Home Ron Sanchez got a raw deal: Credit to him, he’s focused on doing right by his kids
Basketball, Sports

Ron Sanchez got a raw deal: Credit to him, he’s focused on doing right by his kids

Chris Graham
uva basketball ron sanchez
UVA Basketball coach Ron Sanchez. Photo: Mike Ingalls/AFP

Ron Sanchez isn’t the only person in the UVA Basketball program with an interim tag; with the season going the way it is, everybody associated with the program is an interim, in a sense.

Starting with Sanchez, it’s pretty clear at this point that he’s going to be a one-and-done coach, that Carla Williams, the athletics director at UVA, is going to want to hire a new person to fill the job on a permanent basis once the 2024-2025 season is over and done with.


ICYMI


A search committee has been actively vetting candidates, and is, at the moment, settled on a group that includes two huge names – Scott Drew, who won a national championship at Baylor in 2021, and Shaka Smart, who took at VCU team to a Final Four, and is now in charge of a successful program at Marquette.

Whoever ends up getting the job, whatever his cachet, you can expect, in this day and age, that the new guy is going to want to clean house – bring in his own assistants, probably overhaul the roster while he’s at it.

You want to know why it is that you can see a team play great one game, like we saw from Virginia in the 74-56 win over Boston College last Wednesday, then look utterly detached the next time out, as was the case in the 74-59 loss to Notre Dame on Saturday?

It’s not easy doing your job when you know that you’re a few weeks away from having to find a new one.

The writing is on the wall


UVA Basketball Jacob Cofie
UVA Basketball forward Jacob Cofie. Photo: Mike Ingalls/AFP

You can’t blame anybody in the UVA Basketball program for being checked out at this stage.

The roster has two seniors, Taine Murray and walk-on Bryce Walker; everybody else, literally everybody else, has to be thinking about where they’re going to be in a few months, not only basketball-wise, but also, in terms of school, where they’re going to be living.

I asked Sanchez on the weekly ACC Basketball Zoom call on Monday about the challenge of coaching his guys given the context within which the interim season is taking place.

Sanchez acknowledged that he’s coaching his guys “on the couch just as much as I’m coaching them on the court.”

“When you are in this position, you know, it’s more than basketball, especially when things happen, you know, abruptly this way, that there’s been a, you know, a psychological component to it,” said Sanchez, who returned to Virginia in the summer of 2023 after a five-year stint as the head coach at Charlotte, taking a pay cut to reconnect with Tony Bennett.

The plan going into the season


uva bennett staff
Ron Sanchez, Tony Bennett and UVA assistant Isaiah Wilkins. Photo: Mike Ingalls/AFP

Sanchez has said, repeatedly, that Bennett’s decision to step down on Oct. 18, basically, the eve of the 2024-2025 season, was a shock to him.

More significant to me is that Sanchez tells that same story privately, after the cameras and microphones are turned off, and he’s just talking basketball, and the difficulties of the job that he inherited.

Bennett had been on the fence about his future the past three years, and he was close to stepping down last spring, after Virginia faded down the stretch to end up with a First Four bid, and then flamed out, in spectacular fashion, in a 67-42 loss to Colorado State in Dayton.

Virginia didn’t get started with replenishing the roster with additions from the transfer portal until the first week of May, and when the staff was finally able to get some commits to come onboard, the focus was on developmental guys who could be counted on to be around for a two-year window.


ICYMI


“That was the plan, to bring guys in that could not only be here for multiple years, but also be guys that can help us carry our culture forward. The one thing that has made the Virginia program so successful has not only just been the talent, but it has been the individuals and how they value what, you know, humility, passion, unity, servanthood, thankfulness, and what all those things are about,” Sanchez said.

The unexpected dip we’re seeing this season – the media pegged UVA to finish fifth in the ACC in the preseason, which would seem to portend an NCAA Tournament bid; but the Cavaliers are sitting right now at 9-11 overall, and 2-7 in the ACC, and may not even get an invite to the ACC Tournament in March – threw a wrench into the best-laid plans.

I assumed back in October that the job would be Sanchez’s going forward if UVA ended up playing to the preseason expectations, though I understand why Williams told reporters at Bennett’s Oct. 18 retirement presser that she would begin a search for a permanent replacement, just because, you’ve gotta do the due diligence, if you’re in her job.


ICYMI


uva basketball anthony robinson
UVA Basketball forward Anthony Robinson. Photo: Mike Ingalls/AFP

As it turns out, the lack of experience – Sanchez’s rotation has Murray as the lone senior, with three juniors (Isaac McKneely, Andrew Rohde and Elijah Saunders), three sophomores (Dai Dai Ames, Blake Buchanan and TJ Power) and three freshmen (Jacob Cofie, Ishan Sharma and Anthony Robinson) – has been a deciding factor in many of the losses this year, with opponent after opponent rolling out lineups laden with well-traveled seniors and grad students.

“We’ve played some pretty good competitive defensive basketball at times, you know, you see it, you see it there. The question is, how do we continue to build that so that it can go for 40 minutes, as opposed to, you know, 30 or 35, and at times it’s been 20,” Sanchez said.

“I think some of them are grasping, you know, what we’re trying to do, and adjusting, you know,” Sanchez said. “Then you add to that, having to prepare and game plan for an opponent, so not only are you learning some of the things, you also have to systematically or, you know, strategically, adjust to, you know, how to stop an opponent from doing what they want to do on the offensive end.”

Going forward


ron sanchez uva basketball
Photo: Mike Ingalls/AFP

“As far as the pressure to do it because of the circumstances, I still think it was a good plan,” said Sanchez, later in the Zoom call, referring to the approach from the spring, to go after younger guys on the portal, with a focus on developing for the future in mind.

“For now, what we’re going to do is continue to help these guys improve and, you know, grow within both the offensive and defensive system, and, you know, we’ll let the future kind of handle what it handles, trying to obviously win as many games as we can,” Sanchez said.

It’s already a tough job, being the guy who is called on to replace The Man.


ICYMI


uva basketball elijah saunders
UVA Basketball forward Elijah Saunders drives to the basket. Photo: Mike Ingalls/AFP

Add to that, for Ron Sanchez, the pressure of having, not a few months, but just a couple of weeks, to adjust to his new role; with a roster that was, by design, developmental – Bennett, who signed a five-year extension in the summer, could weather a down year; Sanchez, as an interim, has the pressure to win now that wasn’t there back in the spring.

As Sanchez addressed the question that I threw at him, about what he’s doing to help the kids through this season, it became clear to me that, while you wouldn’t fault him for looking out for #1, because he may never get an opportunity like this, to coach a top-level ACC program, again, but, pay attention to where his focus is.

“My main priority in all of this has always been to make sure that the guys are in a great space mentally,” Sanchez said. “I try to be unbelievably encouraging to them, you know, not in the position of, well, you know, why has this happened, but more, you know, how is this good for you? You know, why has this happened for me, as opposed to, why this happened to me, you know.

“So, for them, you guys are going to be the best version of yourselves when you’re 25, 26, you know, 27 years old, this is part of your journey, so let’s just continue to embrace it, you know, let’s, you know, continue to invest, you know, in one another,” Sanchez said.

“As a coach, I want to be the best coach that I can be, as a player, you want to be the best player that you can be, and we have to be where our feet are. Those are conversations that we have,” Sanchez said.

“My goal is to make sure that these guys know that my door is always open. I’m coaching them on the couch just as much as I’m coaching them on the court,” Sanchez said. “They are, you know, my main priority over anything else, that they are in a great space and that they feel appreciated, have a sense of belonging, and they know that they’re representing a great institution in the ACC.”

Stand-up guy


uva basketball ron sanchez
Photo: Mike Ingalls/AFP

Yeah, it’s been a tough season, and it’s going to get worse – the conference schedule down the stretch is a beast, because the ACC backloads the schedules for the squads expected to contend to maximize the TV ratings, and Virginia was expected to contend this year.

Ron Sanchez is going to go down in the history books as UVA Basketball’s Pete Gaudet – the Duke assistant who had to wear the 1994-1995 season that Mike Krzyzewski bailed out on.

Sanchez deserves better, isn’t going to get it, and that just is what it is.

In the meantime, while we’re all feeling sorry for ourselves, Ron Sanchez is there doing what he can to make sure his kids are going to be alright at the end of the day.

Get off his back, basically, is what I’m saying here.

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham, the king of "fringe media," a zero-time Virginia Sportswriter of the Year, and a member of zero Halls of Fame, is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].

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