UVA basketball coach Tony Bennett is unflappable. Usually. He may have flapped a little Friday night.
“You really couldn’t hear during timeouts. They put us right by the band. That was unbelievable. It was really loud,” Bennett said after his eighth-ranked Cavs won at JMU in a loud Convocation Center, 79-51, in their season opener Friday night.
The crowd was amped for the visit by the defending ACC champs. The JMU pep band may have been as amped as it will ever be.
During a second-half timeout, Bennett may have had enough of the wattage.
“They were loud. During one of our timeouts, they got extremely loud, and no one could even hear Coach Bennett. It was crazy. Extremely loud,” junior guard Malcolm Brogdon said.
Forward Anthony Gill told it a little better.
“At one timeout, they started playing really loud, trumpets and everything. You could see Coach Bennett getting really frustrated. A couple of the guys started chuckling. He’s always telling us to be mentally strong and stuff like that, and that definitely got to him,” Gill said.
Bennett wouldn’t concede that much.
“Guys are just looking at me. I could tell the freshmen were like, what’s going on here? They have not been in that setting. It was loud,” Bennett said.
– Column by Chris Graham
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