The year after losing to us in Elite Eight, Purdue finished 16-15. Two years after facing us in the Final Four, Auburn had a losing record, and two years after that finished 21-13 â the same year we were 25-8 and ranked No. 14 in APâs final poll. Michigan State had a worse record than us in four out of those five years.
Those are all terrific programs and deserve all the respect they get. Iâm not arguing with you about that. But I think we really undervalue Tonyâs post-natty years (probably because of the lack of tournament success) and forget that those other programs have had ups and downs, too.
One season up and down. Not a gradual decline. Nothing about unshakeable and smugness. We are not in North Korea; itâs okay to acknowledge shortcomings.
The ACC was nowhere near the other power 5 conferences in terms of top to bottom quality. Purdue took a down year to develop young talent and even benched their veteran big to start the young guys in the front court taking their lump. We kept bringing in 1 year rentals and valuing their experience over younger players (Reece as sole point/Igor).
I donât think one can genuinely say we are the same caliber of program, given the repeated blowouts to power 5 non ACC opponents minus 2022-2023 where we returned everyone and had the euro trip.
Tony himself admitted he wasnât the man for the job anymore. He saw the writing on the wall. Maybe attributed more of that to the changes in the college basketball world, but a lot of the decisions were within his control (who to recruit, who to play, etc. etc.). Acknowledging this doesnât take away what he gave us. My sentiment in 2022 was Tony is at a cross roads where he will either be the next Jim Boeheim or revive the program like Wright did after his 2009 post final 4 slump. Unfortunately the former was true.
Adding Dante in real time was a obviously bad move. Playing Stattman over Igor in real time was an obviously bad move since we were NIT bound and Stattmann was his last season vs the future in Igor.
I think if CTB, so much like Gary Williams btw, was willing to change with the landscape, he wouldâve been successful. But, I just donât think he wanted to do it. I donât blame him, in fact, I respect the hell out of him for hanging it up and recognizing his way wasnât going to work anymore. Very few are able to make that call.
Tonyâs as competitive as anyone, but he didnât get into coaching to win games. He became a coach because he loved certain aspects of the job. Those aspects were taking up less of his time, and the things he didnât love were taking up more. It was no longer a job that gave him the same joy. I have no doubt heâll find something that else does.
But this is your point. Iâm saying we havenât had ups and downs. Its been a gradual decline in the dying ACC. The other schools intentionally had a down season as a play for the future with their young core getting minutes.
But itâs not as though we had no postseason success.
No ACCT in 2020, but the hottest team going in.
2021 â Covidâed out of an ACC semis vs a team we had beaten twice.
2023 â ACC title game.
2024 â McKneely FT OR a McKneely contest away from another ACC title game.
NCAAs arenât the only definition of postseason success, although I wish we had the last few minutes of Ohio back again (and a couple of practices, too), and the last 10 seconds of the Furman game, too.
99% of people underrate the value of regular season success. Especially in college basketball where the best teams often donât win the national championship.
Seeding speaks to the quality of the wins. Win total is not the whole story. In the years leading up to the Championship we were one seeds four times, a two once, and our down year was a five in which we won a first round game.
Afterwards two four seeds, one 11 as a first four participant and one NIT berth (edit (thank you hoodat and Lodger)). We can sugarcoat the seasons with our relatively successful ACC standings and high winning % but we were not nationally relevant like we had been in the previous seven years. The tournament seeding reflected that. Then factor in the sustained lack of success in those post seasons.
I enjoyed the ride, the coaches and all the players but the success was waning.
It was a good conversation. He does say he intended to stay at UVA and then⌠he very quickly moves past the decision to move on, which is understandable.
Classy from KG. Loves UVA and Charlottesville, TB guy until he dies, no hard feelings with the new staff and wished them all the best, but didnât have to be this way.