UVA Basketball On the Rebound
UVA men’s basketball fans should put the NCAA tournament out of their minds for one more year because it will not be possible unless the ‘Hoos win the ACC tournament. Now that expectations are realigned with reality, we can look at the immense progress the team has made this year under new coach Tony Bennett.
Bennett’s boys are taking care of the ball, playing consistently, playing with confidence and even slam-dunking the ball—a small sign of attitude not lately seen at UVA. The team is unselfish, does not get into foul trouble and is pretty good at the free throw line. Three-point shooting percentage and scoring are up from last year, yet the team does not rely on or resort to too much gunning from behind the arc. The team runs pretty crisp set plays and even slashes to the basket off the dribble, fairly regularly beating defenders off the dribble. Overall, I have seen tremendous progress and growth. If Mr. Bennett can keep Landesberg from leaving early, UVA has a high ceiling for achievement in the coming years.
I find it surprising how new coaches in any sport are able to do so well with someone else’s players. It is not like going to your neighbor’s shed and borrowing a rake, lawn mower, weed wacker and clippers and being surprised your lawn looks good; your lawn should look good because those are universal tools, not guards and centers and forwards. College kids who play ball are fickle, with personalities, attitudes, and when a program turns sour, at least a little baggage. Taking over at a new school, a coach inherits players he did not watch play, he did not recruit nor visit with their families nor offer them scholarships. He does not know them from Adam and is still expected to get them to respect him and play as a team representing a school at which he is the newcomer.
In UVA’s recent basketball history, the school has been pretty fortunate with new coaches since Jeff Jones’ departure. Pete Gillen did pretty well in his first couple years, enough to convince the school to give him a far too long and too lucrative contract given the short-term accomplishments. In academic parlance, he gave a few flashy lectures, and got tenure. He had the advantage of an unfortunate departure by Jeff Jones for comparison, so UVA bought character in his case and tried too hard to forget the recent past.
Dave Leitao picked up the pieces from Gillen and had some early success. Leitao had the advantage of following a really bad record in the ACC tournament and only two NCAA trips in about nine years for comparison. Like Gillen, Leitao could recruit too, but his teams seemed to be hit or miss: they opened JPJ arena with an invicibility streak, and were even co-champions of the ACC one year I believe. They could shock a powerhouse like Arizona two games into the season, but easily go 5-11 in the ACC. There was not a consistent, building body of work for Leitao. In academic parlance, he wrote a manuscript that got a book deal and was given tenure.
Tony Bennett seems to be solid, but ‘Hoos fans have seen this early success before in Gillen and Leitao. What I like in Bennett’s team is his team has an identity (gutsy and defense-oriented) and seems fundamentally-sound, i.e. no 24 turnover games like the Gillen and Leitao years. And, Bennett has four recruits in the Rivals Top 150 coming in next year, mostly out-of-staters I believe; no five-star studs yet, but already this is progress. Jeff Jones had a pretty consistent tap into the Oak Hill and Hargrave Military Academy pipelines. If Bennett augments his recruiting network with some local talent, watch out.
Jeff Jones’ formula as UVA’s coach fifteen years ago was far from a juggernaut, but I believe he maximized his talent and was always good for a shocker upset or two over the always-highly-ranked ACC gang of Duke, UNC and Wake Forest back in the day. He got sloppy near the end of his time judging player character, but also took UVA to the NCAAs fairly regularly with at least one Sweet Sixteen and an Elite Eight appearance in the mid 1990s on the back of an NIT Championship. He was no golden boy, but a fair standard of recent success against which we can judge UVA head coaches in the post-Holland era.
Tony Bennett is on a familiar path of early success, so let us not be suckers or skeptics but realists: we have seen this happen before and turn out poorly for the program and school. Mr. Bennett is young and appears to be a classy gentleman. I offer up my support to him and his methods, with patience—patience I hope the University also has before it opens its coffers for a long-term deal.
Like many professors, he will want to know his future, seeking tenure, and be able to settle into the local groove. First, he must prove himself one player and one year at a time. May he return UVA to conference and national relevance again in the sport. And soon enough the Dance invitations will come. Go ‘Hoos!
