A friend who has access to the Cavalier Club told me that an assistant coach was in there chatting with the monied UVA Basketball elites before tonight’s game with Notre Dame, and acknowledged the current team’s lack of toughness.
The friend wished he’d taped what was being said for me, it was so revealing.
Then we saw what we saw: Notre Dame taking control in the first half, leading by as many as 27 in the second half, settling, after lots of garbage time, for a 74-59 win.\
ICYMI
And then we heard what we heard from the interim coach, Ron Sanchez, and the two players made available to the media after the game, Isaac McKneely and Jacob Cofie.
The message from the coach and the two players: yeah, what the assistant told the people with money before the game was right on.
This was Sanchez: “I’m extremely disappointed in the way that that the team came out, and that is on me as their head coach, that I did not get them rallied up and ready to compete with their hair on fire like we needed to today. So, I got to do a much better job of that.”
This was McKneely, who had 14 points, but didn’t score in the final 25:50: “As a leader on this team, I got to make sure that we’re up and ready for each game. You know, we can’t be satisfied with one win against BC, you know, we needed to come in here and get another win, and you know, we just didn’t bring it. And like I said, a lot of that’s on me.”
This was Cofie, who had 17 points, but 11 came in the extended garbage time, after the game had gotten well out of reach in the second half: “I feel like we got to come out and play as hard as we can every night. I feel like we lacked that today, and we can do a lot better. I think that was on us.”
Not a lot good to write about
Notre Dame (9-10, 3-5 ACC) led 14-3 seven minutes in, 22-11 inside of eight minutes to go in the first half, and aside from a couple of McKneely flurries, it was all Irish in a first half that ended with Virginia down 12 going into the locker room.
It would not get closer in the second half.
UVA went nearly nine minutes in the second half without a field goal as Notre Dame led by as many as 27.
A 13-2 Cavaliers run against an Irish squad fighting complacency got the deficit back into the mid-teens, and it should tell you a lot about how deep the hole was that Virginia made 10 of its last 16 from the floor, 5-of-7 from three, and the final margin was still 15.
This was a pants-down ass-whuppin’ in front of a home sellout crowd that came in with some hope, after the 18-point blowout of Boston College at home on Tuesday.
How do you not generate energy in that kind of situation?
The answer: the kids are obviously checked out, aware that Sanchez and the assistants aren’t going to be retained, with the AD, Carla Williams, and a search committee already deep into the process of vetting candidates for a full-time replacement for Tony Bennett.
ICYMI
I’ve got another one for you tomorrow, incidentally.
Yep, the list is now at four.
It doesn’t do any good to wonder about how the program would be faring this season if Bennett hadn’t checked out on them three weeks before the season, in a move that was a surprise to everybody, including Sanchez, who has been at Bennett’s side since their days as assistants on the staff of Bennett’s father, Dick Bennett, at Washington State.
It’s probably obvious at this point that Sanchez, no offense intended for him, but it’s true, he’s not Tony Bennett, in terms of strategy, and ability to get the most out of the roster.
Sanchez might tell you, in his defense, that the roster this year isn’t at the level that Bennett had in his really good years – there’s no Malcolm Brogdon, Joe Harris, Justin Anderson, De’Andre Hunter, Ty Jerome, Kyle Guy, Trey Murphy, Sam Hauser, Jay Huff, Ryan Dunn or Reece Beekman walking through the tunnel to take the floor this season.
I’ll stage-whisper here: Sanchez was the lead recruiter on the guys that Virginia brought in off the transfer portal in the spring.
This is where we learn why the market values a Tony Bennett as a $4 million-a-year coach, and a Ron Sanchez, again, no personal offense, is a $450,000-a-year guy.
Nobody reading this thinks this roster is 9-11, 2-7 in the ACC, losing multiple games to mid teams by double-digits, if Bennett had found a way to get himself to endure one more season as the coach.
That’s all water under the bridge. Tony ain’t coming back, the Bennett years are over, it’s about to be Shaka Time or Ryan Odom Time or, I’ve got a bombshell coming for you tomorrow, ahead of the NFL championship games.
In the meantime, can we at least get the kids in the Virginia uniforms to show some pride?
Sanchez, credit to the guy, is taking that one on as a personal project.
“As disappointing as, you know, this is, as the head coach of the program right now, I know that our fans want to win, and I mean, there’s not a single fan out there that wants to win more than I do, you know,” the interim told reporters after the ugly, dispiriting home loss.
“We’re never going to make excuses, you know, out of this stuff,” Sanchez said. “I always like to say that, you know, energy trumps strategy, you know. And I got to do a better job of getting the guys revved up, you know, ready to kind of come out and almost, you know, rabid, in a way, to compete harder.”
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Chris Graham
