UVA Basketball fans have been adapting and adjusting to a new style of play under new head coach Ryan Odom.
Initially, some felt that we might lose some of what former and future Hall of Fame coach Tony Bennett instilled over his 15 years at the helm.
Would the current team lose its defensive mentality and focus on mainly being an offensive-oriented group? Would an entirely new group of players, most all of them highly skilled, veteran transfers from other universities, be able to come together as a team? In today’s new era of pay-to-play and putting a new team together every season, many have wondered if team play might not be anything resembling what we’ve seen in the past.
But never fear, Cavalier fans. While some things have changed, many important things have stayed the same. What has stuck are what great teams are built upon, ideals and practices that helped the Wahoos to the 2019 national championship and several ACC regular season and tournament championships under Coach Bennett.
Before we get into the nuts and bolts of this, let me provide a bit of perspective before comparing the current team with the past.
Bennett came into the program with a plan.
In terms of on the court play, defense would be the staple of the program. If you wanted to play for Bennett, you had to defend. Offensive skills alone would not give you time on the court. Defend, learn to defend, or cheer from the bench while others played.
Offensively, you had to move without the ball, set screens, take good shots within the rhythm of the offense, and protect the basketball. Essentially, you had to be old-school fundamentally sound.
But there are more important aspects of building a quality program besides x’s and o’s. Coach Bennett brought a culture to the program that was something beyond just playing the game.
He’s famously known for his Five Pillars of transformational coaching, which are;
- Humility: Knowing who you are, recognizing strengths, and being grounded.
- Passion: Embracing hard work with energy and purpose.
- Unity: Promoting togetherness to avoid dividing the team.
- Servanthood: Putting the team first and making teammates better.
- Thankfulness: Maintaining an attitude of gratitude.
Bennett’s teams bought into these principles. It’s what grounded the program and allowed for continuous success. Virginia didn’t take long to ascend the ACC and battle at the top every season. These principles allowed the Cavaliers to run a stretch of over 10 years where they won more conference games than any other ACC team.
Now, back to today. What have we lost? What have we gained?
While college basketball, for the most part, has lost its structure of recruiting high school players and building a team over years of development, we’re in an age where that just won’t get it done, at least not if you want to win your conference and play in the NCAA Tournament. And it’s sad that Wahoos lost a great one in Coach Tony Bennett due to these changes.
A new coach, a new plan, but something of an old plan as well.
What coach could possibly come in and help navigate the Virginia program through this new landscape? Could the new coach build a successful program with paid athletes and still hold onto a lot of what Cavalier fans expected over the past decade and a half?
Enter Ryan Odom, a man who we are all learning isn’t that far off of what we knew before. The similarities between Odom and Bennett have been shining brightly over the course of this season.
On the court, while Virginia pushes the ball harder and scores more points per game, a lot of the play is similar to the past. Good shot selection, protection of the basketball, and a strong defense.
But off the court, something remarkable and somewhat unexpected has happened with this team. They have embraced many of the principles that Bennett brought to the program, and much of it has happened organically.
When you look at Bennett’s Five Pillars, you can see all of this embraced by Odom’s team. You see it on the court, you hear about their togetherness off the court, and you hear it from the players directly during post game interviews.
Two of the pillars are front and center with this year’s squad – Unity and Servanthood.
Team Unity is often built over time as players continue their careers at one place. To find good chemistry from an entirely new group of players is a rare thing. But this edition of the Virginia Cavaliers have found this in short order.
“One thing I love about this team is how connected we are, both on and off the court,” said Ugonna Onyenso. “I feel like what makes us so special is how we are off the court.” He continued, “We still look out for one another, we still got each other’s back. We’re still hanging out. We’re still doing stuff, you know, we’re laughing. So, when you’re in that kind of environment, with that kind of people, it’s like, we’re all laid back, so it’s easier for us to play on the court when things aren’t going right, to know how to figure it out when things aren’t going right”
Malik Thomas echoed this: “Everybody bouncing around from place to place, you never get that connectivity in one place for one year. But I can’t say that for this place. This place has accepted me with open arms, accepted, you know, all of our seniors, Jacari, Dallin and Ugo, we did a great job of just coming in in the summer, to just know that we only have one year, but we can make the most of it and connect with the guys best we can.”
Regarding Servanthood, there’s no better display of this than the mentality of the Bench Mob, as they’ve come to be known. Virginia has so much depth that no one player sees more than 30 minutes per game. But that still means that four of Virginia’s players in the rotation do not start, and this has been the case for nearly every game this season.
Typically, this kind of format would be detrimental for a group of highly talented, one-year players transferring in only to realize they wouldn’t be starting. But for Virginia, those coming off the bench have embraced their roles and that unselfishness has led to a very successful team. Even on Senior Night, a night where even seldom-used bench players will have an opportunity to start, this group of seniors didn’t want to do that.
“I asked the seniors the other day, the guys who come off the bench, if they wanted to start on senior night, and was certainly willing to do that and switch it up,” Odom said. “They were like, no, we don’t want to do that, we want to keep it the way that it is. We’re comfortable in our roles and with a big game like [Virginia Tech], we want to stay in our roles.”
Ryan continued: “Ultimately, this entire team has sacrificed the entire year. You look at successful basketball teams, or any sporting team, there’s going to be a common theme of sacrifice throughout. The individuals on this team has done a really good job of sacrificing a bit of themselves for the greater good of the team.”
And while those two pillars stand out immensely, attention to the remaining three Pillars is there. This team has humility, they play with passion, and you can see how thankful they are for their opportunities and the decisions they made to come to the University of Virginia.
It’s incredible that, in this new era, Virginia can still field teams that can embrace these priciples, and it has shown itself on and off the court.
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