I loved how Tony Bennett used his postgame TV interview and the followup media session with the writers after Virginia’s 69-52 win at Louisville to sell us on the notion that he wasn’t happy with how his team played.
Bennett told the TV guys the game was a “tale of two halves,” which it was – UVA led by 28 at the break, and kept the lead above 20 most of the way, even as CTB subbed liberally, but, yes, technically, Louisville won the second half.
“I thought we showed our at times our inexperience and our inability to be mature and just keep playing. Maybe not going to play at that exact level, but it shouldn’t dip as much as it did. But we’ll grow from that,” Bennett told the writers.
A coach will want something to use to get his team’s focus back after a blowout win.
This was Bennett creating something to be stern about.
Foul trouble with the bigs
The one legitimate issue that Bennett needs to address going into Wednesday’s game with Notre Dame is the early foul trouble that the three guys he used at the five spot – Jordan Minor, Blake Buchanan and Jake Groves – found themselves in.
Buchanan ended up fouling out, and Minor and Groves had their minutes limited because they each had two first-half fouls, and finished with four.
It was trouble guarding Louisville big Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, who only had eight points on the afternoon, but was adept at drawing touch fouls in the paint.
“They’re aggressive. I mean, their scheme is sound, and they’ve got guys that are, you know, it’s funny, when you lose a few, it’s hard, you’re dealing with young guys, to get them going. But they’re tough to keep in front,” Bennett said.
Still figuring out the rotation
It’s been around mid-January each of the past three years now that Bennett finally seems to get a handle on how to use his guys rotation-wise.
The last two seasons, it was replacing Kadin Shedrick as the starting five – in 2022, Bennett went with Francisco Caffaro; in 2023, it was Ben Vander Plas.
With Shedrick at Texas, where he’s been struggling of late – averaging 3.2 points and 1.6 rebounds per game in his last six outings – Bennett went with Groves as his starter for the bulk of the season, before inserting Minor in his place beginning with the Jan. 13 game at Wake Forest.
In his five games as a starter, Minor has averaged 10.0 points and 5.0 rebounds per game, and given Virginia a level of toughness in the post that had been lacking.
Bennett was asked during Monday’s ACC teleconference about the timing of his last three mid-season moves.
“I think you stumble and bumble around for a while. It’s strategic then, and like, we got to figure out what works,” Bennett said, chuckling. “But no, I do think most teams, you know, it takes a while, especially in the state of how it is with a newness to your team, and a lot of, you know, only we talked about many times with Reece and iMac and Ryan being the only guys that played last year, so everyone else was new. And so, I think there’s some unfamiliarity, and then you’ve played in whatever number of games at that point, and you have at least an idea, or you’ve struggled, and you have to make some adjustments.
“And you know, maybe perhaps it was both, and we were way more experienced last year, but that was, I think it just kind of played out that way,” Bennett said. “But for sure, this year, the newness, it’s how many games under your belt, you’re more than halfway through, or at least halfway, two-thirds of the way through, and you start trying to establish what you can do, though, we’re still playing at times, sometimes eight guys, sometimes 10 guys, and that’s just based on your team and the separation of your team, and again, how practices go and who’s looking good.”
Saturdays on the road
Just to be clear, it wasn’t Tony Bennett’s idea to play so many Saturdays in a row on the road.
Bennett said Monday that UVA asked Paul Brazeau, the ACC’s senior associate commissioner for men’s basketball, about the Saturday thing – the schedule has Virginia playing on the road for seven straight Saturdays, beginning with the Dec. 30 game with Notre Dame, and going all the way through the Feb. 10 game at Florida State.
“We said, this seems strange, in all the years I’ve been here, and you know, he said, that was just how computer spit it out, apparently,” Bennett said. “So, sometimes you can’t control what you can’t control, so we just we go with it, and, you know, try to be as ready as we can. And again, this is about playing good ball, and you know, the last, you know, last couple Saturday games have been good, but you know, definitely good crowds and all that. So, I’m not sure, right, and you know, that’s, that’s beyond me. You know, maybe that’s an analytics thing or an AI question. So, not for me.”
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Chris Graham
