There’s a lot there, but one quick reaction: I’m not against Tony doubling down, but I’d like him to be a bit more oriented toward doubling down on his outcomes rather than his habits. For example, doubling down on retention: Great! Using the same habits toward that goal in a changing world: if your habits are what’s important to you, then go for it, but don’t expect to get retention using the same habits.
(Though the particular issues of last year don’t really even fit in well to any preexisting habits, tbh, right? The covid 5th year laid a trap for Tony and he dove right onto it. I kinda think Tony is as bad at self analysis as the rest of us.)
I think the whole point of the article is that Tony thinks he can be successful without compromising his principles (or “habits,” if you prefer). He doesn’t see them as mutually exclusive. I suspect that JPHAT is right – that if it turns out he can’t do it his way, he’ll leave coaching. He’s not interested in becoming Eric Musselman.
So far, I think he’s been proven correct. The article says he’s turned Virginia into an “elite” program, and most people in college basketball would agree. Yes, you can’t ignore the three first-round NCAA losses – but you also can’t blithely dismiss the natty that came in the middle of it. Or the regular season and ACC Tournament titles.
If someone said when Tony was hired that we’d lose three first-round games but win a championship, I think most fans would respond: “Really? We’re gonna make the tournament four years? That would be awesome!”
Haney contrarian alert (just like Tony our contrarian coach) : Principles and habits are very different, and I think it’s useful to distinguish them, but in practice they can be hard to separate, and I think that’s the difficulty that Tony is wrestling with, IMO, not as successfully as he did from 14-19. There was nothing about prioritizing the Covid 5th year that fits into any principle that I can discern from 14-19; and the only habit I can see that it fit for Tony is … tbh, I don’t really know. Because I don’t know his habits well enough, but I suspect it was a gut instinct of some sort…