Tony Bennett, talking with reporters after Virginia’s 77-53 win over Louisville on Wednesday night, conceded to trying to refuel the plane while it’s still in the air, which is a feat of engineering.
“You know, we chose to, guys to build for the future, but also try to be as good as we can in the immediate. And, you know, we’re throwing them into some situations that are challenging, but I think hopefully will produce a good harvest, whenever that is, and sometimes it’s hard, and it’s painful going through it, but we’ll keep fighting,” Bennett said.
That’s the definition of growing pains, which the fans are having a hard time dealing with.
Virginia shared the ACC regular-season championship a year ago, and on paper seemed to be improved in key areas heading into 2023-2024, but the reality is, this group is a mix of new guys who are freshmen, talented transfers who have to learn the system and then a couple of returners who are projected first-round NBA Draft picks in a few months.
Which is how it is that you get uneven efforts from night to night – beating a nationally ranked team by 12, winning a couple of conference games by 20+, and also losing three games by, egad, 20+.
Coming off the most recent of those ugly losses, the 76-54 setback at not good Notre Dame on Saturday, this one was about as much must-win as you’re going to see in early January.
Credit, then, to Virginia for taking care of business. It was 37-22 at the half, and the game was never in question in the final 20 minutes.
“It was a step in the right direction, for sure. Just thought we were more ready. And obviously it helped being at home. But the guys responded and got a good lift,” Bennett said.
After a run of games in which Virginia fell behind by double-digits early, and had to dig its way out of the holes, piece by piece, it helped that it was the Cavaliers getting out to a double-digit lead midway through the first half, setting the edge, basically.
Bennett made one tweak to his rotation, going for long stretches with a lineup featuring 6’10” freshman Blake Buchanan alongside 6’9” grad transfer Jake Groves in the post, and 6’8” sophomore Ryan Dunn as a really big three-guard.
“We went a little bigger at times to help on the glass and clog up the lane defensively, so that was good to see that lineup as well,” Bennett said.
Hope we see that one a lot more going forward.
The guys are still learning the system, playing with each other, and Bennett and the coaching staff are still learning how to best put the team into position to win games.
“It was a step, again, in the right direction, and we get to go and test it again here real soon,” Bennett said.
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Chris Graham
