The enemy of my enemy is myā¦. friendā¦.?
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Iām with you.
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As am I. If Ron provides even 75% of what Tony gave us he will be our second most successful coach ever.
This is not about tony deserving something. This is about picking the best man for the job. If we pick a coach who did well at some other university not named Uva, that means total rebuild, getting 11 players from the portal like Louisville did, moving on from the pillars, and probably ultimately getting results somewhere between what Pete gillen and Dave leitao were able to get here. The challenges of coaching here vs other schools have not gone away. But Ron is very familiar with the culture here and is a good recruiter and is starting with good players and a packed arena and I know he can do a lot better than that.
We have a great roster (which will be a good team this year and potentially great in 2025-26) and Tony has actually built something that is bigger than himself. It doesnāt crumble and disappear into dust just because he no longer sits at the throne. What this program does and what it is about works here.
Weāve got the 98 foot yacht; no reason to dump it in the garbage heap just because the pilot retired and hire somebody else to build a boat from scratch without seeing if Ron can learn to competently steer it first.
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Laurel Bennett. A Jewel. We have lost so much but we also gained so many memories
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I agree. At this moment in time, Coach Sanchez gives Virginia the best chance to maintain the continuity of the program. Hopefully, the transition should be seamless with few if any changes from what the team has been doing all fall. Going outside the program will only set the things back, and Iām not certain it would recover in the short term. Coach Bennett was the ideal fit for UVa. I am unsure that a new search would produce a better fit than what is already in place.
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There is always a reason though
My problem with the continuity angle: since the natty, UVa is not a top 25 team. (Maybe top 30-35 or so). We have done well in the ACC, but have done meh in noncon and really poorly in NIT/NCAA.
I donāt look at our recent outcome and say ācanāt risk sacrificing that!ā.
Now people are gonna respond how they always do āā but Haney, youāre spoiled. I followed UVa when they didnāt have two wooden nickels to rub together and the players lived in hollowed out holes in the ground and ate something called hardtack.ā
And theyāre right! The last 5 years are a success as measured against the average UVa outcome. But also Iām right too! The last 5 years havenāt been so good that you need to ensure continuity.
Especially when we ALL agree that perhaps Tony didnāt willingly accept a lot of the changes to the game.
TLDR - do we really need continuity with the last 5 years? Like really really?
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And another continuity riff - a lot depends on how good you think the talent on the team is right now.
My take is this : the talent is intriguing but if next year is gonna be a final 4 contender, then we need Gertrude to get healthy and get awesome, need an Ament type recruiting pop, or need some really good talent in the portal.
Now maybe Iām wrong. Maybe TJP and Saunders are NBA talents whoāve been waiting for their moments to shine. Maybe Bliss or Dai Dai becomes an all acc caliber type. Maybe Cofie pops. Maybe Sharma pops. Etc.
But right now, none of these guys are cracking those top 100 lists of draft talent and even the handful of additional ākeep an eye on that guyā slots. But scouts are still watching per Sam, so stay tuned (like, for example, how about today, Ron? Drop that stream link!)
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Excited for Coach Sanchez to get an opportunity but Tony made this into a much better job than it was when he took it.
The dangerous mindset is āit was so great before so just keep the same staffing piecesā. Virginia opening would be one of the best jobs this cycle behind Indiana and perhaps Memphis so ideally itās worth seeing whatās out there.
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Also random question but does NIL wash away some of the sins of coaches who got in trouble for trying to get players paid to come to their schools?
For example would a good coach looking to get back to high major like Sean Miller or a Will Wade be worth consideration or is paying players before NIL still pretty tainting?
It depends how much you value (1) adherence to a rules-based order for its own sake, vs. (2) adherence to a rules-based order only depending on the underlying substantive value of the rules.
I lean towards 2, but also admit that people who donāt mind breaking rules tend to break rules.
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I think that that might be a rather myopic view of things, or, at the very least, the view as seen through blue & orange lenses. Among other things, Coach Bennett embraced the academic standards UVa has for its athletes. (To the point that academics havenāt been an issue since the dismissal of Sylvan Landesberg, or, possibly, Jeff Jones ineligibility.) Not all coaches are willing to do the same. And, it remains to be seen how willing Virginia is to be competitive in the area of NIL. In many ways, Tony Bennett was the ideal head coach at Virginia, and the position is probably very attractive to those of similar inclinations, but how many of them are out there looking for a new position?
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For me no. Proven cheaters will always cheat something. Maybe why TB is done. Den of Thieves shit
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I guess itās a matter of if you think we can be a final four contender consistently in this day and age. I do not, not without Tony Bennett and potentially not even with him in this environment.
If you could guarantee that Sanchez would guarantee that top 30 level weāve seen in the last 5 years Iād take it in a heartbeat. If you want to be a final four type contender youāre gambling on a 5% type chance from the kind of coach we can get. Pretty much praying a low level coach is a Nate Oates miracle type.
I want to be a program where we have a really good chance to go to the tourney every year and maybe have a chance to make some noise. That would make for some fun basketball seasons
This is a great question because, historically, Virginia has never been a consistent Top 20 program except when Tony was here and when Ralph was here. It has taken an extraordinary player and an extraordinary coach to lift us to those heights. Itās certainly possible we can find those again. But youāre talking Hall of Fame level. Theyāre pretty rare.
Nate Oates is a great example of the dilemma we face. Heās a winner. He can turn around a program. But heās also shown himself to be ā¦ um ā¦ ethically challenged. That may be the type of guy we need, but Iām not sure thatās the type of guy weāre looking to get.
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Jeff Jones programs were always top 20 esque I believe. But I hear you. TB has had us at the top top few times for sure and dominnat in ACC
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My dad went to the University of Redlands, a DIII school in southern CA with anā¦ interesting basketball program and heās still pretty involved in the school.
His first reaction on hearing TB was stepping down because he hated the NIL part was āHmm, I think Redlands is looking for a coach and he wouldnāt have to deal with NIL thereā¦ā
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For me, no. Itās an integrity/values thing.
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This was the story going around when Virginia was seeking to replace Coach Jeff Jones. Supposedly, Terry Holland had essentially offered the job to Mike Jarvis and an interview with President Casteen was thought to be a mere formality. However, Jarvis informed Casteen that he expected any recruit he pursued to be admitted with no exceptions. Jarvis left without the job, and Holland left for East Carolina not long afterwards. At least, that was the story I heard. Others may know differently. Regardless, when everyone starts tossing out the names of potential head coaches, this is something to keep in mind.
I would hope that the University of Virginia creates a position akin to coach emeritus for Tony Bennett, and that he remains in Charlottesville and at UVa. It would make the transition to Coach Sanchez so much smoother.
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