A Personal “Thank You” To Tony Bennett

This will be a little bit of a different type of piece from me. I’ll surely get into the fall out of the retirement decision and begin to talk about the future before long, but this piece is about digesting the decision, looking back, and appreciating the past. I’m going to make it more personal than any of my normal stuff, so apologies for that, but the personal stories of inspiration are often what Coach Bennett values the most anyway.

When I heard the news about the retirement on Thursday it was shocking. Not that Coach Bennett had decided to retire; that had been in the rumor mill as an eventuality likely sooner rather than later for a while now, but because of when he decided to do so. Right before the season, right after doing press for the team, immediately after putting a ton of time and energy into landing an incoming transfer class and local high school star. It came after spending all offseason significantly revamping the offense for the first time… really since he started with the program to this degree, and after just having signed a contract extension.

I felt sad, disappointed and, if I’m being honest, a little frustrated by the timing of the decision. So much uncertainty was created. Such a challenging situation for the players to navigate well. So many questions (and much more time for those in the future) remaining. But watching our head coach of 15 years speak so genuinely and SO emotionally about his reasoning hit me in a way that I wasn’t expecting and brought so many emotions out of me. It put into perspective that the reason I was feeling so discouraged is because of how much he meant to the program and to me personally, as a (very) invested fan. He’s why I was invested enough in the program to, in early middle-age like a crazy person, start a blog dedicated to discussing the in-the-weeds elements of UVa basketball at the most granular level; and to be rewarded with the realization that I wasn’t alone in this level of passion/interest.

I don’t normally talk about myself on here other than a brief and intentionally pretty vague intro on the home page. That’s by design. I prefer a little anonymity; but the main reason is that it shouldn’t matter who I am (and it’s not like many would know me anyway!). It’s about discussing the ideas and evaluating them on their own merits. We’re not exchanging resumes here; we’re showing our work and then encouraging dialogue to check our answers, learn from our findings, and to try to apply that moving forward. It’s what I find most interesting about the game of basketball and the management of a college roster; the strategy. The almost limitless number of decisions one could make throughout a game, a week, a tournament, a season, and trying to proactively, and retroactively, figure out the best line one could take given all of the variables. It’s challenging and it’s fun to think about – basically a limitless rabbit hole. And creating content for other fans and then having those discussions has been incredibly rewarding.

But, for those of us invested in the team, we all have our personal connections to it. And, given that we’re talking about a man who cares enough about relationships to ask a reporter (during his own retirement press conference, mind you) about his love of the Dave Matthews Band, I’d like to take a brief detour to talk about why UVa basketball means so much to me and to thank Coach Bennett for his role in reigniting that passion and making it special.

Coach Bennett has been the helm of the basketball program for most of my post-college life. He started in 2009 – I graduated in 2006 and moved away from Charlottesville for the first time in my life; to the DMV area. Virtually all of my core adult memories – marriage, moving homes, professional growth, travel, having kids and raising a family, connecting with friends, loss, COVID, etc. – are inter-woven with his teams laced in the background. They were a bridge between my two distinct lives in a way, tying my childhood home and alma mater with my present and future.

I remember casually mentioning to my newlywed wife in 2009 that we just got a new coach from Washington St. who looked really promising because he was good with them… “and they’re never good.” Waking up early overseas on vacation to check the box scores of games. Excitedly jumping off the couch and waking up our first-born daughter from her nap when they won their first ACC Tournament (in my lifetime) in 2014 – the house was in boxes as we were in the process of moving out of our condo, but the TV was still on showing images of an elated Joe Harris being showered by confetti. Holding my second daughter, not even three-months old who was going through some frightening health issues while watching the loss to UMBC – feeling numbed by comparison but also having the thought that my outlet/escape of choice was being exceptionally cruel. The absolute joy the following year, with my now fully healthy 1 year old (who, now 6(!), reminds me every day how lucky we are and how thankful I am) through the highs of that redemption arc and seeing our first ever National Championship! The surreal realization that came with a lost postseason as we headed into a pandemic….

Those are the flashbulb memories; but it was there throughout. In town visiting family for the holidays? Let’s go see a game! Talking to childhood friends or old college buddies I hadn’t seen in a while? Guess what we were often talking about? In fact, this very blog was created after reconnecting with a childhood friend (after not having spoken for probably a decade) by shooting (long!) e-mails back and forth for a few years about the program and then deciding I was just going to shout these thoughts into what I expected would be the internet abyss….

Sure, I grew up in Charlottesville and loved the team then, too. Watched them beat Kansas in the Sweet 16 as a pre-teen. Went to Terry Holland’s basketball camp at Graves Mountain Lodge. As a Junior in high school, rushed the court when they upset #2 UNC by 20 points and can remember looking up at Roger Mason Jr. standing on the scorer’s table.

I can remember making the walk from JPA my third year to see Dave Leitao solicit support for the basketball program in his first year as the coach. From 2002-2006 at UVa, attended every single home game as a student, camping out for some – but often alone because the team was just fine and not everyone wanted to prioritize going to the games. In those times, I was mostly happy to see some occasional light heroics from Todd Billett; and eventually more excited by Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds. Was there for the Last Ball In UHall as my final game as a college student, moving away right after JPJ was constructed.

So why, then, was Tony Bennett’s tenure so exceptionally captivating from afar such that it was rekindling old friendships? Sure, he was charming and charismatic. He had a distinct style of play and brand of basketball that differentiated what we did from most of college hoops. He was a kind man with pillars who was also outrageously competitive and fiery at times. But, most of all, he was really, really, really, good. So good, in fact, that he was competing with actual Hall of Fame coaches who had their pick of the litter when it came to the player pool, and he was beating them consistently.

In all of those childhood and young adulthood memories, those highlights were the exceptions. Moments where the underdogs in a juggernaut of a conference had a fleeting moment and rose above our station. You could see glimpses of the program’s potential, but nothing consistent nor with real championship aspirations. I wasn’t alive for Ralph and the end of the Jeff Jones era was when I started to pay attention. But as my fandom grew regardless of outcome, we were constantly reminded of our place within the ACC and on the national stage.

But Bennett flipped the script and the narrative. Maybe we were still not the program to land 5-star recruits; but we had the perpetual edge even on those programs. Our coach was better than yours. Our system was better than yours. Our player development was better than yours. Our style annoyed you to death and we loved it. Charlottesville became a haven for college hoops. Heck, LeBron James and Steph Curry were making visits to see the team! And for the past decade and a half, sure, but especially that glorious window from about 2014-2019, we were one of if not THE premier programs in the whole sport.

The reason was Tony. His vision for how to build and run a program were perfectly suited for the 2010s. In a world of one-and-dones, he adopted the Pack Line defense that he learned under his Father, something that took 2-4 years to really master (as well as honing the execution of the offenses), and got a core group of talented guys to perfect it over time; through repetition. Guys waited their turn to inherit the roles of those graduating out. The result was a suffocating defense that always travelled and wasn’t subject to the same inconsistencies that powerful offensive teams dealt with, and a methodical offense that just wore its opposition out by creating incremental advantages and forcing 35 (at the time) seconds of flawless execution to defend. He was a master instructor and tactician, limiting and placing a high premium on every possession so as to hang around in every game and put pressure on ostensibly more talented opponents. Make the opponent earn it every time without exception.

It was genius and it was effective. Oh, was it effective. And then, after a while, he would be too humble to say so, but HE became the recruiting pitch. Come play for this legendary coach who was a genuinely kind person and cares about his players but who has dominated the sport at this level, and who has sent 4-star talent after 4-star talent to the pros.

You couldn’t help, being from Charlottesville and loving the town, but living away from it; feeling a deep sense of pride watching, thinking, and talking about the basketball team. This visible steward of the university and city did things the right way and was really good while doing so. It was a program to respect and envy for college hoops and college sports fans in general – so much so that national pieces about what our style of play was doing to the sport became common (and cringey). But for me, at least, it was that tether to home, dredging up happy memories and forging new ones. A comfort.

Of course, we know now that Coach Bennett’s style and brand of basketball are hard-wired into who he is. As the game adjusted, and rapidly so, he tried to and ultimately couldn’t live with, those changes. Metrics. Upside. Player retention and freedom of movement. System appeal. NIL. This blog is (typically) an analytical one that views basketball through a critical lens. What started me off down this path is seeing how incredibly high Tony sets the floor just by being Tony and demanding a standard, through his leadership and instructive excellence, especially defensively. Knowing that if he could just bend a little, if he could just tweak a few of his philosophies/tendencies, that he could have been doing better than he was over the past 3-4 years or so – which was still pretty solid – just not the absolute dominance of yore.

But Tony was a human coach wanting to coach human players in the old way where he could mentor and teach; have time to plant seeds and let them grow. He valued experience and achievement and wanted greener players to be patient for their turn (with some exceptions). If he wanted to teach a hard lesson, he wanted players to endure and learn from it. If he thought the best way for a player to improve their game was to redshirt a season and work on their body/skills, he wanted players to buy in. He said many times in his press conference that he wanted to be able to run the program his way – that included making the decisions he thought best and a complete lack of flexibility when it came to his code of what allowed a player to get on the court.

Never mind the total impact of when they played or their likely future contributions to the program; Dante Harris was less likely to turn the ball over and knew his defensive rotations, so he was going to play over Elijah Gertrude. Never mind how their skills and size fit together in a lineup, Jayden Gardner and Ben Vander Plas played tough and smart and had experience, so they were going to see the floor together often. Never mind if we’re down 20 points in the second half, we’re going to stay true to our identity and not change our pace of play. Never mind if it was a transformational 5-star recruit, he wasn’t going to promise any time; it had to be earned.

It was ideological. And, to Tony, these weren’t just basketball choices, they were about character. Values. Identity. His identity as envisioned through the execution of his team.

And under the “old” model this worked excellently. De’Andre Hunter capitalized on his redshirt season, one he was not happy about and didn’t expect, to become the #4 overall pick in the NBA draft. Malcolm Brogdon took the long 5-year road to become an All-American. Raw and unheralded prospects like Jack Salt became enforcers, bone crushing screeners, well-oiled cogs in the Pack Line. Up and down the roster it was that experience, continuity, and player growth that popped year after year and made our team the one that opponents never wanted to play.

But, more recently, that vision became harder to execute. Players in the long-term plans of the program moved on for quicker paths to playing time, disagreements over their utilization (or lack thereof), less controlled offense. Discussions about financial earning opportunity were omnipresent. Recruits came with their hands outstretched, started to have agents, needed certain assurances to even broach a discussion. It was all counter to the promise that Tony sold himself on when coming to UVa – where the school’s academics and learning to play the game in his way were the selling points. And thus, decision-making still rooted in an era of greater coaching control lent to some sub-optimal choices when it came to achieving the best outcomes in this new era.

As a fan who doesn’t see these things through such a black and white lens, that was frustrating. I used to think “if Tony could keep all of the things that make him great but make just a couple of adjustments then it would be perfect.” And from an overall program execution standpoint, many of those things proved to be true. But there was no compromising on these things for him. They were core to who he was.

Watching him during the press conference was the first time that it was clear that HE saw it too; and it ate him up. Often in these situations coaches will not see the need to change, thinking that their way is the best and press on… but Tony was incredibly self-aware and knew that he needed to, he just couldn’t (or wouldn’t). It wasn’t who he was. The game hadn’t passed him by on or off the court, it simply went to a place he wasn’t willing to go. That’s what got me and choked me up when I was watching it (along with the memories); seeing him so emotional but also so clear-eyed.

In those moments, I gave up thinking that he could have or would have changed to fit the moment. I gave up wanting more for him because I thought he was capable of it, and instead just felt thankful for what he did provide. Don’t get me wrong; this website was created to discuss what we do well and could be doing better as a program, but there’s a finality in retirement that allows you and those around you to quit striving and start reflecting.

It was a fleeting but glorious 15 years; all of it. Better than we’ve ever had, and it was more than enough – it was everything. And even though I’m sure I’ll continue to be sad for how it had to end for a long time to come, and even though I’m not confident that the baseline of what Tony was providing at “80%” isn’t just better than wherever we’ll land as an alternative, I am appreciative of the honesty and accuracy of his assessment, as difficult as it clearly was for him to make.

Now, I think about all of those times that following Tony and his teams sparked joy over the years. The rush of victory. Pride in my alma mater and ties back to my hometown and the people within it… but he also sparked my imagination. His teams rekindled my love of writing and gave me a new outlet in middle age for creativity, expression, and analysis. It’s put me in touch with so many of you who share the same passion; a community that’s been warm and engaging. And, having had the opportunity through all of this now to speak with so many others, I know that I am just one of many who have been touched, in ways that extend far beyond simple entertainment, by the gift that was Tony Bennett’s time as the Head Coach of the Men’s Basketball team for the University of Virginia.

And, so, I say this from all of the depths of gratitude that I can muster. From the 661,100 word (and counting) love-letter that has been this website and that will continue to be – it has been an absolute privilege and joy to watch you teach and compete. The gift you have given has been immeasurably special and has impacted so many people. We will never forget it.

Thank you, Coach Bennett!