Talking about Tony Bennett of course. He's a first ballot Hall of Famer and maybe, maybe the best basketball coach on the planet but in the NCAAT when the stakes are raised and everyone is playing at full capacity on the big stage his teams usually go home early. It is crazy to think he has only 2 Sweet 16's at UVa. I dont think he's ever out-performed his seedline. Even at Wazzu, Stallings got him as a 6 seed when his Klay Thompson-lead team earned a 3 seed.
Is this the year Mr. January gets to the Sweet 16?
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
- Start date
Yes - they will get to the Sweet 16
Sort of a joke. He wins 30 games a year and has only been 2 to 2 Sweet 16's (one of which ended in an Elite 8). This UVa team iz going to 32-3 and lose to an 8 seed in the 2nd Round.
Dude, you’re a clown. Virginia has only really been elite the last 5 years, and they have a sweet 16 and elite 8.
I still think his best team was that one that inexplicably blew that huge lead late to Syracuse in the Elite 8.
Obviously they will be huge favorites to get that far, but they will be under a lot of scrutiny and pressure. If they draw the wrong type of team in the 2nd (UCF or someone similar) they could easily be in trouble.
The committee will give them a tough region, like they used to do to Pitt, until they can break through.
It’s almost like it’s hard to have a great program capable of making consistent deep runs.
Well he’s going to have to get to the final 4 to outperform his seed line this year. Or...he may be a 1 seed and have to get to the Final Four just to meet expectations.
Speaking of this subject, does Dixon have strong guard play this year? His team hung a load of points on WVU last night. Maybe this is the year he breaks through.
He has never exceeded his seed line? Could this be true? He’s been there 9 years and was at Washington St before that. I’d be willing to bet he’s done so somewhere along the line. No on coaches that long with that amount of success and doesn’t meet or exceed his seed line at least once.
But thats an incredible stat if true, considering 9 teams in 2018 did so in the first round alone! Without looking, I’d bet 12 teams per year on average exceed their seed line. At least.
Bennett better hope he continues to recruit and his program doesn’t slip to a point to where he’s virtually a bubble team every year. If he can’t get it done when he’s a high seed, what kind of hope would his fan base have if he’s barely squeaking in or worse missing the tourney completely.
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I watched it was a blood bath. They can shoot and drive. They play 4 out . Lots of space and lots of shooters . Time will tell.
Of equal interest will be whether Virginia can make it to, or through, the tournament without a key injury. 2016 was the only season under Bennett where there were none. Admittedly, they choked in the final minutes against Syracuse in the Elite Eight, but, then again, it was the Elite Eight.
He never has. Not even at Wazzu. To be fair, he is always a high seed so you get more opportunities to go out earlier than you should.
@73CAV You probably have figured it out from this thread; but, a portion of Pitt fandom loathed (and maybe still does) Jamie Dixon for his teams under-performing their seeding in the NCAA tourney. They perceive a growing analogy to Dixon in Bennett--especially after the UMBC loss. So much regular season success and so very little by comparison in the tourney made them disgruntled.
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Short answer: He is adored. After the dark years of Gillen and Leitao, Virginia fans are giddy with the successes of Bennett. Most feel it is only a matter of time before tournament success happens. Given the current state of the program, it seems likely. Only Salt graduates this year, but Hunter probably enters the draft. If Salt's replacement isn't on the active roster (Huff), then he is redshirting (Caffaro). Fans are also excited about the incoming frosh (Morsell & Shedrick). Life is good and we're all wearing sunglasses.
I wish pitt fans has had the same perspective. If Capel ever got to the point that they were getting high seeds regularly but not making final fours, the fanbase would turn on him.
BTW, the true irony of this thread is that the OP is mocking a coach for underperforming in the tournament, but yet his namesake is a coach that has never made a FF, that cheats, and coaches at a blue blood school that practically sale itself.
Bennett may yet find a way to break through in the NCAA tourney. I suspect he will. His program is firing on all cylinders. Having all that talent and being rewarded with high seeds will allow him to break through at some point. And he’s still recruiting. It’s how we all felt about Jamie at one time.
And in the event that his recruiting slips and his performance dips to a point where attendance starts dipping and administration starts applying some heat and ultimately decide to part ways...he will have left the program in a better position at Virginia than when he started. While Jamie didn’t leave our program where it was when he started, he still did a great job over a long period that left a positive lasting impression on college basketball people.
Jeff Capel made a comment the other night about the fans, the crowd, the zoo...and he said it was one of the reasons why he came here. He remembered how it was here when things were good. Jamie was the main reason for that. If it wasn’t for the job Dixon did here, I’m 100% confident we wouldn’t have Jeff Capel...and we’d be turning over coaching jabronis every couple years like we do with our football program.
And in the event that his recruiting slips and his performance dips to a point where attendance starts dipping and administration starts applying some heat and ultimately decide to part ways...he will have left the program in a better position at Virginia than when he started. While Jamie didn’t leave our program where it was when he started, he still did a great job over a long period that left a positive lasting impression on college basketball people.
Jeff Capel made a comment the other night about the fans, the crowd, the zoo...and he said it was one of the reasons why he came here. He remembered how it was here when things were good. Jamie was the main reason for that. If it wasn’t for the job Dixon did here, I’m 100% confident we wouldn’t have Jeff Capel...and we’d be turning over coaching jabronis every couple years like we do with our football program.
Pretty darn spot on. There is one thing that bothers me about this whole saga: you have people on one side that I see CONSTANTLY going out of their way to bash Jamie. It is a class on psycology. Literally hilarious. I saw someone say “that was a jamie timeout” and im thinking, “so now its a capel timeout right?” Alot of ways to skin the cat in basketball. We are Pitt. We never won a title, yet people basically drove dixon out of town right or wrong for not doing so. Actually, I am glad hes gone. Clear to me that he wasnt “in” it anymore. Case in point: hes recruited I believe 9 4 stars in 3 years at TCU. Doubt hes cheating. Anyways, I love Capel. Just hate seeing a fan base bash a coach who by all accounts has done most right. Maybe not a players coach in the sense that hes there to keep everyone happy. But he won and wins. Anyhoo, capel can too. I like our trajectory. But I just remind yall: stay even keeled. We aint winning a title anytime soon.
I’ll add one other thing that I forgot to put in my post. Jamie may have been a big reason why we are in the ACC. The ACC landing Pitt for basketball at the time was a coup. And dixon was our leader who helped put us in that position. But he just wasn’t the guy to lead us once we got there. And it’s ok to say that. It’s not ragging on him. It’s just the reality at the time.
We will never know if he could have turned it around...he’ll, we will never know if the admin was holding him back.
You are correct though, if the b-ball program was mediocre, we probably aren’t in the ACC and are stuck in the anerican.
At the time the ACC negotiations and discussions were going on, we didn’t know they were going on but we were on this board arguing if we were an elite program or not elite. Those were good times.
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"Most feel it is only a matter of time before tournament success happens."
That was the consensus of most Pitt fans about Dixon at one time. Attitudes changed after the Blair and Fields led team lost to Villanova in the Elite 8 and recruiting began to decline, Many Pitt fans became unhappy with only making the NCAAs and not making deep runs.
Its ironic however, that Dixon (like Boeheim) was not pleased we moved to the ACC. His preference was to have remained in the Big East. I believe he thought he was losing his recruiting areas with the move.
And not that I dont expect capel to do really well, but we have been turned down alot by recruits lately. Maybe its the weather lol. Also, if I recall, we were in the running for several prospects like diallo, etc who chose kansas and others . $$$$
We have to stop showing recruits around South oakland as part of their visits.
I think it’s unrealistic to expect deep runs consistently. I’m not sure how many fans expected or expect that moving forward. But what I think we all want is a team that gives us hope that they can win games in the post season and a team that will go out a do it once every few years. The stigma that Jamie had was that even with our best teams, we fell short of expectations. And often it seemed those good teams even caught breaks, brackets would open up for them and they’d have only midmajors in their way, only to lose to them and fall short of expectations.
The NCAAT is another season. A lot of randomness and luck play in. Any fan with half a brain cell should not have wanted Jamie fired due to lack of tournament success. I did not want him to leave. However, considering how poorly he was recruiting, I felt "Dixon II" might be the new "Dixon" so I wasnt broken up when he left. I felt a lot of coaches can get us to bubble status every year.
Uh, really? We turned that entire team over, came back as a three seed in '10, and followed that up with a one seed in '11.
The more I think about it, though, I bet a lot of fans did give up on Dixon at that point. The whole sequences says a lot about our fan support.
my prediction is they get a good seed and in the tournament, the team will come out tight, score 48-54 points and lose to a higher seed..
I know I know, im really going out on a limb with this prediction..
I know I know, im really going out on a limb with this prediction..
