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Post by tophb21 on Mar 31, 2009 9:35:02 GMT -5
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husky
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Post by husky on Mar 31, 2009 10:05:08 GMT -5
I agree, I thought Bennett was going to set up at WSU long term, this move totally came out of left field. Maybe he figured he couldn't sustain the level of success he was having on the Palouse. Any way, the Cougars will definitely miss him, he was a great fit there, we'll see if he can build his own team from scratch and if Bennettball will translate into success in the ACC.
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Post by tophb21 on Mar 31, 2009 10:08:09 GMT -5
I agree, I thought Bennett was going to set up at WSU long term, this move totally came out of left field. Maybe he figured he couldn't sustain the level of success he was having on the Palouse. Any way, the Cougars will definitely miss him, he was a great fit there, we'll see if he can build his own team from scratch and if Bennettball will translate into success in the ACC. Huskey, You probably know more about this me, but wasn't he seriously pursued by Indiana and LSU last year? Why would he turn those jobs down for UVA? It's a real headscratcher.
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Post by eloveku on Mar 31, 2009 10:11:00 GMT -5
The LSU maybe. I think he did the right thing staying away from IU. They were in shambles and anything short of landing a coach with a lot more zing to his name would have been disastrous. I think he'd have been vilified in Bloomington and made the right choices staying away.
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husky
Magistrate
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Post by husky on Mar 31, 2009 13:13:32 GMT -5
"Huskey, You probably know more about this me, but wasn't he seriously pursued by Indiana and LSU last year?"
He was mentioned for those jobs last year, and even for Kentucky the year before that, but I'm not sure if that was just speculation or if there was real mutual interest. I've heard he wasn't too high on Indiana because they fired his sister or something... Considering the state of the 2 programs, this just seems like a lateral move to me, he was VERY well liked at WSU. But I guess the quality of life is better in Charlottesville than Pullman, probably easier to recruit there. Though I wouldn't like butting heads with UNC and Duke.
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poejoe8
Supreme Pontiff
Duuuuuuukes!!!
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Post by poejoe8 on Mar 31, 2009 14:33:06 GMT -5
Local paper said he was also offered a job at Marquette.
Here's a local article from the Daily Progress:
Experts give UVa decision top marks
By Jerry Ratcliffe
Published: March 31, 2009
Virginia fans were looking for a home-run hire in their new basketball coach. A certified, sure-fire Hall of Famer with a resume chock-full of deeds that guaranteed a reservation in Springfield.
What they got instead was a guy that many of them had never heard of — or they had mistaken him for that guy who left his heart behind.
While many rushed to judgment that left-coaster Tony Bennett — the new Cavaliers’ coach, not the singer — isn’t ready for prime time assignments in the basketball-rich ACC, there needs to be a caution light in play here.
The hoops world — those who live, eat, and sleep basketball — have raved about Virginia’s new coach.
He’s got the pedigree of what great coaches are made of. He’s a coach’s son. He’s a former point guard, and a gritty one. He played in the NBA. He’s paid his dues. He’s overachieved in a place that has no real basketball tradition and won against the odds.
Strong suitors
No wonder that a place that treats basketball like a religion — Indiana — came knocking on his door last year and couldn’t woo him to Bloomington. Marquette and LSU tried, too and couldn’t move him.
While the much-heralded Tubby Smith wouldn’t budge from the frozen tundra of the Twin Cities, Virginia succeeded in luring the bright, young coach from one coast to the other — a transition seldom, if ever, seen in ACC basketball.
He’s been compared by some to “a young Mike Krzyzewski.” Not too shabby.
Dick Vitale, the noted ESPN basketball guru, hailed the hire as a stroke of genius.
“I think ultimately, Virginia fans are going to really be happy with Bennett,” Vitale told The Daily Progress from his home in Florida. “He’s a class young man, a man of integrity, a guy who will represent UVa in a class way.”
Complimentary foes
Russ Pennell, who took over Lute Olson’s Arizona basketball program on an interim basis this past season, probably wishes that Bennett had left a year ago.
“The biggest thing about Tony’s team is that defensively, they’ve consistently been one of the leaders in the Pac-10 conferencce in scoring defense,” Pennell said. “They do not give you easy shots. You have to work ... you’re going to have to earn everything you get against them.”
Washington State led the Pac-10 in both scoring defense (55.4) and field goal percentage defense (.387) this past season, figures that are bound to impress even the most doubting Wahoo fans that can’t ignore that UVa finished at the bottom of the ACC in both categories for the past two years.
“We’ve called Washington State a ‘bend but not break’ defense,” Pennell said. “You just knew they were not going to beat themselves. I’ve used the analogy that playing against Tony’s teams was like hitting a tennis ball against the wall ... it comes right back at you. And, you know, the wall usually wins those battles.”
Pennell, Vitale, and Virginia basketball legend Wally Walker — who lives in Seattle and is familiar with Washington State hoops — all agreed that Bennett is a solid coach, a rising star in the profession, who teaches basketball in the proper manner.
Walker, the former president of the now-defunct NBA Seattle SuperSonics, said that one of his former coaches, Bob Weiss, has been the Washington State television analyst for the past couple of seasons and constantly raves about Bennett.
“Bob’s been around the NBA for a long time and can identify with what works in coaching and what doesn’t,” Walker said. “He is always talking about what a terrific job Bennett does.”
Much has been made of Bennett’s deliberate offensive style, learned under his father, Dick, of Wisconsin and Washington State fame. While it’s not the greyhound pace of North Carolina, it’s not quite as snail-like as his dad’s offense.
“Offensively, he’s a little bit more liberal than he’s given credit for,” Pennell said. “People try to link him to his dad, who came from the era before the shot clock, when they just passed the ball a lot and played slow.
“Tony’s teams play a little faster. It’s a motion-type offense and all five guys touch the ball,” the Arizona coach said. “It’s not going to be a ton of one-on-one. All five guys have to work together to score the ball and I think people appreciate that kind of basketball.”
This past season’s Cougars averaged 59.2 points per game and shot 43.4 percent from the field, not the kinds of numbers that may wow fans, but there were some other factors to consider.
“The record this year was not indicative of how [Washington State] has played during Tony’s time there,” Pennell said. “He had nine freshmen (seven true, two redshirts) he was trying to integrate into the program.
“In many ways, [Bennett] had a better year of coaching than he did when he was winning all those games because he had to do so much more with it.”
Walker said that this past team, because of its youth, was limited but that Bennett still managed to put his players in position to compete and win.
“He’s just a solid coach,” Walker said. “He’ll mold his team to the talent he has. He found a way to get it done at Washington State, which doesn’t have a lot of tradition, and he’ll find a way at Virginia.”
Vitale agreed that Bennett will adapt to personnel and that the main ingredients that the new coach brings to Virginia — tough defense, shot selection, discipline — are “things that lead to winning.”
Vitale also said that Bennett is a good communicator, particularly with players, and should be able to recruit at Virginia.
“Washington State doesn’t have the kind of resources in terms of a facility like at Virginia,” Vitale said. “That will play a big part in helping him recruit. I think when people see what happens after a three-year period, they are going to be really happy.”
Pennell believes that Bennett can boost UVa’s program in the same manner he did WSU’s.
“I think Pullman is the smallest town in the [Pac-10] league, and when you think about it, he’s recruiting kids to Pullman, while UCLA is recruiting their kids to L.A.,” Pennell said. “There’s not a lot of great players in the Washington area, except for Seattle. Tony had to go a long ways to get players. He went to Australia, he went to Hawaii, he even went back to Wisconsin.
“But they did a good job of turning over all the rocks and finding all the players.”
OK, so they’re not sculpting a bust of Bennett in Springfield, but they weren’t exactly casting one of Krzyzewski when he dropped into Durham 29 years ago
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Post by kaara on Mar 31, 2009 15:35:40 GMT -5
Great hire. Bennett is a great coahc. His offense is NOT as slow as his dad's, he is really good at realizing what type of players he has and playing to strengths of his players. This year the offense looked more like his dad's because they had 9 freshman getting PT and that required him limiting possessions in order to give his kids a chance to win. With the better recruiting he'll be able to do at UVA I think UVA fans will be pleasantly surprised in the long run. FYI give him time, remember this years UVA team sucked so next year you might see a deliberate team with great defense but give him a few years and things will get better. He has learned alot from his dad, he learned some offensive and defensive "twists" from his time as an assistant to Bo Ryan and he's brought his own NBA experience as well.
FYI, he's the future Wisconsin coach whenever Bo retires, Tony has said it before that Wisky is his dream job, that is one of the other reasons he did not take the Indiana job, he has said the only Big Ten job he ever wants is the job at Wisconsin, he's just going to hone his skills and pedigree until one day he can take over at Wisky.
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