A handful of the Gophers men’s basketball team’s poor home losses this season certainly hurt his cause, but Athletics Director Mark Coyle‘s decision to part ways with head coach Ben Johnson early Thursday morning was bigger than that.

“I felt like we just had a lot of inconsistency at times and I just felt looking at the total body of work over the four years, that we needed to make a difficult decision,” Coyle told the Pioneer Press in a short interview midday Thursday.

Coyle is a member of the NCAA men’s tournament selection committee and he is requiring his program be a part of that discussion on a near annual basis.

“If you look across our athletic program, we’ve got 22 programs, all of them are competing at a high level, and men’s basketball has just had a hard time that cracking that nut,” Coyle said. “And that’s where we’ve got to find the right person that can help us take that next step.”

The school has begun a “nationwide search” for its next coach.Johnson was 56-71 overall, 22-57 in Big Ten play over four seasons; his squads were never in serious consideration for March Madness.

The Gophers dipped this season to 15-17 overall, including 7-13 in conference play. The U finished 12th in the Big Ten this season after preseason predictions placed them last (18th) in the newly expanded conference. Their season ended with a first-round loss to Northwestern in the conference tournament Wednesday afternoon and Coyle fired Johnson once the team returned to Minnesota around midnight.

Then the team, coaching and support staff and other stakeholders were notified. In an early-morning statement, Coyle thanked Johnson for his dedication and leadership.

Coyle, a member of the NCAA Tournament selection committee, was also in Indiana for meetings on Wednesday, but not the same area as the Big Ten tournament in downtown Indianapolis, making logistics difficult to share the decision with Johnson soon after the team lost in the afternoon, a source said. One source emphasized how Coyle wanted to do it swiftly and as respectfully as possible under the tough circumstances.

After flying separately to Minnesota to share the news with Johnson, Coyle made an early morning flight back to Indiana on Thursday as his role in the NCAA process ramps up through Selection Sunday.

“This is an extremely desirable job in one of the best conferences and cities in the nation,” Coyle said in his prepared statement, “and we fully expect to compete at the highest level on and off the court.”

But the Gophers have one of the lowest NIL (name, image and likeness) funds in the Big Ten at less than $1 million; they play in a nearly 100-year-old Williams Arena; and the U has made only six NCAA tournaments in 26 seasons since 2000.

After going 4-16 in Big Ten in Year 1 and 2-17 in Year 2, Minnesota improved to 9-11 in conference play (ninth place) last season, then lost center Pharrel Payne and point guard Elijah Hawkins to bigger NIL deals at Texas A&M and Texas Tech, respectively, and freshman shooting guard Cam Christie to the NBA draft.

Their 7-13 mark this year was a broader example of the inconsistency Coyle referenced.

Minnesota now owes Johnson a $2.9 million buyout in addition to paying a new coach’s salary, and perhaps a buyout to another school to bring him to Minnesota. Johnson’s current total pay of $2 million was a relative bargain, coming in at 62nd in the nation, according to USA Today.

This hiring process comes as college sports are entering a critical crossroads with the expected addition of revenue sharing directly from schools to players. Big Ten programs are expected to have a little more than $20 million to spend annually, and Minnesota plans to distribute more to men’s basketball than its Big Ten peers, the Pioneer Press confirmed.

Coyle, who was brought aboard in 2016, will need to hire a second head coach after he fired Richard Pitino after Pitino’s eighth season in charge in 2020-21.

The speed of the news comes less than a day after ESPN reported Johnson was “likely” to receive a fifth season at Minnesota. And it dropped a week after college basketball reporter Seth Davis wrote how difficult he viewed the coaching job at the U.

Johnson sounded hopeful about the future after Wednesday’s 72-64 loss to Northwestern. At Gainbridge Fieldhouse, he turned his attention to retention of current players and adding newcomers for next season when the NCAA transfer portal opens later this month.

“We’ve got to attack the portal and be able to take a step,” Johnson told reporters. “I like some of the guys that are going to return, whether it’s (guard Isaac Asuma), whether it’s (forward Frank Mitchell), some other guys that have some options they’ve got to think about. We’ve got to do a better job in the portal of just identifying guys that are going to be able to just be really impactful and (I’m) thankful to have the resources now to do it.”