Virginia coach Tony Bennett has a young team, and playing some of the younger players will come at a cost.
In Bennett’s tenure at UVA, young players often sit on the sidelines before seeing significant playing time.
The reason: it takes time to grasp the fundamentals of Bennett’s pack line defense.
Now, it seems you must provide these young guys playing time, ready or not.
The reason: the risk they will become impatient and transfer.
And the transfer portal simply isn’t a ready-made solution in Virginia’s complex system.
Transfers, like first-year recruits, require the same amount of time to become proficient enough on defense to garner significant playing time.
Which means that UVA can’t count on winning with their traditional solid defense, instead sometimes having to outscore an opponent to win.
That’s not Virginia Basketball under Tony Bennett.
With double-digit losses this season mounting, including Saturday’s 76-60 loss at NC State, the concern is, can Bennett adapt to these new realities?
It’s a tough place to be for Bennett.
I presented this argument in a column a week ago, and I’m about ready to double-down on my take.
Coach Bennett isn’t going to shift from his five pillars regarding both life and basketball.
But if you know anything about the current landscape in college sports, you must know this culture makes it practically impossible to align with his five pillars.
OK, I still could be wrong about the finish line being close for Bennett. He likes a challenge, and he certainly isn’t a person that gives up easily.
He might find a way to make this work.
But as the season progresses, I’m not seeing the fire in anyone on the UVA bench, coaching staff or players.
Again, I hope I’m wrong.
This season is the first time since Coach Bennett arrived in Charlottesville that I don’t see the team as more than the sum of its parts.
Already this season, Virginia has four losses by 15 or more points. Prior to this year, you’d have to go back to the 2011 campaign that saw four or more 15+ point defeats.
Over the years, Bennett and staff have shown a great ability to build cohesiveness as the season plows through.
I see no evidence of this happening so far.
The team, despite the return of Reece Beekman, is missing floor leadership – a coach-on-the-court type player.
Is that a coaching deficiency, or maybe a byproduct of the transfer portal?
It’s got to be incredibly difficult for a coach to build a roster, and cohesiveness, year after year.
I challenge anyone to argue the point that this team would not be significantly better had Isaac Troudt and Kadin Shedrick chosen not to leave Charlottesville.
The reason they chose to leave is insignificant, the fact they left is not.
Even the loss of Francisco Caffaro has had consequences for Virginia. His size alone would be a huge plus for the Cavaliers; remember Jack Salt?
Most experts agree that the current NIL and transfer portal era is unstainable in the long run.
The concerning question: how many quality coaches, like our Tony Bennett, will opt out before it all comes crashing down?
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