UVA's Tony Bennett retires

If your first thought when Roy Williams abruptly announced his retirement on April 1, 2021 wasn’t that there must be some sort of scandal, then your first thought now that Tony Bennett has a abruptly announced his retirement should not be that there must be some sort of scandal. Obviously they had drastically differing styles and methods of play, but there were probably no two men in all of college sports who were better people than Roy Williams and Tony Bennett, for many of the same exact reasons. And by all accounts, both stepped away from a game that they loved because they no longer recognized the game and what it has become and what it is becoming. I understand that a lot of opposing fans could not stand the style of play, but losing Tony Bennett, just like losing Roy Williams and Mike Kryzyzweski, is a massive, massive net negative for the game of college basketball. Now slimeball jackasses like Nate Oates and Dan Hurley are the elder statesmen. Thank goodness that Carolina and Duke have two absolutely outstanding men leading our programs.
 
There being a scandal and he doing something that in light of modern day's changes is perceived as one isn't the same. I have no reason to think that is the explanation but neither that fact nor the knowledge that real people do atypical things rule out the possibility.
 
CFordUNC said:
If your first thought when Roy Williams abruptly announced his retirement on April 1, 2021 wasn’t that there must be some sort of scandal, then your first thought now that Tony Bennett has a abruptly announced his retirement should not be that there must be some sort of scandal. Obviously they had drastically differing styles and methods of play, but there were probably no two men in all of college sports who were better people than Roy Williams and Tony Bennett, for many of the same exact reasons. And by all accounts, both stepped away from a game that they loved because they no longer recognized the game and what it has become and what it is becoming. I understand that a lot of opposing fans could not stand the style of play, but losing Tony Bennett, just like losing Roy Williams and Mike Kryzyzweski, is a massive, massive net negative for the game of college basketball. Now slimeball jackasses like Nate Oates and Dan Hurley are the elder statesmen. Thank goodness that Carolina and Duke have two absolutely outstanding men leading our programs.
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I think the timing of Bennett's announcement is what made people suspicious. Interestingly, Ron Sanchez resigned abruptly from UNCC in June 2023 after five years as head coach to rejoin Bennett's UVa staff as "associate head coach." I wonder if Bennett's timing is to insure Sanchez is named head coach, rather than announcing in the spring which would allow a full search for a new coach.
 
farce© said:
I think the timing of Bennett's announcement is what made people suspicious. Interestingly, Ron Sanchez resigned abruptly from UNCC in June 2023 after five years as head coach to rejoin Bennett's UVa staff as "associate head coach." I wonder if Bennett's timing is to insure Sanchez is named head coach, rather than announcing in the spring which would allow a full search for a new coach.
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Yeah, that's my guess, is that this has been in the works on Bennett's end for a little while now, and that Sanchez's resignation of a head coaching job to return to UVA as associate head coach was intentional for this very purpose. I think that the evolution of college athletics over the last 5 years- since he won the national championship in 2019- into open-season pay-for-play coupled with the ability to transfer with no restrictions, has made it such that Bennett wasn't long for the college coaching world. I get the sense that Bennett timed the retirement when he did in a similar way to Dean Smith, to ensure that a loyal lieutenant gets the opportunity to prove himself.

I think that Sanchez should get this entire upcoming season as a tryout for the permanent job, but that Virginia should absolutely conduct a national coaching search. It is an attractice job- made far more attractive by Bennett than it was when he arrived in 2009. It's a top 3 ACC program right now, with fantastic facilities, a great home court environment, and robust donor support. I think that Shaka Smart and T.J. Oltzenberger should be two candidates, and I think that you also have to at least ask Rick Carlisle.
 
CFordUNC said:
Yeah, that's my guess, is that this has been in the works on Bennett's end for a little while now, and that Sanchez's resignation of a head coaching job to return to UVA as associate head coach was intentional for this very purpose. I think that the evolution of college athletics over the last 5 years- since he won the national championship in 2019- into open-season pay-for-play coupled with the ability to transfer with no restrictions, has made it such that Bennett wasn't long for the college coaching world. I get the sense that Bennett timed the retirement when he did in a similar way to Dean Smith, to ensure that a loyal lieutenant gets the opportunity to prove himself.

I think that Sanchez should get this entire upcoming season as a tryout for the permanent job, but that Virginia should absolutely conduct a national coaching search. It is an attractice job- made far more attractive by Bennett than it was when he arrived in 2009. It's a top 3 ACC program right now, with fantastic facilities, a great home court environment, and robust donor support. I think that Shaka Smart and T.J. Oltzenberger should be two candidates, and I think that you also have to at least ask Rick Carlisle.
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Does Sanchez run the same slow down game that Bennett does? If so I'm gonna have to pull against him succeeding this year. Would prefer to get that style of play out of the ACC.
 
CFordUNC said:
Yeah, that's my guess, is that this has been in the works on Bennett's end for a little while now, and that Sanchez's resignation of a head coaching job to return to UVA as associate head coach was intentional for this very purpose. I think that the evolution of college athletics over the last 5 years- since he won the national championship in 2019- into open-season pay-for-play coupled with the ability to transfer with no restrictions, has made it such that Bennett wasn't long for the college coaching world. I get the sense that Bennett timed the retirement when he did in a similar way to Dean Smith, to ensure that a loyal lieutenant gets the opportunity to prove himself.

I think that Sanchez should get this entire upcoming season as a tryout for the permanent job, but that Virginia should absolutely conduct a national coaching search. It is an attractice job- made far more attractive by Bennett than it was when he arrived in 2009. It's a top 3 ACC program right now, with fantastic facilities, a great home court environment, and robust donor support. I think that Shaka Smart and T.J. Oltzenberger should be two candidates, and I think that you also have to at least ask Rick Carlisle.
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What about Dawn Staley? That would be interesting.
 
Enigma94 said:
Does Sanchez run the same slow down game that Bennett does? If so I'm gonna have to pull against him succeeding this year. Would prefer to get that style of play out of the ACC.
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I'm not 100% sure but I don't know for certain. I do know that he didn't run that style as HC at UNCC, and I know that there has been talk all offseason about UVA was adjusting their offensive style to push the pace more, so my guess is that their offense will look at least a bit different moving forward.
 
Paine said:
What about Dawn Staley? That would be interesting.
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It's an interesting thought, for sure. She's an incredible coach, and obviously a UVA alumna who happens to be their most decorated women's basketball player. It's hard for me to see a high-major school being the one that breaks the glass ceiling, so to speak, for a woman head coach in a men's sport, but there's no doubt she's a phenomenal coach.
 
CFordUNC said:
It's an interesting thought, for sure. She's an incredible coach, and obviously a UVA alumna who happens to be their most decorated women's basketball player. It's hard for me to see a high-major school being the one that breaks the glass ceiling, so to speak, for a woman head coach in a men's sport, but there's no doubt she's a phenomenal coach.
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Wow I am losing it I did Not rememeber she is an alum
 
Excellent coach, great guy, and will be missed. Didn't like the style, but regardless, that's how they played and you had to maximize every possession against his UVa teams because you weren't going to get many of them. He did a wonderful job of turning that program around.
 
ChileG said:
I hated his style because it seemed like (perhaps my POV was biased) the refs decided that since this is Virginia’s style, then we will let them play tough defense. That often translated to allowing UVAs scrappy “tough” defenders get away with physicality that would get a whistle for players on the opposite team.
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This is how I always felt about Bennett’s schemes. Didn’t necessarily find it super boring to watch like a lot of people say (although it was annoying that they had our number there for awhile), but it’s such a curveball style of defense compared to the rest of the country that it’s like the officials let them play with a different set of rules. I don’t really blame the officials either because it was probably difficult for them to adjust to calling a team that plays that way; it was just an unfortunate byproduct of the scheme.
 
We will miss having Bennett in the ACC. While not always fun to watch, being forced to play the most elite level team using this style of play in conference every year was a great inoculator against running into it in the NCAAT. And while I didn't always enjoy our games against them (especially given how many we lost), it very easily could back to haunt us in a future March Madness.
 
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