Virginia Basketball coach Tony Bennett talks at the outset of each season about wanting his team to reach its ceiling, whatever that may be for that particular team, for that particular season.
The ceiling for this year’s team seemed to be top four in the ACC, fringe of the Top 25 nationally – and to that point, after a couple of nice early victories, over Florida and Texas A&M, the ‘Hoos did get into the national rankings back in November.
But three losses in the past four games, by an average of 19 points, has the season seemingly on the brink, with a sneaky tough game with in-state rival Virginia Tech on the horizon mid-week.
A reporter asked Bennett, in his Monday ACC teleconference, about that goal of his team reaching its ceiling, and if he thinks his team is doing what it needs to do to get there.
“I think this is a journey, and this is certainly a work in progress. Hopefully you just keep improving and finding it, but no, I don’t,” Bennett said. “And I don’t know, you always have your tangible goals, you say, we want to win the conference, get to the NCAA Tournament, advance to these spots, but um, you know, in the spot we’re in, we’re struggling just to get back to saying, alright, just keep getting better.”
The recent rough patch has Virginia sitting at 11-5 overall, 2-3 in the ACC, an NET ranking at 63, a 1-4 record in Quad 1 games, with just three more Q1 games left – UNC at home, at Clemson, at Duke, all next month.
From a reaching the ceiling perspective, to get to where most people thought this team would be in March, safely in the NCAA Tournament, it’s going to take one of two things – either getting it all together soon, like, say, beginning with that sneaky tough game with Virginia Tech on Wednesday night, or continuing to struggle, figuring things out in mid to late February, getting hot in the ACC Tournament and taking the conference’s automatic bid.
The third possibility is a lost season.
Bennett, whose public image is eternally positive guy, is selling the idea of his team following in the mold of his hometown Green Bay Packers, who went 7-3 down the stretch after a 2-5 start, then dominated the Dallas Cowboys in an NFC wild-card game on Sunday to earn a spot in the divisional playoffs next weekend.
“The Green Bay Packers, where I’m from, are a good example of that, you know, you just keep, you just keep, you know, some people say, pounding the rock, you keep knocking, but you just keep attacking improvement and trying to get quality. And again, it’s always that qualitative versus quantitative argument, or can you have both, sure, but at the place we are, we’ve got to get a higher, more sustained level of quality,” Bennett said.
This last quote is getting some run on social media. From what I can tell, the reason it’s getting run on social media is because the person who put it out there paraphrased it.
Here’s the full actual quote, which was a response to a question about “counting on younger, more inexperienced players for impact and contribution,” and the challenge in doing so:
“I think you just, to stay, you know, a high level of accountability, but also encouraged, and you have to do both,” Bennett said. “And, you know, this is part of our journey, and this is producing some good stuff, whether you see it now, whether you see it the next game or later on this year, who knows. And then when we apply it, but you know, it’s, our program has been at a high level of experience, and right now, OK, we’re not off to a great conference start. It’s a mature league, and it’s a, it’s a good league. And there’s still a lot of games left, but you’re at a little different spot of building it up again. And I think there is a process to it.
“At the end of the season, wherever you end up, hopefully in a great spot, but wherever that is, there is so much incredible experience that guys are getting that are younger, that, you know, is going to prove beneficial in the following year,” Bennett said. “And I know in today’s climate, well, is that going to be the case, are guys going to be here or not? All you can do is work in that spot, and then you address those things at that time. But because of the young guys getting these opportunities, I think there are some good things, and hopefully that’s, again, part of this plan of building for a two-year cycle, maybe longer, but also living in the moment as well.”
What is getting some folks riled up is, it can sound like Bennett is signaling there that he’s giving up on this season and focusing instead on working to get his young guys experience to make them better next year, which I didn’t hear when I was on the live teleconference, and don’t see when I read it back after transcribing the quote.
What I heard and what I see him saying there is, we’re trying to win this year, but the rough patch we’re in right now is a good thing, because it’s making us work for it, the only problem being, in this day and age, guys can leave, we’ve seen it happen here, so I hope what they learn helps us this year and next year, but you never know.
That’s just me guessing what’s in his mind.
I’ve been covering Tony Bennett for 15 years, but I don’t know him any better than any of you reading this.
I’m just a media guy, and not the level of media guy who gets to talk with Tony to just get to know the guy.
I’m digressing there, but no, I don’t think he’s throwing in the towel on the season, and I know, from what he had to say today, that he doesn’t think his team is anywhere near where it should be.
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Chris Graham
