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What new Minnesota head basketball coach Ben Johnson said during his introductory press conference

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

It didn’t take long for Minnesota to find its new basketball coach.

One week after parting ways with Richard Pitino, the school announced the hiring of alum, former Gopher player and assistant coach Ben Johnson as the next leader of the program. He returns to Minnesota after spending the last three seasons at Xavier as an assistant.

Johnson played at Minnesota for two seasons in the mid-2000s, transferring in from Northwestern. He was also an assistant coach on Pitino’s staff from 2013-18 and has other B1G experience, serving as an assistant coach at Nebraska under former head coach Tim Miles.

On Tuesday, one day after Minnesota made the hire official, Johnson met with the media to discuss the opportunity to return to Minnesota, his plan for the program and how to find success with the Golden Gophers’ basketball team.

Here’s what Johnson had to say:

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB