Other than Tony seeming to like him what indication do we have that Ron is even an above average coach?
And Iāve said this before, but running a program and hiring/choosing a successor are very different skill sets, and I donāt think itās a smart bet to think Tony excels at both.
The next hire may be a disaster, but we have to at least roll the dice. Ron has done absolutely nothing in my eyes to indicate he has a ceiling of even above average.
The mavericks have already destroyed one of my basketball teams today, I pray to god we donāt do it to my other one in a couple weeks.
At 4000 posts, it gets hard to track how this board trends with certain candidates. Whatās the feeling on Mike Jones (with Stith) and Drew Valentine?
Regardless, I hope the AD is looking at new ārecruitingā models on how to be a contender in the new college basketball era.
Uhh, yeah, his name is Tony Bennett. I firmly believe at this point we would have lost 4 games at most if he was still the coach. This season has made me appreciate just how good he was as a coach.
EDIT - as a follow up, convince Tony to come back as coach (he really canāt quit as evidenced by being at every game) with a GM handling the salary cap, etc. - hmmm, maybe Carlisle as GM if he wants a much lower pressure job and enjoying 18 holes at Farmington on a regular basis.
Mike Jones (ODU one I assume) hasnāt really shown anything yet.
I am personally less excited by Valentine than others. This has been a moderately disappointing year for Loyola Chicago. Heās young and people seem to say positive things about him, I suppose.
Tony Bennett was 23-11 last year. Take away Reece Beekman, Ryan Dunn, Jake Groves, and Jordan Minor and replace them with a bunch of underclassman, and I promise you Tony Bennett isnāt going to do a lot better than Ron Sanchez. If anything, Sanchez is almost a Bennett clone.
I think Ron has done excellent this year, tbh. Being an interim and keeping a team together, fighting & improving in the NIL era is not an easy task.
Individual & team improvement is very apparent. UVA lost Beekman, Dunn, Groves, and Minor from last yearās bubble team. Then before the season, Bennett quits, and we lose 2 guys that figured to play prominent roles in the backcourt in Warley & Bliss. Not to mention, TJ Power is a complete bust. (no offense to him. He seems like a great guy.) What did people realistically think this year was going to look like?
Tony Bennett started the NIL/portal era at the top of the mountain. He hated it so much, he bailed just before a new season tipped off - after leading his program through a 5 year slide to mediocrity. Not a single thing has changed about the game and you think some kind of restructuring can rejuvenate the guy? I donāt think so.
My guy weāre 3-8 in the worst iteration of the ACC in decades, which includes blowout losses to Louisville twice, Cal, Stanford, and Notre Dame. We just lost to VT who is one of the worst high major teams in the country this year at home. If thatās your definition of improvement then holy hell lol.
