Watching yesterday made go back and look at virginia’s records of late. Starting in 2013, here are the following won lost records. 30-7, 30-4,29-8,23-11,31-3,35-3,23-7. Reminded me of listening to Fran frachilla speak at a clinic. He said 2 big keys in building a program were to create a recruiting niche, and then recruit the player to the style you decide to play.Virginia replaces players but style remains same. They might have some better players but they buy into coach bennetts style of play and keep winning every year.There is no end in site for them as the older coaches are nearing the end and he will keep churning out close to 30 wins per year. Have to admire that
Virginia now new king of acc
- Thread starter meadvillecoach
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It’s also not a style that is necessarily conducive to a lot of 1-and-dones or early-out guys going to the pros right away. The key for him will be finding the right players with the mix of high talent and willingness to play the way he demands.
Yesterday, 3 guys that destroyed Pitt were: Hauser - RS SR (transfer from Marquette); Huff - RS SR; Woldetensae - SR (JC transfer). Not a lot of top CBB teams able to be utilizing that much experience and ability. He has guys that are good players and who are willing to wait their turn and play structured, systematic basketball. He’ll likely be able to keep UVA doing well as long as he can continue to recruit and then keep the right players in the pipeline.
Yeah Bennett is a better version of Jamie Dixon in his prime. He proved this by winning the natty.
Bennett is one of the best 5 coaches in college basketball right now.
Why doesn’t he get the same bad wrap for “style of play” that Jamie had?
someone yesterday said that they’re doing the same thing to college basketball that the NJ Devils did to the NHL in the 90s. Pretty good comparison
someone yesterday said that they’re doing the same thing to college basketball that the NJ Devils did to the NHL in the 90s. Pretty good comparison
He may have gotten that type of stigma. But winning the NCAA tournament bought him a lot of credibility.
This is spot on about the way Bennett has built the program. That recruiting niche is exactly what he's been able to carve out at UVA, and he has created a culture there. If you go strictly by recruiting offers and stars, it would seem that almost any big time program can do as well recruiting as what UVA is putting on the floor this year. Huff had offers from Wofford and East Carolina. Clark was not highly recruited at all, and was a fall back recruit for Bennett. Then you have a transfer from Rice and of course Hauser from Marquette. Beekman was fairly highly touted out of Baton Rouge. ...Round that off with the Juco from Italy and Morsell the guard from the DC area who had offers from schools like Maryland, PSU, and VaTech.
I think they are going to continue to put up impressive records under Bennett, but I don't think I would declare them the new 'King of the ACC' just yet. For better or worse, NCAA basketball is a tournament sport. I think the blue-bloods are going to be better built than UVA in most years to make a deep run in the tournament.
I'm not even sure what to make of this year's UVA team, tbh. I think a lot of their success speaks volumes about the weakness of the league. This team is one of Bennett's worst defensively. Obviously they are still well coached, communicate, and play fundamentally sound. They just aren't the most fleet of foot or athletic, and its not near as difficult to create some matchup problems for them or get good shots. Also, the offense has essentially become live or die by the 3. And as we saw in the game at VaTech, UVA had a 10 point lead in the second half and appeared to be cruising to a win when there was suddenly a lid on the basket. The last several minutes of that game were absolutely brutal to watch. Also, I'm a big believer that great guard play is key to advancing in March. I love Kihei Clark. He's a gamer and I love his effort and competitiveness. He's also not afraid to step up when the game is on the line... But that said, you can't have a guy of his talent level playing the bulk of the minutes like he does every night and make a deep run in the tourney. He's a nice little player, but he simply isn't going to cut it for any team with Final Four aspirations, imo.
And just so you know where I'm coming from, I've become a bit of a Wahoo fan since moving to Virginia 6 years ago. My son has several friends that are UVA fans and he as adopted UVA as his team. We went to several games last year at John Paul Jones and took road trips to Wake and VaTech. I just think that for UVA to be considered the league's best program, they have to start recruiting more De'Andre Hunter types and have a little more success in March. We'll see how the rest of 2021 plays out, but I think the best this UVA team can do is make it out of the first weekend in the tourney.
One other thing is VA is a very well regarded academic school, kind of Ivy light.
That also is conducive to attracting kids who are smart, focused, good character, that fit into what Bennett is doing.
That also is conducive to attracting kids who are smart, focused, good character, that fit into what Bennett is doing.
Easily. Top 3. Right now, I put the top 3 of Bennett, Wright and Few in any order.
With Bennett, it does definitely remind you of the days with Dixon and his tough system players who were not one-and-dones. And he has maintained that system for a long time. Too bad Jamie couldn't do that instead of pushing for some of those one year players who didn't amount to much.
UVA, like Pitt in the good ole days, has a great regular season system.
But to win in the post-season, you usually need really good players. Pitt had that when they had Blair and Sam Young and UVA had multiple pros on the championship team.
This year UVA is more like one of those Pitt teams with say Lamar Patterson where they are a good team who grinds out wins but they just don’t have the firepower.
But to win in the post-season, you usually need really good players. Pitt had that when they had Blair and Sam Young and UVA had multiple pros on the championship team.
This year UVA is more like one of those Pitt teams with say Lamar Patterson where they are a good team who grinds out wins but they just don’t have the firepower.
I think it is clear they are the kings of the ACC right now. They won the national championship a couple years ago, plus in the past 3 years they have finished conference play in 1st place twice and once as the runner up. And they have an ACC tournament championship within the past three years as well.
When I think ACC Basketball, it begins with Virginia and it has for awhile. Duke and UNC will always be there but their reliance on one and done's kills their consistency. UVa will always finish Top 3 in the ACC 4 out of 5 years. Bennett is the 🐐
Va and Bennett have the dubious distinction of losing to a 16th seed by 20pts. I luved it!!! If Jamie lost to a 16th seed this whole board would've been on major meltdown mode. H2P!
I mean we would all trade a loss like that to a 16 seed if it meant a championship the following year
Really? That was the 1st time a 16th seed beat a 1. Talks cheap now but when it happened I'm sure the VA following were ready to hang Bennett. Yeah they won the following year and that bailed them out of embarrassment and probably the only way to bury that humiliating loss.I mean we would all trade a loss like that to a 16 seed if it meant a championship the following year
Bennett is hardly the GOAT. Keep talking to yourself and maybe you'll start believing your bs. Smh
Ready to hang Bennett? Hardly! Virginia had finished the year as the regular season champion with a four game lead on second place Duke. They then won the ACC Tournament. They finished the season 30-3. That is not the sort of result that gets a coach hanged, in effigy or otherwise. Disappointing as the loss to UMBC was, when it was announced on Tuesday (before the Thursday game with UMBC) that DeAndre Hunter was out for the season, most of us lowered our expectations for the NCAA tournament significantly. Most reasonable (and, the overwhelming majority of) Virginia fans remained quite happy that Tony Bennett was the head coach of the men's basketball team.
So seriously, if you were offered the package deal of Pitt getting a number one seed in the NCAA tournament next year and losing to a 16 seed followed by winning the national championship the year after you'd say no?
Because honestly, I can't believe that any sports fan wouldn't take that scenario, even a fan of Duke or Kentucky.
I'd probably take losing to a 16 seed every year for 20 years for 1 natty
Losing to the #16 seed became nothing more than an interesting piece of trivia when Virginia won the championship the following year. Losing to the #16 and then winning it all also made such an interesting story that their championship will probably be more memorable in years to come. At this point that first round loss is just a preamble to a story of redemption.
The times have already changed. Some people are just a little slow on the uptake.
They just got curb-stomped by FSU.
I think it depends on your criteria for the so-called king of the ACC. UVA has become the most consistent winner in regular season ACC play. That's fairly obvious. I wouldn't bet on the Cavs making a Final Four or cutting down the nets again before Duke or UNC though.
I think it depends on your criteria for the so-called king of the ACC. UVA has become the most consistent winner in regular season ACC play. That's fairly obvious. I wouldn't bet on the Cavs making a Final Four or cutting down the nets again before Duke or UNC though.
