Lang was a scholarship player for Vandy and now heās a walk-on at UVA, and while UVA was always his dream school, Iām sure he didnāt make that move without some āencouragementā by the new Vandy staff.
Lang is a really good kid, so while I get that college basketball has changed a lot over the last few years, he was a top 100 kid for a while his junior year. I hold that mildly against Byington and, if nothing else, at least suggests he isnāt necessarily big on keeping the former roster (returned 2.8% of minutes from the prior season, #346 in the country).
I feel that he should use his face to encourage as many people as possible to be a UVA fan and not to admonish the āmanyā UVA fans that he claims do not ascribe to his ābusiness personā advice. Itās disappointing that one of our few visible donors has decided to take a self-anointed high ground against the many UVA fans, all of whom love UVA as much or more than he does.
Oh that I 100% agree with. Idk even with that I still like him generally more than if everything was anonymous. Although anonymous donor is also awesome.
Heās usually got better takes than this. Comes across a lot more genuine in general.
Iāll defend Cotten a little here. I donāt know him personally, never interacted.
When you become a figure on social media, which granted he has done by choiceā¦you get so many replies to everything. And the loudest voices are almost always the most negative. So thatās what you see. Iāve definitely fallen into the trap of being needlessly preachy at times too. Not an excuse but it really does shape your view if not careful.
Iām taking too much out of context and Iām sure heās a good guy. Heās got a good platform to advance UVA athletics and I hope he uses it to keep doing so
I chat with Cotten from time to time. Iād say he has a personal and professional affinity for the Bennett tenure - big advocate - but heās also not a blind homer.
Iād be surprised if he stops supporting the program even if we move on to a new coach.
I donāt mind he thinks Sanchez deserves a better chance even if I disagree.
Tony never had the opportunity to go back to Wisconsin. Bo Ryan had things rolling, and he kind of handed the torch off to Greg Gard who ran with it for a while. That marriage seems to be getting a little stale, so if Tony has a change of heart and wants to get back in the game, perhaps he might resurface at Wisconsin. Although the same climate still exists in the college game that TB cited for his retirement.
While there was never a publicly open job search Iām sure there were multiple points in which Tony had UVA absolutely dominating the then best conference in basketball and having UVA on the 1/2 seed lines virtually every year while Wisconsinā¦ wasnāt? That they wouldāve gladly gone to Tony had he had any desire to switch it up. Especially given how often we played themā¦ hard to imagine they wouldnāt watch us beat them multiple times over and not be envious/curious.
The timing never really matched up. There was always chatter about him replacing Ryan, when Ryan decided to retire. UVa fans thought Tony wouldnāt be interested, but
Then Bo finished runner-up to Duke (2015) and announced a farewell tour, saying heād like Gard to take over, but then left in December of the farewell tour to make sure itād be Gard. (Whatās with these Wisconsin coaches and retiring at really odd times? Coaches from every other state are like āhow about I retire at like a normal time?ā but Wisconsin guys are like, how about at the weirdest time possible? Did Vince Lombardi retire an odd time or something?)
And then Gard went to two Sweet 16s in a row, so youāre not gonna force a guy out who had done that. And then by the time Greg Gard revealed himself to be Greg Gard, Tony had won a natty, and wasnāt gonna leave (if he ever wouldāve anyway ā my guess is probably not).
Gard had those 2 runs as a 7 then 8 seed and completely missed the tourney in 2018 with a losing record. Coincidentally Tony had just suffered the biggest tourney defeat in history that year. Wouldāve been the perfect chance for them. But itās not like any of this mattersā¦
Anyways back to making DeVries the first and largest offer to be our next coach.
Yeah? āHey, Tony, I know youāve got 3 upperclass pros coming back and really want to exorcise the UMBC demons, but want to come up to Madison and try to develop NAte Reuvers?ā
If that was the perfect chance, I think weāve walked ourselves into realizing there was no chanceā¦
I mean same couldāve been said for after 2019ā¦ Tony had literally accomplished everything here. At that point Wisconsin had been bounced in R64 after the losing seasonā¦
But again, why are we arguing this? Tony was 100% considered a top 5 coach in the sport for at minimum half decade. If he wanted Wisconsin (or any job, for that matter) he couldāve had it. And it didnāt happen haha. Itās fair to think the environment and support we provided collectively played a part in his desire to stay here for 15 seasons.
I believe the reason we are arguing this is that you keep asserting that there were good opportunities for Tony to go to Wisconsin post-2017 or so (post Gard 2 sweet 16s), which I think is blatantly incorrect.
So you think Wisconsin, coming off a national title game, was happy with a 7 seed, 8 seed, losing season and R64 exit 4 consecutive years? All the while the prodigal son is getting 1/2 seeds (minus 2017, obviously) and in those same 4 seasons had a E8 and title??
Just because it wasnāt publicly known doesnāt mean that they wouldnāt have gladly taken him with open arms had he had literally any desire to make that move.
