"We donāt have all the things the others have in terms of five-stars ā weāve got good players ā but itās a way that you have to build them. If Iām 70%, 80%, thatās not fair to the players
He is saying that he has good players but not enough to contendā¦He is burned out trying to pull rabbits out of his hat. He knows that until something changes UVA cannot be a legitimate contender under the current model. (āAnd until it changes, no one will be able to handle it fully, but thatās what led to it at this time.ā)
The state of the roster is right there on the website. What do you mean by hidden?
My point is that any personās motivation to do their job is going to be affected by what they perceive as the likely outcome over a given time period. Maybe Iām wrong. Maybe Tony wouldāve stepped away from the team without any regard to his perception of roster quality. But I suspect most would give them some regard.
Itās not like job burnout is some foreign concept! I get it! But you have to weigh it against other things. For me, itās $$. For Tony, I suspect itās other things.
People are acting like we didnāt heavily use NIL to construct this roster. We probably offered over $1M to recruits/transfers just this summer. The current team might not be ready or might have flaws, but we were able to do exactly what yāall are saying we canāt do. Why the hell do you think Elijah Saunders and Dai Dai Ames came to UVA? Money was a very large factor in both of their decisions.
I just think Tony didnāt have it in him to do it all again.
I donāt think thatās what heās saying, at least not in totality. I think heās saying that what had worked for UVa as it became a national power was developing guys over 3-4 years and consistently having "olderā teams with veterans who had been in the system. Those days are gone, however, because of the Portal as well as tampering and NIL bidding wars.
Easier for a keyboard commando to search for motives that arenāt there than to listen to what Bennett actually said.
He was excited about this two-year window to get us back to where he wanted us to be, but didnāt have the heart to re-recruit the team throughout the year, second-guess playing time/redshirts/etc. His way of doing things is more difficult today than it was pre-COVID, and it weighed on him too much, took too much of his time/no breaks from the recruiting cycle/playing schedule.
This was about where he fits in todayās game, not where the roster is.
Okay, I misread your post to mean you felt he couldnāt get players/talent in this environment, which is definitely harder, whereas I believe he sees the inability to keep a team together as an even bigger issue than recruiting.
I believe it to be all of the above.. initially constructing and maintain a roster. Either way the roster will seemingly be short a couple of pieces in order to contend year to year in todays enviroment.
Agree with all this. And I interpreted this all the same way. (If my agreement makes you question yourself, thatās fine! )
But this is all about - two years. And what about the first year?
Heās been hammering on the two year thing in every interview. If he thought this was a āwin nowā team, why would be focusing on all the re-recruiting and what not? He managed a pretty effective win-now strategy in 2019!
Edit - and to be clear, this is why I set off the spark by wondering if Tony wouldāve done the same thing if the roster seemed better. Like for example if it were year 2 of the 2-year window we keep referring to.
First TB post?: āAnd Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade, that with it, thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy. And the Lord did grin.ā
Ronchezās twitter still lists him as head coach of Charlotte. Maybe someone on staff might want to update that.
More generally Iād just like to see him publicly take the reins, address the fan base, whatever. I understand thereās some media thing tomorrow, so I guess thatās what Iām waiting for.
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