New U of M basketball coach Ben Johnson returns to his roots

In the mid 1990s, Ben Johnson was an eighth-grader seeking admission to DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis. Even then, the school’s admissions director, Mike O’Keefe, himself an alumnus (1978), saw potential that resulted in, more than two decades later, Johnson being named the men’s head basketball coach at the University of Minnesota March 22.

Now 40, Johnson, a member of DeLaSalle’s Hall of Fame and an all-state basketball and football player who helped the Islanders win back-to-back state Class AA boys basketball titles in 1998 and 1999, is taking over a struggling program that saw only hints of excellence under former coach Richard Pitino, who was fired after eight seasons March 15 shortly after this season ended.

The news of Johnson’s hiring is delightful but not surprising for O’Keefe, who stills works in admissions more than 25 years after helping make the decision to accept Johnson as an incoming freshman. Johnson attended grade school at Christ the King-St. Thomas the Apostle School in Minneapolis (now Carondelet Catholic School).

“I think the best thing I can say is that Ben is just a great man; he was a great young man (at DeLaSalle) and he’s a great man to this day,” O’Keefe said. “All of us who have been watching his ascension through the ranks of coaching are also confident that he’s going to do a great job” as head coach at the U of M.

Johnson played his last two years of college at the U, then jumped right into coaching after his graduation in 2005. He served as an assistant at Minnesota from 2013-2018 under Pitino, and played a big role in recruiting, helping the Gophers land several standout players, including a pair now playing in the NBA for the Los Angeles Clippers — Daniel Oturu and Amir Coffey.

During a radio interview by the University of Minnesota March 23, the day of his first press conference, Johnson called landing the head coaching job “a dream come true.”

“This state, this place, means so much to me,” said Johnson, who called going to DeLaSalle one of the highlights of his life. “I was that kid in south Minneapolis riding my bike trying to find gyms and parks to play (basketball) at. … It’s kind of come full circle. So, if you would have told me at any point in my life that that was going to be the trajectory and that this was going to be the outcome (coaching at the U), I would have said you’re crazy. But, like I said, it’s a dream come true and I couldn’t be happier.”

One of the attributes O’Keefe saw when Johnson went to DeLaSalle in the 1990s and still sees today is character. He said he is confident Johnson will work to instill that in his players. That was something Johnson brought up during the radio interview when he was asked what kind of team he wants to build at Minnesota.

“The first thing is, we want to recruit, and we’re going to have character people in our program — myself, our staff, obviously, our players and the kids we will bring in as future recruits,” said Johnson, who grew up attending Mass at St. Leonard of Port Maurice in Minneapolis with his two sisters and his parents, Hal and Katie. “Core values (mean) a lot to me, and we need to develop a culture of consistent core values — trust, integrity and competitiveness.”