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UVA's Tony Bennett is retiring

Knowing the full picture now, I do think that leaving 2.5 weeks before the season starts just to get the guy he wants, who was an assistant coach, to be head coach is unfair to the program and especially the players he recruited this offseason. Announce that this will be your last season or retire in the offseason, but don’t leave your guys high and dry right as the season starts just because you don’t like the direction college athletics is heading.
Let’s wait to hear from all the players that feel “wronged”. Based on what I have read the assistant coaches were doing all the heavy lifting on recruiting etc, for the last two years, so the players have “relationships” with the assistants, not necessarily with Bennett. Plus if you listen to VT, no basketball player in their right mind wants to play Bennetts style of basketball anyway, so is it a big issue?

It is simply another significant loss to the coaching ranks as college basketball slowly adjusts to the “new world”. Nothing else to see here.

Senate races 2024

The Senate is all but assured of being controlled by Repubs regardless of Brown race in Ohio. Manchin's seat is definitely flipping to Justice. Tester in Montana is down over 5 points with the margin widening with every poll. Those two pick ups put Repubs at 51. Anything else would be icing on the cake for them.

Brown could very well lose (believe he will narrowly). Slotkin in Michigan is not a give me either (believe she hangs on, barely). Doubtful either Scott in Florida or Cruz in Texas get flipped despite the avalanche of out of state money against them.

Bottom line, even if Harris wins and Dems control House, not much significant is going to change outside of Executive Orders with a Republican Senate.
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UVA's Tony Bennett is retiring

"I'm no longer the best coach to lead this program in this environment". Kind of makes those on here who relentless ridiculed someone on here for having a simple opinion that Bennett should have been fired look pretty foolish.

His style of redshirting freshmen and taking 2 or 3 years for guys to get comfortable in his system was not going to work anymore. Big time recruits were not wanting to play the slowest pace in college basketball.

So, good for him to admit his system would not work anymore, but the bottom line is leaving when he did was a shitty thing to do. Just announce this is your last year and don't quit on your team. And, what makes Bennett think he knows who the best coach to follow him would be anyway? He just admitted his style was not the right style now. So, the next coach talk is strange too. Just a surprising classless move from such a classy, high character guy.

honestly don't even know where to start here, this is a new high (or is it a low) in mental gymnastics which you are undoubtedly the king of.

Making the Big Dance

I agree with the spirit of your post, but I will not rule out an invite if we have an exceptional W-L record and stub our toe in the finals of the A-10.
See Indiana State last year! Only 5 losses in reg season (3 to top 50 teams and two of those were Top 20 teams) and #28 in the NET (after the conf tourney loss); a conf tourney loss to Top 50 NET team in Drake. And no bid for them. Their schedule last year certainly looks better than what ours figures to be but was sighted as why no bid for them. They weren't even first team out as I recall!

So I can only agree with the post if "exceptional' means we beat Auburn and go like 29-4 overall including the tourney loss! Even that I am not sure because we not only have to beat Auburn, but Auburn has to be good for that to get us in.
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UVA's Tony Bennett is retiring

"I'm no longer the best coach to lead this program in this environment". Kind of makes those on here who relentless ridiculed someone on here for having a simple opinion that Bennett should have been fired look pretty foolish.

Lol yeah just a terrible coach he deserved to be canned instead.

But u always leave out the 2nd part…extend Mooney!

There is no other person even those w limited knowledge of college bball that was both Fire Bennett/Extend Mooney. But thank u for the entertainment.

U r a unicorn…but then again so is Chris Moonicorn.

UVA's Tony Bennett is retiring

17, for the most part we're still recruiting HS kids just as before. we're just filling in the holes with transfers when someone transfers out.
We should definitely continue recruiting HS kids, but theres no question in my eyes that our recent success has been due to 1) having older teams (like in 2022 when we had super seniors and super super seniors starting) and 2) our ability to recruit very good transfers who have made an immediate impact. So finding experienced college players who are juniors/graduates and have shown a strong ability to play at the college level and who can fit in our system, looks like our keys to success. We will see how this year goes and whether it supports this notion or not.

NIL has been a headache for many coaches, but I think it has benefited us quite nicely because we still go after HS recruits and can also find transfers who complement our existing roster or fill holes when needed, like you said.

Scoring, I hope!

Hope it is not a trend but neither our ladies soccer team or hockey team scored a goal
this week and neither one had a shot on goal, and in fact neither had a shot at all. Look at
individual stats and the only stats are minutes played and penalty cards. Please guys be
creative and aggressive on offense.
Agreed, play to win, not just to keep in game.
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UVA's Tony Bennett is retiring

"I'm no longer the best coach to lead this program in this environment". Kind of makes those on here who relentless ridiculed someone on here for having a simple opinion that Bennett should have been fired look pretty foolish.

His style of redshirting freshmen and taking 2 or 3 years for guys to get comfortable in his system was not going to work anymore. Big time recruits were not wanting to play the slowest pace in college basketball.

So, good for him to admit his system would not work anymore, but the bottom line is leaving when he did was a shitty thing to do. Just announce this is your last year and don't quit on your team. And, what makes Bennett think he knows who the best coach to follow him would be anyway? He just admitted his style was not the right style now. So, the next coach talk is strange too. Just a surprising classless move from such a classy, high character guy.
haha, you've got multiple logical stretches here and one whopper of a statement to justify with regards to your love of Moon. I love it. Please keep at it.

UVA's Tony Bennett is retiring

"I'm no longer the best coach to lead this program in this environment". Kind of makes those on here who relentless ridiculed someone on here for having a simple opinion that Bennett should have been fired look pretty foolish.

His style of redshirting freshmen and taking 2 or 3 years for guys to get comfortable in his system was not going to work anymore. Big time recruits were not wanting to play the slowest pace in college basketball.

So, good for him to admit his system would not work anymore, but the bottom line is leaving when he did was a shitty thing to do. Just announce this is your last year and don't quit on your team. And, what makes Bennett think he knows who the best coach to follow him would be anyway? He just admitted his style was not the right style now. So, the next coach talk is strange too. Just a surprising classless move from such a classy, high character guy.

UVA's Tony Bennett is retiring

I think it can be very difficult to deal with when you have players, their parents/agents/"mentors" constantly coming into your office and asking for a raise and promises of playing time, threatening to transfer, etc. I know many colleges are hiring GM's to handle these transactions but it's still a lot to deal with especially if you are a teacher like Bennett or Saban who want to focus on coaching and preparing their team. Saban literally said that two weeks after the season last year he had a stream of players coming into his office to renegotiate their deals and asking for guarantees of playing time or they would have to consider transferring. Obviously football rosters are huge compared to basketball and I have ZERO insight/info into Bennett's thinking but it sounds like that may be his reasoning as well. And for the record all of this NIL $ is totally legal (your value as a player is literally whatever someone is willing to fork over) and I don't begrudge these players or their families at all for taking these lucrative paydays but it does add a lot to a coach's plate outside of just coaching and preparing his/her team. And yes these coaches make a ton themselves so they aren't victims here. Mooney seems to have navigated this NIL and transfer portal era well but there's always the risk that we have an all A-10 caliber player get poached/lured away by a bigger program and then you might see more grumbling in Spider Land regarding this transactional world.
meh. I don't think all that much has changed. yes, coaches can't be emperors any more but that's not a bad thing. NIL is a big recruiting component, but it's handled in the offseason.

you always had unhappy players and parents ... 95% of whom keep their mouths shut when it comes to discussions with a head coach. really good players always considered transferring up, even without the lure of bigger money. players not playing always considered leaving. you always had boosters who felt they should have a bigger say than they do.

UVA's Tony Bennett is retiring

I think the reason why this new college landscape has helped us is primarily because Mooney has always done well with players who fit the system he is trying to implement. Before, we would need to hope that a high school recruit develops and becomes a KA, K0, Gilly type player and if not, it used to be a player would have to sit out a year before playing as a transfer. However, now that is no longer the case. We can scout players who have shown their ability at the collegiate level and have a better sense of how they will fit our system and what they can contribute. We can hone in on the players we want and they can make an instant impact, playing immediately. King is the perfect example. Ideally we would have someone like King for 3-4 years rather than 1, but finding players who have adjusted to college basketball in terms of speed, size, athleticism and shown their ability is very helpful. Add the fact that we have a very solid NIL, we become a more appealing option for recruits. The more we win individual and team awards and garner national attention, the easier it also becomes in recruiting someone as well.
17, for the most part we're still recruiting HS kids just as before. we're just filling in the holes with transfers when someone transfers out.

Making the Big Dance

I disagree with the concept of "experimenting with player combinations" in games. that's what the past 4+ months have been for. you play each game to win. because if we do win the A10 tourny and get a bid, you want to best seed possible to give yourselves the best chance to win a game.

yes, things change and you adjust throughout the year. your rotation isn't set. but you're not winging it game to game like a rec league coach. you're with these guys every day. you know their games.

Football to Patriot League. Should basketball and rest of sports be concerned?

Plus - with transparency - it would help schools know what they are up against and competing against.
they all know what they're up against. coaches talk. a lot. they're are relationships outside of their current team. especially since assitants never know who they'll be working for next. and they share information because they want information.

fans don't need to know.
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