Mailbag: Discussion on Tony Bennett’s future, Ryan Dunn and the NBA Draft

Great article on how Tony Bennett responds, Chris. Our talent level is down quite a bit from the 2013-2019 years. And they definitely didn’t have the moxie we are used to seeing out of UVA basketball. 

I hope Tony shifts his focus from defense to shooters in recruiting. Shooters at all five spots and then he can do what he does best, teach defense. Let’s incorporate some of Villanova‘s offense (1 in, 4 out or 2 in, 3 out) from their two Natty years. Something free-flowing without a pattern to it. 

Defensively, we simply have to have a fallback plan. When things go to sh-t with the Packline, we don’t have anything to change to. And I’m still not convinced that the Packline is as effective with the farther three-point shot and that being the focus of the offense now. 

It was a disappointing end to a disappointing season. Having said that, we still finished third in the ACC and were an answered NCSU prayer away from playing in the tourney final. 

Alan

That last point is a key here. For all the issues that many of us have identified, somehow Tony Bennett was able to coax 23 wins and an NCAA Tournament bid out of this group.

The problems aren’t what some have assumed, with lack of talent, but rather, as Alan lays out here, and others, including me, have harped on a good bit lately, with the system.

Adjustments need to be made on both ends, and Bennett might want to re-examine that overriding desire to relentlessly control tempo that he inherited from his father, Dick Bennett.

TB doesn’t need to morph into Mark Few or Paul Westhead, but getting more high-percentage shots in transition could help the offense, as much as adding more options in the halfcourt offense.

And on the defensive end, it’s not as if Bennett needs to scrap the Pack Line, but he needs to have other approaches in the arsenal to give him the flexibility to defend teams whose offensive approaches are designed to counter what the Pack Line is designed to take away.

The ability to go to a zone, which Bennett tried in a couple of games this season, to throw full-court, three-quarter-court and halfcourt presses just as a changeup from time to time, just to cite two examples, would give opponents a different look, and sometimes a different look can be enough to stop momentum.

I wrote this a few times this season, but it bears repeating – the solution from Bennett when things are going wrong all too often seems to be, just do what we’re doing harder.

As we saw in the raft of blowout losses, doing it harder didn’t get the job done.

 

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Those saying he should be fired definitely don’t know the UVA program. He’s not going anywhere until he wants to, and Scott German has no clue. I’m sure Tony is frustrated with NIL and the transfer portal. What coach wouldn’t be who had a successful career prior to it? 

Darren

I had to scroll social media (which I am loathe to do) to see that what Darren says here, that there are UVA fans calling on Bennett to be fired, is true.

And … yeah, it’s true.

Spoiled f–king brats, is what they are.

The dig from Darren aimed at my buddy and resident AFP chucklebum Scott German has to do with Scott’s insistence that Bennett is going to step down at the end of the season out of frustration at the way college sports works now.

I’ll state here, again, and on the record, again, that I’m not of that mindset, that Bennett is on his way out.

I’ve been saying that since I first signed off on publishing Scott’s first column on the topic during the losing skid in early January, and to me, Bennett’s comments to the effect that he recognizes the need to make some systemic changes moving forward only reinforces that he’s in for the long haul.

 

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The NBA may think Ryan Dunn can be a type of Matisse Thybulle, no offense, strong defense guy. That’s the only thing I can think. He needs to stay if he’s smart.

Tonnie 

Matisse Thybulle is a perfect comporable for Ryan Dunn. A four-year player at Washington, Thybulle, a 6’5” guard, averaged 9.2 points per game, but he was still a 2019 first-round pick because of his defense.

Now a five-year NBA veteran, Thybulle averages 4.8 points in 21.0 minutes per game as a defense-first wing.

So, there is room in the Association for a defense savant.

I still think, with Dunn, that he could spend one more year at Virginia, shoot 1,000 threes a day all spring and summer, work on his handle so he can develop some ability to get himself to the rim, and if he could get some results out of all the work, he could go from where he is now – a projected late-first-round pick – toward the top of the first round.

The difference between being, say, the 20th pick and the fifth pick, just over the first three years of your rookie contract, is more than $12 million.

I could see gambling a year of college, especially if Cav Futures can come up with a decent NIL package, to take a shot on myself being a Top 5 pick, given those numbers.