out there like the Twins,” Johnson relayed. “That’s the reality.”

Johnson looks to the introduction of revenue sharing for schools to directly pay players starting in the spring as a way to sort of level the playing field for the U within the conference. If the floor comes up with revenue sharing, unlimited NIL will keep there from being a ceiling.

How the Gophers can be competitive in the compensation era of college sports is something the U’s administration and specific sports programs are “always thinking about.”

“These kids have told us what the answer to the test is, right?” Johnson said. “A lot of stuff doesn’t matter anymore. What matters is the dollar amount.”