sports take | Johnson Fired, Massive Vikings Changes and the Reusse Controversy
3.13.25
THE OPENER — My phone was boiling this morning after the news of Ben Johnson’s firing broke shortly after 6 a.m. Combine that with the Vikings big player moves as NFL free agency started and a social media firestorm involving Star Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse and there’s a fiery brew of sports news to gulp down. Let’s get going! — Howard Sinker
AFTER MIDNIGHT: The Gophers returned from their eight-point loss to Northwestern at the Big ten basketball tournament, a game not as close as the score would make you think, and Ben Johnson quickly got the news of his firing from Athletic Director Mark Coyle. For Coyle, nothing that Johnson did in his four years of running the team warranted giving Johnson a shot at rebuilding the team with the bigger payroll that will be available when the Gophers start receiving NCAA revenue sharing money from the NCAA. Fair? Johnson’s teams were 22-57 in the Big Ten, a .278 winning percentage, and 56-71 overall. He also was competing in a conference where other teams already have more resources to recruit through NIL money, an area where Minnesota has lagged. Coyle has promised to speak with reporters on Friday.
FALLING APART: Via Marcus Fuller at Star Tribune. VERBATIM: “Lacking adequate NIL money contributed to the Gophers losing six players to the transfer portal from 2023-24, including starters Elijah Hawkins and Pharrel Payne to Texas Tech and Texas A&M. Cam Christie also was picked by the Los Angeles Clippers in the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft after an All-Big Ten freshman season for the Gophers. . . . In November, the Gophers inked a solid class with Parker Jefferson and Jacob Ross from Southern California and Kai Shinholster from Philadelphia. Jefferson was a 6-10, four-star recruit from Inglewood. But transfer portal additions and losses defined Johnson’s tenure with his ability to build a competitive roster.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/fired0313
MIDDLE-OF-THE-NIGHT MEETING: Via Andy Greder at Pioneer Press. VERBATIM: “In the wee hours Thursday morning, Gophers men’s basketball coach Ben Johnson was let go by Athletics Director Mark Coyle. But why did the U drop the news at 1:07 a.m.? Coyle, who hired Johnson in March 2021, wanted share his decision in-person and communicate it promptly after the season ended Wednesday, sources told the Pioneer Press. . . . One source emphasized how Coyle wanted to do it swiftly and as respectfully as possible under the tough circumstances.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/meeting0313
OOPS? On Wednesday, the ESPN “coaching carousel tracker” reported that Johnson “is likely to get another year at Minnesota.” The usually useful page includes news from around the nation, but know that its batting average is less that 1.000. TRACKER: https://fluence-media.co/tracker0313
IF YOU WERE WONDERING: 63% of those who responded to last week’s Sports Take poll said that Johnson should not be replaced.
WHO’S NEXT? The media lists are forming. Greder’s list is headed by Colorado State’s Niko Medved, a former Gophers assistant and associate head coach at Macalester. He has two others with Minnesota connections and a former LSU coach who is getting a second chance after a major recruiting scandal. Marcus Fuller’s features Medved, former Timberwolves head coach Ryan Saunders and two mid-major coaches in Iowa. Sports Illustrated’s Tony Liebert has the sons of two former Minnesota coaches as “dream scenarios.” ESPN’s Jeff Borzello has a list of 20 coaches at low- and mid-majors who are ready for a look for power conferences. It also includes a list of coaches who aren’t likely to move on for one reason or another.
THE LISTS: Greder | Fuller | Liebert | Borzello
MORE ON MEDVED: Via Liebert at Sports Illustrated. VERBATIM: “As a native of Roseville, Minn., Medved is 51 years old, and he's in the middle of his seventh season as the head coach of Colorado State. The Rams are one of the hottest teams in college basketball, winning 12 of their last 14 games and seven in a row. They're the No. 2 seed in this year's Mountain West Tournament, and they're looking for their third NCAA Tournament appearance in the last four seasons.” One insider I chatted with this morning thinks Medved is the favorite.
WATCH HIM WORK: Colorado State is the No. 2 seed in the Mountain West tournament and plays a quarterfinal game tonight against Nevada. (7 p.m., CBS Sports Network). DREAM MATCHUP: Colorado State vs. No. 1 seed New Mexico, coached by Richard Pitino, for the conference championship. If it happens, it’ll be at 5 p.m. Saturday on CBS.
SPEAKING OF PITINO: Johnson’s predecessor is being mentioned prominently as a candidate for openings at Virginia and North Carolina State after another successful year at New Mexico.
VETERAN WRITER DISAPPOINTED: I sought out Charles Hallman on the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, who is a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame. He’s at the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference postseason tournament this weekend and responded from the tournament site in Virginia. VERBATIM: “I am extremely disappointed when waking up this morning and learn that Ben Johnson was fired. First of all, I had hoped that he would get another year but the Northwestern loss was bad. Johnson was a good coach who had to deal with a upheaval roster each year of his tenure. He came at the same time that the NIL unregulated era arrived. Minnesota unfortunately was tardy on getting a handle on it and fell dangerously behind in the NIL race. Is this to blame for Johnson’s non-success? This can be debated.”
MORE HALLMAN: “I attended Johnson's practices on many occasions and saw first hand how hard he and his staff worked, and for the most part his players played hard for him. The main problem was they were not talented enough to effectively compete in the Big Ten. Last year he did well but (key) players left. Historically Minnesota is not a destination place for coaches except in a few instances — Clem Haskins and Ben Johnson are examples. They both wanted to be here and didn't see the Gophers as a stopping point in route to a better job. Is there a coach out there Mark Coyle would hire who is hungry as they were for a real chance to succeed. May I say someone Black?”
HALLMAN ON THE MEDIA: “I am always concerned about the local media and elsewhere who act like pseudo-search committees and float names openly and boldly who they feel are excellent candidates — who often aren't Black unless they are the usual suspects or aren't thinking about leaving their job to come here. Minnesota is not a great program, but a mid-major disguised as a big-time one. Too much history has proven otherwise.”
SPARE THE SYMPATHY: When the Final Four was at the Metrodome in 2001, Star Tribune asked former Minneapolis Community and Technical College Coach Jay Pivec to write from a coach’s viewpoint. Some of what he wrote is very relevant today. VERBATIM: “Most Division I coaches want people to believe that this lack of job security should be alarming and that the public should feel sorry for them. However, before the public buys that, those coaches have to prove that being fired and collecting (large severance payments) is worthy of sympathy. The coaching carousel takes place at every level. The real hardship takes place at the smaller colleges, where most coaches live paycheck to paycheck, like most people. When they lose jobs, the unemployment line is just a bounce pass away. . . . There are x amount of coaching jobs and y number of coaches. All of us are looking for the big payday. So, as one coach put it, there's a feeding frenzy when a job opens. Not only do coaches campaign for the job, but in most cases they step on the carcass of the former coach in doing so.”
MORE PIVEC? Pivec published a memoir — The Book of Piv — last year. You can buy it here: https://fluence-media.co/piv0313
ONE MORE VIEW: Via Chip Scoggins at Star Tribune. VERBATIM: “I would argue that the university still has not recovered entirely from the Clem Haskins’ academic fraud scandal. That case has haunted the University for two-plus decades and influenced how leaders view and treat athletics, creating a cautious approach, as if they live in fear of a bogeyman re-appearing. I still hear employees in various roles talk about it as if the dark cloud never completely went away. People that had no ties to the school or Minnesota at the time still feel it.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/chip0313
COUNTERPOINT: The scandal first reported by the Pioneer Press was 26 years ago. There’s been plenty of time to get beyond it. Bad decisions at many levels in the quarter-century since are the culprit. Anyone at the U still living that far in the past ought to be ashamed.
EXTREME MAKEOVER: It’s been a whirlwind week for the Vikings as free-agent contracts were agreed to and signed. One shortcut to the latest is Star Tribune’s free-agent tracker. TAP HERE: https://fluence-media.co/fatracker
BIGGEST MOVES: After going big on edge rushers last season, the Vikings sought out major upgrade to the middle of the defensive line, bringing in Jonathan Allen from the Commanders and Javon Hargrave from the 49ers.
ALSO BIG: Making a three-year, $66 million commitment to cornerback Byron Murphy Jr.
MORE INTRIGUING MOVE: Signing center Ryan Kelly away from the Colts. What does that mean for the incumbent Garrett Bradbury? My guess that it doesn’t mean anything good for Bradbury, who is in the last year of his contract. The move was made more intriguing by the signing of guard Will Fries from the Colts. That was the bigger deal (five years, $88 million) compared to two years and $18 million for Kelly.
BIGGEST LOSSES: Safety Camryn Bynum and his choreography going to Indianapolis for four years and $60 million and Sam Darnold getting three years and $100 million from Seattle. Here’s a list of available free-agent quarterbacks from Spotrac.
HAPPY MOVES: Harrison Smith coming back at free safety for his 14th season with the team. Aaron Jones returning to play running back, presumably with a younger teammate to share more time with him.
BIGGEST QUESTION REMAINING: The Vikings have clearly opted to build a veteran team around young quarterback J.J. McCarthy for his rookie season 2.0. But who backs him up? MY TOP THREE: 1. Jameis Winston. 2. Joe Flacco. 3. Gardner Minshew. MY BIAS: Approaching this as if the Aaron Rodgers chatter isn’t happening.
MORE GOPHERS UPDATES: The last week hasn’t brought an abundance of good cheer to the Gophers as their winter sports wind down. Some quick takes and set-ups.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: From a 16-1 start to a 20-11 finish and a seventh straight season without a winning record in the conference. In ESPN’s NCAA bracket predictions, the Gophers dropped in the final weeks from being a sure thing to not even being one of the four best teams to not get a bid. They’ll likely end up in the WNIT, where they lost in the 2024 title game.
WOMEN’S HOCKEY: A bright spot. Minnesota lost 4-3 to No. 1 Wisconsin in the WCHA title game when the Badgers scored with 25 seconds left. The Gophers are the No. 4 seed in the 11-team NCAA field and play No. 5 Colgate on Saturday at Ridder Arena (2 p.m., ESPN+). Winner goes to the Frozen Four, which starts a week from Friday at Ridder. If the Gophers get there, they’ll likely meet Wisconsin again, and try to beat them after five unsuccessful attempts. TICKETS: https://fluence-media.co/minncolgate0313
MEN’S HOCKEY: Gophers were stunned by Notre Dame in a best-of-three Big Ten playoff series between the Nos. 2 and 7 seeds. GOOD NEWS: Minnesota is still seeded No. 4 overall in the NCAA PairWise rankings, which would get them a No, 1 seed in a regional. BAD NEWS: Depending on the outcome of other conference tournaments they could be knocked down a bit in the rankings and lose that top regional seed. Also, the quick exit means the Gophers won’t play again until March 27 or 28. That’s a long time to be idle.
WRESTLING: Gophers finished fourth in the Big Ten meet last weekend and qualified nine wrestlers for the NCAA championships, which begin next Thursday in Philadelphia. The Minnesota group is led by Gable Steveson, who became the first heavyweight wrestler in Big Ten history to win four conference titles and has now won 66 matches in a row. TRIVIA: The only other Gophers wrestler in any weight class to win four Big Ten titles? Verne Gagne in the 1940s.
Patrick Reusse gave a corner of the Internet something to talk about over the weekend with a badly worded Tweet from a Gophers baseball game that led to the Star Tribune columnist shutting down his X account. He shared his distress about hearing the Beastie Boys’ “Brass Monkey” at U.S. Bank Stadium and used the phrase “ ******* monkey rap song” to describe it.
REMARKABLY BAD PHRASE? Yes. If I had seen that on social media before I knew how things played out, I would have pulled up and wondered WTF. Without context, I would not have said to myself, “Oh, Patrick hates the Beastie Boys.” (Yes, I have them on my Spotify.) A friend of mine, who is a fan of the group, said the same.
REUSSE A RACIST? No. I’m weighing in because I’ve known Reusse for more than 40 years – from when he worked at the St. Paul newspaper and I was writing about outstate sports for what was then called the Minneapolis Tribune. We competed against each other, we traveled together, we partnered on stories.
Reusse treats people the way you want to treat people.
As a columnist, Reusse pricks the balloons of the self-important rather than catering to them. He goes road-tripping to write about ordinary people doing extraordinary things, my favorite kind of journalism. After an awkward start, which he’s acknowledged, Reusse is among the top advocates for women’s sports in Twin Cities media.
On X, the tweet was cause for many who have a grievance with Reusse – especially the Gophers fanboys who don’t like his poking and prodding at P.J. Fleck – to go off on him. It was the standard name calling and coarseness of keyboard warriors. On Bluesky, which he joined this week, his defenders have largely taken a get-over-it stance. There, I am struck by the white, ableist lefty cohort’s unwillingness to acknowledge how badly the phrase hits for people who aren’t like them.
Now that you’ve stayed with me on this, here’s the Tweet: https://fluence-media.co/tweet0313
Here’s Star Tribune management’s response on social media: https://fluence-media.co/strib0313
Here’s the Daily Delivery podcast in which Reusse talks to Star Tribune’s Michael Rand about what happened: https://fluence-media.co/reusse0313
TWO WEEKS FROM OPENING DAY: As much as I love baseball, I don’t watch much during spring training. It’s an environment ripe for false positives and concerns that turn out to be unfounded. I am perpetually skeptical about reports of better health and optimistic that young players will improve. I don’t have expectations as much as I have pleas.
THREE PLEAS FOR 2025: (1) That Joe Ryan is 100% healthy after the shoulder strain that ended his 2024 season in early August. (2) That first base and second base are filled by guys playing well rather than whoever is available or healthy. My best-case outcome has Jose Miranda at first base and Brooks Lee at second, although I suspect that Ty France will get the first shot at being the regular first baseman. (3) That the change is Twins hitting philosophy — emphasis on contact and situation hitting — takes hold.
GREAT RESOURCE: Via fangraphs.com. Find almost anything you could possibly want to know about the Twins. If an acronym mystifies you, run a search for the definition. BOOKMARK: https://fluence-media.co/fangraphs2025
NO SALE SOON: Via La Velle E. Neal III at Star Tribune. I voiced skepticism pretty much from the start of the process that the Twins would be sold quickly. Neal’s reporting from spring training reinforces that. VERBATIM: The Pohlad family is in its sixth month of exploring a sale of its No. 1 asset: The Minnesota Twins. And I expect it will take as long as another six months before a new owner assumes control of the team. That’s the sense I’m getting here at spring training after speaking with several people with at least some knowledge — including some with direct knowledge — of the sale process. MORE: https://fluence-media.co/sale0313
GREAT GIRLS’ BASKETBALL: One area where Minnesota thrives beyond most other states in girls’ basketball — and keeping up on the state tournament, which runs through Sunday, will confirm that. If you pick one game to watch, it should be the Class 2A title game at 6 p.m. Saturday (Ch. 45 and PREP45 on the web). Providence Academy, led by superstar and Kentucky-committed junior Maddyn Greenway, will likely play either Crosby-Ironton (ft. junior and Gophers commit Tori Oehrlein) or Minnehaha Academy (ft. senior and Maryland-bound Addi Mack). Here’s a list of a dozen top players to follow.
TOURNAMENT GUIDE: Links to brackets, a tournament program and more are here.
FULL HOUSE, BIG WIN: While you may have been watching the thrilling Class AA boys’ hockey title game in which Moorhead held off Stillwater 7-6, a full house of 700 filled Augsburg’s arena along I-94 to watch the women’s hockey team beat Gustavus 3-2 in overtime to win the MIAC title and get a spot in the D-III nationals. The game-winner was scored by Aunna Schulte, who also scored the winning goal the previous week against St. Mary’s — ending a four-overtime game. A week from Saturday, the Auggies will host the winner of a play-in game between the Gusties and St. Norbert in the quarterfinals. The play-in game is at 4 p.m. Saturday in St. Peter. The semifinals and finals are in River Falls on March 28 and 30. WATCH: https://fluence-media.co/d3puck0313.
WATCH: Game-winner vs St. Mary’s | Game-winner vs. Gustavus.
GUSTIES GO EAST: Gustavus is the only Minnesota D-III basketball team — men’s or women’s — that made it through the first two rounds of the national tournament. Winning at 4 p.m. Friday against McMurry and at 5:30 p.m. Saturday against the Smith/Bowdoin winner will get the Gusties to next weekend’s Final Four in Salem, Va. WATCH: https://fluence-media.co/gusties0313
RANDOLPH RESIGNS: Via Conrad Engstrom at Brainerd Dispatch: After coaching the Northern Lakes cooperative team for one season and taking it to the state tournament for the first time, Mike Randolph resigned from the job. Randolph, 73, is the winningest high school coach in state history with 728 victories — most of them coming when he was at Duluth East. VERBATIM: “When I coached at St. Thomas Academy for three years prior, I purchased an apartment in Eagan that was five minutes away from one of my daughter’s places and three of my grandkids,” Randolph said. “My wife still has stuff to do in Duluth and during the course of the season, being able to see family became much more difficult working in Pequot Lakes. So, the decision came down to what’s best for my family.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/randolph0313
AND FINALLY: In case you’ve never heard it.
Thanks for reading. Back with more next week.
HOWARD ON THE WEB:
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Instagram: @howardsinkermn
Tips: sportstake@fluence-media.com
HOW TO WATCH ALMOST ANYTHING
ESPN's guide to sports on about 250 channels and streaming services: https://fluence-media.co/3T4rYw4
Minnesota Division II and III sports: MIAC Network | Northern Sun Network | Upper Midwest Network
NSPN Minnesota high school livestreams: https://fluence-media.co/3My8Tyv
NFHS Minnesota high school livestreams: https://fluence-media.co/3MvFSU6