Another postseason, another revolving door for Tony Bennett, who this week saw the departure of one of the members of his heralded freshman class with Will Regan’s announcement that he will not be returning for his sophomore season.
Another perspective you could have is that at least Bennett is only losing one guy this spring – after the high-profile departures of Sylven Landesberg, Jeff Jones and Tristan Spurlock following Bennett’s first season in Charlottesville in 2010.
And it’s not like Regan, who averaged 1.3 points and 0.9 rebounds a game for UVa. in 2010-2011, was a cornerstone or anything. The 6-8 Regan was clearly not an ACC-caliber talent, with skills more suited to playing the center position without the size to allow him to compete night-in and night-out in the paint in one of the toughest conferences in America.
Before you give Bennett an out on the miss on Regan, though, consider that the other big man in his first recruiting class, James Johnson, redshirted to allow himself time to develop physically and to develop his game after looking overmatched in his one live appearance in an exhibition game against D3 Roanoke College in November.
And don’t forget that Bennett had already lost another member of his freshman class when top recruit Billy Baron bolted midseason after seeing his playing time reduced following a hot start to his college career.
So we have a 2010-2011 recruiting scorecard of seven recruits, two transfers, one redshirt.
And looking ahead to 2011-2012, we have ACC beat writers putting UVa. anywhere from eight to ten in the twelve-team ACC preseason.
No pressure, but the man once hailed as The Hottest Young Coach in America had better start seeing a better return on investment.
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Chris Graham
