Another View by Charles Hallman
This occasional series will highlight Black coaches at all levels of sport. This week: Minnesota MBB Coach Ben Johnson and Indiana MBB Coach Mike Woodson
Ben Johnson is the first Minneapolis native to coach men’s basketball at the University of Minnesota. He cut his coaching teeth as an assistant coach at several schools, including his U of M alma mater, before getting his first head coaching opportunity in 2021, the same year Mike Woodson was hired at his alma mater Indiana University.
Both Johnson and Woodson begin their respective fourth seasons on the job this fall as the Big Ten’s only Black men’s basketball head coaches. We talked to both coaches in separate interviews during the recent Big Ten media days in Chicago, and earlier talked to Johnson at the school’s practice facility on campus.
“It’s me and Ben,” said Woodson matter-of-factly.
Johnson’s fourth season as Gopher HC will see the opposing head coach also Black seven times at The Barn; two of them are HBCU coaches. The team returns five players from last season’s 19-15 squad, but only two starters. The Gophers were 16-4 at home, and its win improvement from the previous season was the best in the Big Ten and one of the best nationally among Power 5 schools.
“I don’t want these guys to come here and not feel like they can’t win,” said Johnson to reporters, including the MSR prior to official practices last month. “To win nine league games, to win 19 games, to get in the postseason in the NIT and to win a game on the road, there’s a lot of winning that went into that.
“Their mindset has to be that, has to reflect that. They got to carry themselves in everything they do, as we’re building off last year even though we’re a new team.”
Woodson’s Hoosiers also look to improve this season after not making the NCAAs last season; they made the big tournament in Woodson’s first two years in Bloomington. “We took a step backwards last year by not making the tournament, and that was disappointing,” noted the head coach. “We’ve got to move forward.”
Both Black coaches had player departures, now a regular staple in today’s transfer portal landscape. “It is challenging,” Woodson told me. Johnson added that it’s just the way it is and they must adjust accordingly.
And of course both coaches also realize that they are Black head coaches, and unfortunately sometimes undue and unrealistic criticism comes along with this, something that their non-Black counterparts don’t always face.
“I was in an environment in the NBA where we were fighting to get more Black head coaches,” recalled Woodson, who twice was a head coach (Atlanta and New York Knicks). “It’s just the way sports look at [us].”
“There are a lot of Black coaches out there just as good. One day they hopefully will get a shot. I really believe that.”
Mike Woodson
Johnson pointed out that he hopes that Black coaches are hired “not in a lull in hiring. Hopefully people that make the hires understand that.
“You know some guys are given an opportunity where it’s like hard to fail, and other guys are given an opportunity where it might be a harder place to win and not always penalized guys. Or guys that are given a second or third opportunity should not look a certain way.
“Hopefully other guys get the benefit of the doubt and that people [who hire] just do their homework when they hire. I think there’s a lot of capable [Black] coaches out there,” he concluded.
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.