A reporter, postgame, gave Tony Bennett a chance to lobby for his team to get NCAA Tournament at-large consideration, asking him if Virginia deserves to at least be in the conversation.
Any other coach takes the soft lob and throws it down.
Bennett isn’t any other coach.
“I mean, how we looked tonight, no, but I wouldn’t base – I don’t know, probably some things would have to happen for us to even be in it,” Bennett said after Virginia’s 63-43 loss to North Carolina in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals Thursday night.
The loss dropped Virginia to 19-13 on the season, and, no, if your definition of joy in the morning is an NCAA Tournament bid, then there will be no joy in the morning.
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“We improved as the season went on, and it did not look like it tonight,” Bennett said. “We moved up – I don’t really look, I don’t know if we’re in that conversation or not, but stranger things have happened, if teams lose. What was our overall record? I don’t know, 19, didn’t get to 20. But finished above .500 in the conference. Certainly would like a chance at it, but probably today was an important one, but who knows.”
The question posed to the two players that Bennett had with him for the postgame presser, Jayden Gardner and Kadin Shedrick, was about the season’s missed opportunities.
“We certainly had a few of those this year, but sure, we missed opportunities. But our goal after we missed those opportunities was to build on it, and I think we did, most of the season,” said Shedrick, who had a quiet eight points and five boards in 22 minutes off the bench in the loss Thursday night.
“Today was tough. I don’t think it’s a reflection of the whole season, but yeah, I think we really learned from our mistakes in the past in November and December and grew from there,” Shedrick said.
“Yeah, for sure. I think this team was – we didn’t know where we were going to be, but as the season progressed, we definitely got better,” said Gardner, the lone bright spot in the loss, with 17 points. “We hit our stretch during the ACC play. We started off strong, and we just didn’t come together and execute tonight. But I’m proud of the progress that we made over the season, and I’m pretty sure we’ve definitely gotten better since the start of the season, when we had some missed lapses.”
‘Work in progress’
Bennett, as you are aware, led Virginia to a national title three years ago, and that obviously sets a high bar for the program to try to meet, but he’s known for telling the media before each season that his goal is just to see how close that year’s group can get to its ceiling.
Going into the 2021-2022 season, Bennett and his staff had to account for the losses of three double-digit scorers to the NBA, and three other top recruits who, after struggling to get on the floor, decided to transfer out.
Bennett landed Gardner and Armaan Franklin, who would go on to be the team’s two leading scorers, from the transfer portal, but freshmen Taine Murray and Igor Milicic Jr. didn’t do enough in practice to earn rotation minutes, leaving the team rather thin.
Assistant coach Jason Williford said in a preseason interview that this season would be a “work in progress,” a couple of days before Virginia lost its season opener to Navy.
A December loss to a JMU team that would finish 6-12 in the CAA had you thinking that this could be Bennett’s first losing season at Virginia since his inaugural campaign, way back in 2009-2010.
That Bennett, his staff and his guys got the ship righted to the point that Virginia could beat ACC regular-season champ Duke and Big East regular-season champ Providence, sweep Miami and split with Virginia Tech to play its way to the neighborhood of the NCAA bubble is a testament to something.
“I think like these guys, they captured it well. I do think we improved,” Bennett said. “Your goal always is to come as close to maxing out as the season goes on. There certainly were stretches of it. Probably this was one of the newest teams that I’ve coached. We didn’t have as much experience in the program, so to speak, and I think, again, the guys rallied and had some big wins and had some right there.
“We were always on that fine line. As I said, even the good teams are, but the margin of error for this team was probably a little smaller than most, and I think they did a pretty good job most of the year. But it stings right now because we got humbled against a team that played really good basketball.
“But if you would have said after Navy took it to us, and then we lost at JMU, those were all – it’s not a big deal to say this team is going to keep fighting, and they’re going to find a way to go 12-8 in the conference and get 19 wins and win some tough games. There’s some positives in that, but certainly there’s areas where we can keep improving and keep getting better, and we’ve got to keep adding pieces,” Bennett said.
Joy in the morning
Fans spent their time watching the loss to UNC throwing Bennett and his players under the bus on social media and the message boards, which is what fans do.
Other big-name coaches, even, are known to lose big games by big margins and grab the nearest microphone to tell a worldwide audience that such things are not acceptable.
Bennett isn’t wired that way.
“I didn’t do a great job trying to find different ways for our guys to maybe get some more space or get better shots. I was frustrated with myself,” Bennett said. “A little better in the second half, but I told the guys, I don’t believe they stopped trying, and that’s the one thing. Only they can look in the mirror and say that for the most part, their effort. But we’ve got to grow from this and understand individually and collectively what it was.”
Which is to say, there will be joy in the morning for Bennett, and of course the season isn’t over, even if the NCAA Tournament isn’t in the offing.
Virginia will get an NIT bid, and at least one more chance for this group to try to reach its ceiling, whatever its ceiling is.
Maybe it’s a run in the NIT.
Maybe it has nothing to do with the outcome of a basketball game.
“One of the best things I can say about them is how happy they are for each other when a teammate is having success,” Bennett said. “All right, that might not mean a lot, wins and losses, but that’s what’s right about this group. They really pull for each other, and you can just see it.
“It’s a little different. They’re so happy when guys are doing well, and I like that,” Bennett said. “There’s certain things that will last beyond the record and the championships or the not championships, and some of those bonds will. And how they treated each other, and the way they conducted themselves, were first-class, so I’m thankful for that, and I’m thankful that they did improve, and they competed pretty hard every time out, and tonight maybe wasn’t as much, but we’ll keep going.”
Story by Chris Graham
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