Whereās the lie?
1 Like
Donāt try to put lipstick on a pig. Tony Bennett was the greatest thing that ever happened to UVa sports and he brought me - and us - the greatest single basketball experience and memoryā¦not in my wildest dreams did I think Iād see UVa national champs. For that I will always love that dude. But he tarnished his perfect persona. I donāt want to hear excuses, he straight up quit on his kids, on his staff, 20 days before the season and it looks like he kept most of his staff in the dark except Sanchez. you think that thatās a good look? Bad look Tony, not a good way to go out. Exit visas are imminent.
8 Likes
If you start from the assumption that 1) TB was going to retire + or - 8 months from today, 2) one of the assistants was going to get a shot, then the timing is best case scenario from a program perspective.
TB leaves after Colorado state then the new guy has a full rebuild job, with the stink of that loss and none of Tonyās long term cache. he leaves either last spring or next and you see a mass edoxus of roster more than likely.
If you take those assumptions to be true, really the main losers are first years and transfers. But now, it sounds like there will be a good deal of retention (largely because guys donāt have options), and if the season goes well you have a good chance at retention. If it doesnāt go well, youāre in the same spot youād be in doing an open search a year ago.
I think it sucks for those players but also there is a lot more flexibility with transferring now, so itās not the same kind of blow it wouldāve been 5 years ago.
8 Likes
My boss called a meeting at 10:30. Heās also a huge UVA fan and has season tickets. Iām assuming this meeting is mostly for watching old highlights and making sure weāre ready to watch the press conference.
12 Likes
Anyone know how we watch the press conference?
(Donāt make a steaming joke ā¦ donāt make a steaming joke ā¦ donāt make a steaming joke)
Leaving this as steaming. Just fits
5 Likes
So, let me get this straightā¦
Tony retires 20 days before the season; hand selects his successor - a failed HC who got fired after several lackluster seasons in the AAC - who just rehired, and not only did he pass up the longest tenured coach on his staff, Jwilly 16 freaking years, but he also kept him in the dark and didnāt tell him in advance. NICE!!!
Jwilly - gtfo of here. Donāt worry about your kids and school etc. gtfo Please - just gtfo out of here they did you dirty
10 Likes
with tissues and booze
2 Likes
As HGN mentioned in his article, Charlotte had its highest win total in 20 years during Ronās last season. He took over a dog shit program that invests absolutely nothing into it and made it respectable. Heās an interim head coach. If he sucks this year heās gone. Relax.
5 Likes
If this was a strategic move to ensure program stability ā¦ I get it. But I donāt think you can overstate how screwed over the transfers are because of this timing. Yes they get 30 days now, but rosters are set and NIL has been locked in. Their options are limited to say the least.
The perception up until yesterday at 4PM was that Tony Bennett was ready and excited to coach a talented roster picked to content for a NCAA tourney spot. And in 2 hours heās going to be gone. That sucks. And this idea of āensuring program stabilityā is just a stop gap that will probably fall apart at the end of the season.
7 Likes
ACCNX
4 Likes
Yeah I agree with you here. I do think thereās a level of screwing over someone depending on the timing - program, players, assistants. Itās a bit of pick your poison and he picked a really niche, unorthodox poison.
4 Likes
I love the mental gymnastics being exhibited throughout this board. Same people who would have died on the hill of āTony wouldnāt do that, he cares about his kids etcā are now trying to make sense of this timing and the fact he blindsided everyone. Even I canāt imagine Tony doing this out of spite, but it feels personal. Like he wanted to screw over SOMEONEā¦
2 Likes
Any chance we could wait until the presser before these takes get much hotter?
4 Likes
11 Likes
Keep coping. Suspend all of the speculation and illusionary context. At the end of the day, jwilly got straight up f*cked over and so did all the kids that wanted to play for Tony. Nobody came here because Uva - aint even a virginia kid on the freaking roster.
1 Like
Spare us the faux outrage and āI love Tony Bennettā bs man. You shat on the guy relentlessly the last few years. Your last series of posts is about how cooked we are as a program, how weāre slipping into irrelevance because of Tony.
Youre only here because you want to play in the mud. Anytime something really bad happens with the program, you come out from under your bridge.
22 Likes
How can you really judge Sanchezās performance good or bad? Itās ultimately going to be a reflection of Tony Bennett and his system. Ron = Tony. You canāt honestly know how Sanchez will do, or any coach, unless you give them the keys to the program for multiple seasons. IMO, I hope they do a thorough coaching search during the season.
Aint nobody signed their LOI to play for Ron freaking Sanchez 20 days before tipoff. And the way Tony was acting all giddy and making the media rounds like it was business as usual. Thatās f*cked up.
2 Likes