WSU's Bennett Heading To Virginia
Some shakeup in the Pac 10 as Washington St. head coach will go across the country to take the Virginia job.
almost 3 years ago
Ryan Rosenblatt
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i just saw this too
was shocked but at the same time what would keep him at wazzu?
but what would take him to uva of all places?
Not good news . . .
For the Pac-10. We lost a good coach. Good luck to T.B. in the ACC, I hope he does well.
Is this even a step up to UVA?
I know wazzou isn’t a bball mecca, but they were consistently competitive under Bennett.
A major, major step up
Try recruiting to Pullman. Now compare that to recruiting to Charlottesville and an excellent academic institution. Virginia has a three year old arena that is absolutely stunning and the rest of the facilities there are fantastic. Virginia has some basketball history with Ralph Sampson and a couple Final Four trips and you can bet that his program can get a lot more exposure at Virginia as opposed to Wazzu.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Mar 30, 2009 3:33 PM PDT up reply actions
Not so sure
It is very difficult to recruit at UVa despite their shiny facilities. They always lose out to Maryland for local recruits (because their standards are higher than MD). As for regional recruits from Mid Atlantic they also routinely (but not surprisingly) get schooled by UNC, Duke and Wake. Plus Bennett just doesn’t have the name recognition to compete against a Roy or Coach K.
UVa has brought in two decent coaches previously to Bennett. None of them amounted to much. This was a very risky move on both Bennett and UVa’s part if this turns out to be true.
Agree on MD > UVa
But remember, he’s used to competing in Pullman with less talent than UCLA, Arizona, USC, etc.
This is risky, but I think it might be easier for Bennett in UVa than Wazzou. Of course, his expectations at UVa will be much higher, and he could’ve practically stayed at WSU his whole life.
Yep
Expectations will be much higher at UVa and he won’t have the support structure he had built via his Dad at WSU. This is a huge risk IMO for him.
100%, plus
UVA is an extremely solid academic school with rigid requirements. Not to say wazzou doesn’t care about grades, but…
by bruinhopeful on Mar 30, 2009 4:57 PM PDT up reply actions
Who was Virginia recruiting with though?
They haven’t had a coach who could recruit in some time. Virginia’s program has been a mess, but I think they can be a solid program with Bennett at the helm. Maryland beats them out for a lot of recruits, but recently Maryland has struggled in recruiting. UNC and Duke will still get their guys from the Mid Atlantic, but I think Bennett can compete with Maryland and Wake for those guys. Even with their sub-par coaching, Virginia has been able to get guys like Singletary and get a top four seed in the tourney.
Bennett’s not going to win the national title at Virginia, but I think he can build a much better program there than he could at Wazzu. He certainly can overachieve and if he can bring in the right kind of player who may not be a 5 star talent, but a good ball player, I think he can have Virginia in the NCAA’s just about every year with a good run to the second weekend every few years.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Mar 30, 2009 3:51 PM PDT up reply actions
VA has had solid hires
Bennett is not the first interesting hire by UVa. They had Dave Leitao who was one of the hottest assistants our of Calhoun’s program and did a solid job at DePaul. He came in with great recruiting ties courtesy of his experience from UConn (I believe he was Calhoun’s first assistant just like Dixon was for Howland at Pitt) and ties from Chicago. Yet he couldn’t do much at UVa.
UVa also flailed around with Pete Gillen from Xavier, who came in IMHO with better credentials than Bennett. And he wasn’t able to get the program going. Perhaps Bennett will be different but it will be a huge challenge.
I don’t really care all that much. I just think it will be funny to see the Wahoos cry about their basketball team few years from now. These guys are delusional thinking that they can actually compete with Duke, UNC in the ACC and beat Georgetown/UMd for local recruits.
Do these guys think Bennett can actually go head to head with Williams and Thompson Jr. for local recruits? I don’t think so. Anyway, good luck to TB.
i've been to the uva campus
but can’t believe all the high profile names associated with this hire: tubby smith, sean miller, herb sendek and even jeff capel (from seth davis’ column on si.com). i don’t think final four teams gonna be coming out of charlottesville anytime soon regardless of all the nice facilities.
Posted this in the other thread, too
But was just wondering if I’m the only one who expected Bennett to wait out on Wisconsin. He would’ve seemed a perfect fit there.
As for UVA, Bennett is a very good hire if they’ve come to terms with the fact that they’ll always be talent-deficient compared to other programs. We know Bennett’s style can do much with little. Perhaps it’s the only way for UVA to become a regular threat in a flashy, fast-paced yet often undisciplined conference.
Check the CougCenter headlines -- they're really BRASSED OFF.
WHOA. Remember what we’d feel for He Who Shall Not Be Named (Football Edition) after a loss?
One of the headlines they had this afternoon was, “At least have the decency to stab us in the front.”
WOW.
M
"In this program your passion bucket must be full to play SC." -- CRN, to Dan Patrick, 1/2008
I got this news via text message
and literally dropped my phone. which may have been a problem seeing as i was outside on concrete….
but seriously i’m completely shocked. It seems like he was just saying how committed he was to the WSU program and wanted to build a consistent winner there. That’s why we can NEVER believe a coach when he says he’s fully committed. Bennett seems like one of the genuinely good guys in the profession and he still wasn’t above bailing after pledging his allegiance to a place.
btw
Any possibility of Mark Few as a replacement? I know there are lots of higher profile openings, but i bet WSU makes a huge pitch to him. Clearly the man can recruit to the middle-of-nowhere
i agree too
just throwing the name out there
by bucknellbruin on Mar 30, 2009 7:48 PM PDT up reply actions
While Risky
As many have mentioned, this could be a risky move on Bennett’s part. However, I do have quite a bit of respect for the guy and I am personally curious to see if his arrival in the ACC has the same transformative effect in style that our own Coach Howland had on the Pac 10.
by Westwood is the best wood on Mar 30, 2009 6:18 PM PDT reply actions
Nope
Howland’s arrival in Westwood happened to coincide with a period facing the the Pac-10 which allowed a new style of coaching to gain a foothold: Arizona was in the early stages of its now obvious backslide, Monty was about to leave The Farm, and no other programs had a great deal of success. Howland stepped into a perfect storm of a weakened conference and a position with the stature that could immediately draw top recruits, allowing him early success with his system. Bennett will not have this benefit entering the ACC.
What are the chances of Gillespie going to WSU?
Just curious.
"In this program your passion bucket must be full to play SC." -- CRN, to Dan Patrick, 1/2008
That would be
a pretty majore step down from Kentucky! I’m pretty sure he’ll land in a much better spot than that.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
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