-
-
I wonder why he decided to leave now right before the start of the season.Comment -
Maybe he left his heart in San Francisco.Comment -
I am guessing there is health issues in the family or he got tired of trying to win games playing 1950s stall basketball.Comment -
Wonder why he's exiting at age 55. Scandal?Where's the fuckin power box, Carol?Comment -
That was my first thought too.
I can't think of any other reason.
If he's sick, I hope it isn't serious, he's a terrific coach, and from what I hear he's a good man as well.
Honest to God, Virgina makes the Princeton four corner offense of the 60's look exciting.
That's his style though, defense first.
Personally, I think it's boring AF, but he's been beyond successful with that bleed the shot clock offense.Comment -
I listened to the VA preview a few days ago. Supposedly has a good team this year. Should be more scoring.
Very strange. I can make one comment. They lost the 1 vs 16 to UMBC. Then they came back to win the title with all the close games. I'm sure he felt like he got a monkey off his back.
Still, makes no sense. I'm sure he could have gotten an NBA job at some point. Weird.Where's the fuckin power box, Carol?Comment -
Make the same money or half sitting in a studio. Easy decision.Comment -
Guy said state of the game. Portal, NIL, having to re-recruit your guys every night, modern athlete, etc… don’t blame him.Comment -
Wow, that's a very fresh take. If he meant it, I respect him. Guy left money on the table.
FYI: Coach Saban said something similar after retiring. He talked about all the players only concerned about the money. Hey, college sports is only a few years removed from being amateur.
When I heard the story about the UNLV qb, I first thought it was fake news. A guy doesn't quit on his team (especially if he's starting QB on a ranked team). No, this guy left over money.
There's one other real angle on this. Consider these GOOD college players who don't have real NFL stock. I'm thinking about Sluka, Rising (Utah), Gabriel (Oreg) etc. What are their NFL prospects?
I believe that these guys think their best money-making opportunity is TODAY. Not the future. They don't want to miss a payday.Where's the fuckin power box, Carol?Comment -
Only stayed a few years but he was the best coach Washington St. ever had, completely turned the program around and got them into the tournament twice.Comment -
When you truly put your heart, soul and daily life in a game for as long as he did, and take your family with you in the process, sometimes the changes in the game change your view of what is right, what is fair, and more importantly, who you are.
Sometimes you lose that burning passion within that makes you who you were and you see who you are becoming and do not like that version of yourself. As a result, leaving is best for the game, your players, your family, and most of all you. The person that sacrificed so much to make a career of what you did.
Good luck to him. He was a darn good coach.Comment -
What isn’t being said is how the transfer portal and NIL has fukked graduating HS seniors. Most of these athletes are in wait and see mode, while schools have to wait on older more developed players to hit the portal. Add that players get extra eligibility years due to COVID and unless you are a 5 star or high 4, you are fukked over waiting for guys that already graduated, that keep playing because they can get paid. Schools prefer these older guys over incoming freshman, who are now being kicked to the curb. I have several kids in our program who would have had top offers years ago in limbo. This system has got to be fixed.Comment -
Not to mention kids that stayed with one school and graduated. Now you have guys jumping ship each year. What do you think graduation rates are going to look like with these guys. Most of these kids will never get to the next level and now they most likely won’t even get a degree. Shame.Comment -
Comment -
As Tony Bennett’s way strayed further from the norm, change pushed him away
Source: The Athletic
(Sorry about the cut/paste job, I'll post the link as well, but you need to be a subscriber to read)
As Tony Bennett’s way strayed further from the norm, change pushed him away - The Athletic (nytimes.com)
A few years ago when the NCAA started letting transfers play without sitting out, Tony Bennett polled his former stars who made it in the NBA.
Bennett prided himself on developing players, but it was a process and some guys “had to fight for it.” Some redshirted. Most had to wait their turn, in some capacity.
If you could transfer without sitting out when you were at Virginia, Bennett asked them, would you have stuck it out?
“It’s funny,” Bennett told me two years ago, as the portal began to change recruiting and college basketball. “They said, to a man, without a doubt, the best thing for my career and why I believe I’ve made it and been very successful in the NBA is when it got tough, I stuck it out. I battled through it. I just kept going hard, even though I had all the doubts. People were telling me you’ve got to get out. And then I came out as more mature, tougher minded. I didn’t shortcut the process.
“But ironically, some of them have said, if this rule were in place, I don’t know if I would have stuck it out. Some said I would have no matter what. Some guys said that would have been a close call. I might have left and that would have been the biggest mistake I could have made.”
Bennett said goodbye to college basketball on Thursday afternoon, abruptly retiring three weeks before the season, and it makes sense when you know how he wanted to win.
There were rumors of this late last season. I had it from enough people — coaches, scouts — that it couldn’t have just been conjecture. It was surprising when Bennett signed an extension through 2030 in June, but contracts hardly matter anymore in college sports. Most Hall of Famers, and Bennett will be one, have deals that allow them to coach as long as they want.
Another high-major coach called me on Thursday night, one who asked last winter if I’d heard the rumor, and said he wasn’t that surprised. “This last recruiting cycle was awful,” he said. So much lying from players and agents — both transfers and high schoolers. So much posturing for more money. There’s fatigue throughout the industry.
The reason I called Bennett two years ago was for a story on the programs that had done the best in developing pros who weren’t five-star recruits. Bennett was excited to talk about his success stories. “This one is in our wheelhouse,” he said.
The results showed why he won so many games. Under my criteria, Virginia was tied for third among the schools that developed non-five-star NBA players who played at least 82 games in the previous 15 years.
Bennett was right at the tail end of one of the best decades in the sport this century. From 2014 to 2023, in addition to winning the 2019 national title, Virginia won the ACC six times. Duke and UNC combined to win four regular season titles in that stretch.
It was almost a point of pride for Bennett that he’d never landed a five-star, and he was still kicking Duke and North Carolina’s butt in the ACC.
“The narrative was they’ll never win because they’re in a league with Duke and Carolina,” Bennett said of when he took the job. “Just don’t go to Virginia. They won’t win. It’s too hard. Well, then we started winning. We won five regular season championships (now six) and two ACC tournaments in the last 10 years. We’ve won the most, and then they said, ‘Well, don’t go to Virginia because you’re gonna really have to defend. They’re gonna play a lot of defense. I don’t know if you’ll be able to get your game to the NBA; they might not play quite as fast as all those teams, so it’s gonna be really hard. You might win now, but you’re not gonna be able to advance your dream of making it to the NBA.’
“And so being able to say: Now, the proof is in the pudding.”
Bennett said this with so much pride. Development is what wins in college basketball. Always has. Always will. And he was one of the best at identifying potential and developing guys into winners and pros. But hardly was it ever immediate success, and it’s getting harder and harder to convince players to be patient.
In the last five years, Bennett had 11 players transfer. Eleven! This is one of the most likable, best talent developers, best coaches in the sport, still operating in his prime.
Maybe Bennett will eventually tell us it was something else. The timing is odd. But it allows for one of his assistants — likely Ron Sanchez, possibly Jason Williford — to get a shot to retain the job. And considering the whispers last season, this is something he’s likely been mulling for a while now.Comment
