šŸ€ Tony Bennett Retires, Ron Sanchez to be Interim HC

Shut up bitch

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My take on the timing: If I had taken a poll 24 hours ago of UVa hoops fans and asked: only considering the needs of the program and not the coach’s side of things, when would be a good time of year for the coach to retire? I suspect like 90%+ of us would’ve said something like ā€œwithin a couple weeks of the end of the seasonā€. Or maybe the summer. I don’t think ā€œone month before the season, after practice and the semester has already startedā€ would’ve been a common answer.

The only time I could maybe see an argument for it is a situation like 2019, where you could see a big run coming, just based on talent level, and you’d prioritize the short term (keeping a great unit together, because they lack other good options, and can see they are primed for a run) over the longer term of the program. But, and I know opinions of this year’s outcome vary a bit, I don’t think too many think we are in the same borough of that ballpark.

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But that being said, good sir, and may I compliment you on a nice post, we should consider the coach’s side of things and grant some grace to a guy who did so much for the program.

Response: okay fine, but just this once.

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i think for my sake i’m taking a break from this thread :sob: these takes getting real scorching hot

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I’m still excited for the season because I love college hoops but there’s going to be a dark shadow looming. Any loss will be magnified as we analyze Sanchez’s head coaching decisions and body language experts will come out of the woodwork because now literally anyone is a transfer risk.

And yeah, everyone is a transfer risk this day and age, but now that risk is considerably higher. And anyone could bolt. No one is off the table. I guess best case scenario is you overperform and Sanchez can keep the core intact, but it’s going to be butt clench city up in here all offseason. And what level of transfers or recruits can we get with an interim coach? I genuinely don’t know.

Im not on the we’re fucked long term view like some because I think you can rebuild a roster quickly now, but it could be a rough few years (or it couldn’t, that’s possible too) after it looking like we had a really good core in place for another run soon. That sucks, no two ways about it

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Apologize for my rant, its therapy. I am a mid 30’s man who’s favorite sport has always been college basketball. I grew up in the dmv the son of a Rockville native, so grew up rooting for Maryland (ducks for cover). My first year at UVa was the opening of JPJ, and other than my first year, I only knew mediocrity for UVa. I never saw this type of success as anywhere within the realm of possibility, and the 2019 title was legitimately the best day of my life (i’m unmarried without kids). Tony brought me so much joy, and legit changed my life. He made it easier to keep in touch with college friends by discussing and meeting up for games, and did it all in the right way. I’m not telling anyone how to feel, and sure the timing we may not love, but Tony deserves a statue and the court named after him, and you can’t change my mind on that.

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Hoping it lights a spark amongst our players and they rise to the occasion. If they can find a way to win this season then the program could potentially rise from where it was the past 4 years or so. But a bad season will likely mean a total restart with mass defections

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Until I actually hear more information I am assuming Tony woke up yesterday and felt like he wasn’t 100% in.

He said he’d coach as long as he felt fully invested. So he probably doesn’t feel fully invested anymore. Maybe he didn’t this whole offseason and just realized it now. Or maybe it really was a sharp shift in the last few days.

I kind of feel like Tony would hang it up when he wanted too, not when it would be the best time for everyone else. Not that he’s selfish, just that’s his personal philosophy.

But I don’t know anything.

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I think for most of my pre-Bennett UVa fandom, UVa’s outcome could be fairly described as mediocre. But that didn’t stop me from driving 10+hours to columbus OH to meet my first year roommate and watch the first weekend of the tourney in 2007. I used to drive around Alexandria to try to find a strong enough radio signal. If you love college hoops and UVa hoops, I suspect you’ll keep loving college hoops and UVa hoops (but yeah, maybe watch a little less).

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I’ll also just throw this out there - just because sources, or even Tony himself, says it’s not health related doesn’t mean that’s true. People hide health issues all the time and keep that shit private. I hope to god everyone’s ok

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Uhhhh, in a couple of words, no f*cking wy!

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I mean, we are 5-6 moves away from any of this, but if Ron/the team struggles and he is not kept on, I am not sure that it is all doom and gloom. A lot of the older guys would probably wait until the hire is made and if it is a solid/splash hire, could be retained. The new guy would probably bring a plyer or 2 and or get 1 or 2 others based on previous relationships. That, plus I think the money at UVA is going to work hard to avoid a huge drop off. Whether that means upping the NIL game again or ponying up for a ā€˜name’ coach. They have been to the mountain top and still want to get back.

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Excellent point. I don’t think that is the case, but yep, Tony is not going to say, ā€œyes Jeff, I have or my wife is going throughā€

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This is the type of optimism I needed today Forest, thank you.

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Woah

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Yeah my big complaint is that usually when a coach leaves there is an initial boost of hope and optimism about the new guy. It is hard to have that about a guy already on the staff at this juncture.

At least if we were bringing in Ryan Odom or whoever we could drown ourselves in delusions and optimism about him. Can’t really do that for Sanchez.

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I’m sure this has been said already, but if Sanchize is awesome, none of this awkward timing will matter. If Sanchize is terrible, none of this awkward timing will matter that much because he’ll be out and we will conduct a search delayed by a year or so. It’s that awkward middle ground - especially if he’s on the meh side of mediocre and not on the eh side of mediocre - where we risk a real festering issue…

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You think there’d be ā€œoptimismā€ if tony Bennett decided to hang it up regardless of timing? That’s wild

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Not optimism per se, but we could distract ourselves digging into the new guy.

My girlfriend is an Alabama fan, and being able to get excited about DeBoer was definitely helpful to the Saban departure process.

There is a hopefulness that comes with new beginnings that I feel we’re being robbed of here.

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Will Tony Bennett ever be a college head coach again?

  • yes
  • no
0 voters

I’m throwing a few dollars on Wisconsin-hyphenated D3 school over at Chuck’s pancake hut and sportsbook.

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