Gophers' Ben Johnson and Penn State's Micah Shrewsberry walk similar paths

Gophers coach Ben Johnson and Penn State's Micah Shrewsberry took a different path to land their jobs than most of the head coaches in the Big Ten.

It's rare that power conference schools hire assistants to lead their men's basketball programs — and it happens even less with Black coaches.

The Gophers (11-10, 2-10 Big Ten) host the Nittany Lions (9-11, 4-8) on Saturday. Johnson and Shrewsberry were the first Black assistants hired as first-time head coaches in the Big Ten since Indiana's Mike Davis in 2001.

Northwestern and Wisconsin are the most recent Big Ten teams to hire white head coaches who only had experience as college assistants, with Chris Collins (in 2013) and Greg Gard (2016), respectively.

"You don't see it very often, especially with your first job," Johnson said Friday. "Normally there's a couple steps in between before you make the jump, so we've definitely talked about that."

Not long ago, there were no Black men's basketball head coaches in the Big Ten.

Last year, Michigan's Juwan Howard was the lone flag bearer, but now there are a record five Black coaches, including Indiana's Mike Woodson and Maryland's interim coach Danny Manning.

"I know how good the coaches are in this league," Shrewsberry said earlier this season. "For me to get an opportunity like this from being an assistant coach is something that is very special."

The Gophers, who lost 78-65 at Nebraska on Wednesday, have dropped nine of the past 10 games. Penn State has been close to breaking through but has six losses in eight games. The past two defeats were by a combined three points against Wisconsin and Michigan.

"We're both going through the same thing at the same time as head coaches making your first jump at the highest level," said Johnson, a former Gophers assistant. "There's a lot that goes into that. You can bounce ideas off because he literally knows what you're going through."

Shrewsberry, who worked on Purdue coach Matt Painter's staff for four seasons, didn't start off the season with as much praise as Johnson did after the Gophers went 10-1. Penn State had a 5-5 record and lost its first two Big Ten games before three straight games were cancelled because of COVID-19.

In the second game of the season, the Nittany Lions suffered a 25-point loss to Massachusetts, but they were much more competitive a couple weeks later, falling to LSU in overtime.

During the coaching transition, Shrewsberry was able to keep several key players from Pat Chambers' team, notably John Harrar, Myles Dread, Seth Lundy and Sam Sessoms. He also added Siena transfer Jalen Pickett, who is averaging a team-high 12.9 points per game.

Johnson had to replace 10 newcomers after Richard Pitino was fired, but the Gophers also are led by a transfer with Jamison Battle averaging 17.2 points.

Shrewsberry and Johnson have shared philosophies and have similar playing styles. They preach defensive toughness but also rely on outside shooting and perimeter-heavy lineups since the Big Ten is loaded with size and bruising big men.

"He's trying to build and grow the right way and play an exciting style of basketball," Johnson said. "If you look on film, there's more similarities between our two teams than other teams in the league. Some of that is personnel. They're not afraid to go a little bit smaller."

With so few minority assistants going straight into head-coaching jobs in power conferences, Shrewsberry realizes that his success, as well as Johnson's, could help others get future jobs.