I love Tony and I had his back for many years.
When you look at PASE (Performance against seed expectation) he is the worst out of 500 plus coaches.
And then the guy completely ruins the program.
EDIT: He didn’t ruin the program and I will be forever appreciative of his contributions. I have a dog named after him and a photo with him on my wall
Hoo boy this is gonna go well.
3x national coach of the year + national title +acc and regular season win rate
You’re sounding like a bitter ex 
I dunno, this is a tough one to figure out.
Maybe it’s 433 wins with a .719 winning percentage.
Maybe it was being a three-time USBWA Coach of the Year, two-time AP coach of the year, two-time Naismith College coach of the year.
Maybe it was being PAC-10 coach of the year.
Maybe it was being four-time ACC coach of the year.
Maybe it was winning ACC regular season titles six times.
Maybe it was winning the ACC Tournament twice.
Maybe it was four Sweet Sixteen appearances.
Maybe it was having the respect of the other Hall of Fame coaches in the ACC.
Maybe it was the 2019 NCAA championship.
But, I don’t know. It’s really hard to figure out why he’s considered a Hall of Fame coach. One of life’s mysteries here.
Listen I understand being bitter to some extent about how Tony exited the program. While I’m sure he was fully well intended in what he did it has put us in a precarious spot.
But in terms of the hall of fame, I can promise you the committee for that is not gonna overlook the national championship/national coach of the year awards/six times winning the ACC while going up against K, Roy, Boeheim, and Pitino/having a 72% win percentage overall as a coach at non-traditional blue blood jobs and instead go “Hmmmm well his Performance Against Seed metric was super low so we can’t let him in”.
It might take him a little longer given he’s out of the game and won’t get the opportunity to add to the more legacy type stats that coaches like K, Boeheim, and Roy have. But he will absolutely get in eventually.
Where to even begin. You can debate Tony’s HOF worthiness but I think it’s pretty clear he’s getting in.
What annoys me about your post is that you’re definitely letting the way he exited impact your view of his resume, which it has no bearing on. To say he “ruined” the program is utterly preposterous. We have no idea how the program will fare in the post-TB era because we’re 5 freaking games into it.
And even if this season is a complete dud, the program is not even remotely ruined. There’s going to be a new HC after Tony, and another after him, and so on. The program will continue to have ups and downs, but nothing is ruined. And honestly if it’s ruined because CTB retired, then that just further strengthens his resume as a super human coach to win so much here
This is why nerds shouldn’t be allowed to talk about sports.
You get one made up stat that is gerrymandered to prove a point and then ride it into the grown ignroing the abundance of data points that tell a different story.
Nevermind the complete loss of context. If PASE was the only factor to determine the HOF you’d have a very different Hall.
Was CTB perfect? No. Was the game passing him by? Possibly. Does that negate what he accomplished in his near 2 decades of being a head coach? Absolutely not. He built a program from near scratch and transformed it into a brand.
Give the man his flowers. And cut out this stupid sh$t.
Lots of talk - not a lot of data actually comparing him to the college coaches that are in and vs those that aren’t in yet.
Longevity is a pretty big factor and/or multiple Final Fours for those in the Hall
Of Fame at this point.
Probably Bob Huggins and Gary Williams being the ones inducted this century that may have the lightest resume.
Huggins - 14 straight NCAA tournament appearances and a Final 4 At Cincinnati and then moves to West Virginia and has 5 straight NCAA appearances and a Final 4 - a remarkable 20 year run.
Huggins is 8th all time in wins…. Never mind - not a light resume at all.
Gary Williams would be closer to Tony but he still has 220 more wins than Tony. A title, an additional Final 4, 5 additional Sweet 16s and coached in the Acc when it was really tough too to bottom.
Also took BC and Ohio State to the dance.
Win % and the 6 year run in the Acc when it was still a strong conference and the title and the 2 great for WSU seasons as well would be the strong arguments for induction.
Maybe a good comparison would be Bubas?
.761 Winning percentage in 10 years and an
Elite 8
And a Final 4 - 3rd place win
A title game loss to Woodens UCLA
And a Final 4 - 3rd place win - lost to the Pat Riley - Louie Dampier Kentucky team made famous by their loss to Texas Western in the Final.
Maybe some are very nervous UVA becomes what Maryland has since Gary?
Or Villanova since Jay? Small sample size.
Or UNLV after Tark?
Arkansas after Nolan?
Maryland has 6 madness appearances in 12 eligible seasons since Gary left. Going 6-6 in the madness.
What would Hoo fans think of that trajectory?
Because before 2014 that would have been a solid 12 years in Hooville.
My report after 2 minutes of Wikipedia research: get Keady and Huggy out of it, or every fanbase is gonna want their guy in.
My view on Tony: he’s in. Natty + COYs + ACC success + reclamation project rep + general good vibes about him in the profession.
The OP is correct that he won the natty and was otherwise pretty disappointing in the tourney. But that’s just one factor. A big factor! But just one.
(It’s too bad how the OP started the topic because it’s a worthy discussion…)
Great point. It’s a fun discussion…presented in a way that made me want to throw my phone against the wall
The details matter. Turge woulda been a 3-seed or so in the Covid cancelled year. He also had highly ranked teams that fizzled. That was their frustration.
I think their big disappointment was that post Turge, the best they could do was Willard. And now they feel kinda meh…
Edit - also Turge kinda flamed the fanbase on the way out the door. But also they probably deserved it.
Yeah I framed the discussion in a terrible way. Had too many drinks at an NFL game and a losing trip to the casino. Happy to delete the thread and start it in a much more serious discussion thread.
What I wanted to get across when posting is everyone here just assumes he is a HOF coach, but does his resume actually back it up?
2019 was the best sports year of my life, but what is Tony’s legacy if Diakite does not hit that shot? The regular season success was extraordinary but ultimately March is what matters. That title and banner will hang forever, but we are also just known as a program that shits the bed in the tournament.
And the last five years have been brutal (ignoring last 3 months)
2014-2019 was absolutely HOF quality but can six years be enough to earn a spot in the HOF
Again, sorry for the way I originally posed the question last night, but I still think it is valid.
Talking about the HOF for baseball players, it often breaks down to peak value via career value. How to grade a consistent 20 year career vs 5 years of superstardom and 8 years of ok but not great performance?
Huggy’s career value is enormous, far higher than CTB in duration and counting results. But CTB’s peak value was top-tier.
Yeah I don’t know enough how the CBB HOF works. 2014-2019 he was undoubtedly the best coach including the UMBC blemish and Syracuse collapse.
He was solid before UVA.
One of the weird dynamics about every HOF is it becomes tougher to get in every year because it is meant to be so exclusive.
If there was a CBB HOF for character and integrity, he would be on the Mt Rushmore.
The reason I raised this question is one title (and FF) enough to make a HOF induction a no brainer. And don’t mean any disrespect to Tony or any member on this board
The place I usually start when thinking about if someone is a Hall of Famer is by asking myself this question: Can you tell the story of _________ without mentioning this athlete/coach/contributor?
If you can tell the story of something without mentioning that person, then he or she is clearly not a Hall of Famer.
Once you say you need to include that individual in the story, then you can get into discussions that become more subjective. Was this person at the peak long enough? How does this person compare favorably or negatively against the history of the game? Do we focus solely on the era within which this individual coached/played, etc? There are a million ways you can take this discussion. Ultimately, any discussion about a Hall of Fame eventually becomes subjective.
But to circle back to where I started, I don’t think anyone could reliably and accurately tell the story of college basketball without mentioning Tony Bennett. So you can call me biased, but there is no doubt in my mind that he’s worthy of being included in a Hall of Fame.
Hall of Fame stuff is honestly more built on regular season numbers than tournament numbers. The fact that he has a national title will wipe out all other tourney flops in eyes of HOF. What they will focus more on is his success in the ACC and the fact that almost any metric you look at, his numbers are only in the same light as 3 other coaches, K, Roy, Dean. When those are the only other coaches that you can compare to for career success in the ACC (viewed as the premier conference over its history) there is just no chance they keep him out because of early tournament exits.
Also the list of coaches with multiple national titles is 17 coaches and less than 10 if you are counting in the last 50 years
Program context matters too. Look at what he built. We hadn’t had a tournament win since 1995, and became one of the best programs in the country. Going toe to toe with the blue bloods. Let alone the title which will obviously live forever. You said “if Diakite doesn’t hit the shot”… but then you also have to mention Hunter injury, Cuse freak run, getting screwed being put up against two underseeded Mich State teams, Anderson apendectomy, etc. I think if you replay those 6 tournaments 100 times, one title is fair for how good we were.
Nope - won a madness game in 2007