A frustrated Ben Johnson stood outside the visitors locker room at Northwestern on Saturday night. The fourth loss in the past five regular-season games stung because it overshadowed how much the Gophers men's basketball program has improved under his watch.

"I'm so frustrated because I know we're trending in the right direction," the third-year coach told the Star Tribune after the team's most lopsided loss of the season, a 90-66 dud at sold-out Welsh-Ryan Arena.

At 43, Johnson is still the Big Ten's youngest men's basketball coach, and he faced major fan criticism after two last-place finishes to start his tenure. Johnson went from a potential hot seat to hearing his name mentioned as a possible conference coach of the year.

He took a Gophers team picked to finish last again to tied for ninth in the Big Ten.

"Total body of work, I thought we did a really good job this year," Johnson said, adding that he's far from satisfied.

Entering a Big Ten tournament second-round game against Michigan State on Thursday at Target Center, the Gophers (18-13, 9-11 Big Ten) are the No. 9 seed and tied for their best conference finish since 2018-19.

A nine-win improvement from last year is bittersweet for the Gophers because they were in position to accomplish much more. An NCAA tournament bubble spot and even a top-five Big Ten finish were within their grasp before they lost six of their last nine regular-season games.

Dawson Garcia and Elijah Hawkins had All-Big Ten-caliber seasons. Hawkins led the conference in assists and broke team records. Cam Christie proved worthy of all-league freshman honors.

"All that stuff is positive, but we've got to find a way to build on that, so we have some momentum," Johnson said. "I want it for these guys so bad. I know they want it. We're trying to get them to dig deep."

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The Gophers could have an advantage in the Big Ten tournament playing in front of the home crowd. The only realistic chance they have at an NCAA tournament berth is if they win the conference tourney and secure the automatic bid.

Johnson said his players understand that, so they wouldn't mind an NIT title run to keep the season going if it comes to that.

"The more we can play together and taste success, the better," Johnson said. "Obviously, you want to be in the NCAA tournament. If we're not fortunate enough to do that, can we get into the NIT? We can have a chance to win a championship against teams that are really good."

The Gophers haven't been invited to the NIT since winning the championship in Richard Pitino's first season as coach in 2013-14. Their last postseason berths were NCAA tournaments under Pitino in 2017 and 2019.

There's nothing in Johnson's contract about the NIT, but he was two Big Ten wins away from receiving a $50,000 bonus for finishing at least a game above .500 in the conference.

Johnson could be in line to have his contract adjusted anyway based on the improvement the Gophers have shown this season. Originally hired with a five-year contract worth $1.95 million annually, he received a one-year extension through 2026-27 before finishing 9-22 last season.

Once arguably coaching for his job, Johnson instead made the Gophers one of the conference's surprise teams.

"He's grown a lot, but he's been a great coach since he's been here," Garcia said. "I think people are starting to recognize he's the future of the program."

Gophers athletics director Mark Coyle has fully supported Johnson even when attendance numbers were declining and eventually reached the lowest since 1969-70. Average attendance at Williams Arena dropped from 9,451 last season to 8,139 this season, but the atmosphere at games improved.

The Gophers also went from six to 16 home wins, their most since 2016-17. But just as their final road game was a disappointment at Northwestern, they also were flat in a 70-58 home loss to Indiana last week. Johnson understands the past two games have left fans and even his players "with a little sour taste."

"We're better than we've shown," Johnson said. "For the most part with a new group that bought in, I thought it continued to get better as the year went on. They continued to believe and grow and develop to win nine games in the league and get themselves in the middle of the road [in the Big Ten]."

That's surely a positive step for what used to be the Big Ten's worst program.