The Grounds

I agree, Tony IS the real deal. When we play tomorrow night, just take a moment to watch how hard this team plays. This team has 100% bought into his style of play and doesn't fold under pressure (I was sold after we got down by 9 at Duke and the crowds going ape shit, and next thing you know we have a shot to tie it at the buzzer....years before Bennett, we would have got beat by 20+ and would have never responding to that huge momentum swing.) this team has one hell of a chin and a world class cut man ;)

Now let me play devil advocate. Didn't we say the same thing about gilliren and leaito. Than thy flopped with their own platers. Remember tony is winning mostly with leatio players

Gillen had some success, it just sucked that the majestic mapp class never panned out quite as well..but his head looked like it was going to explode every game...now leitao knows talent, but his coaching was mostly yelling..neither made you feel like if they left you would be crushed..if Bennett left I wPuld be crushed

U are 100a percent correct. I thnk gillien recruited the best talent uba ever had. I mean watson,mapp,mason,brown,clarke,forbes,byars,billett,smith,singletary,reynolds and cain. Tht a lot of ttalent

I disagree. Jeff Jones recruited the best talent imo. Cory Alexander, Courtney Alexander, and Junior Burough all played in the league. You also had Norman Nolan, Staples and Dersch. Then you have the not so highly regarded guys who outperformed their rankings like Harold Dean and Chris Williams. There was also the highly rated class that shit the bed (Whitaker et al) Billet, Clarke, and Cain were nice players but were extremely limited.

I think the key is keepin his assistants around and bein able to adapt. What I mean about adapting is if he have a bunch of wing players like he will next year change ur offens a little and let thm run some. Let thm press and trap on defense. Tht one thng I like about coach k. His gameplan is based on his kids strength. We wont see justin at his best if we walk the ball up 90the percent of the time. Tevin also is expllosive and get up. Allow him to push it. I also thnk he has to recruit a top notch point. U see wht he done for jontel can u imagine if he had singletary. Which is y singletary is not in the nba. He did not grow as a player under leitao

Littlepage is forced into that extension now that he needlessly extended London. If he doesn't extend TB, he risks losing him. Like London TB will be ACC COY and go to the post season (and I mean the tournament in the case of TB).

It will be interesting to see how the season ends, but as hard as it is to believe, what TB is doing this year is even more impressive than what London did, imo. Not at all a knock against London, but looking at our basketball roster...we are playing way, way above our talent level.

Needlessly extended London? Go on....

I think this was nyhoo's point:

Mike Scott -- 3-star recruit
Sammy Zeglinski -- 3-star
Assane Sene -- 3-star
Jontel Evans -- 3-star
Joe Harris -- 3-star
Akil Mitchell -- 3-star
Darion Atkins -- 3-star
Paul Jesperson -- 3-star
Malcolm Brogdon -- 4-star

Plus the attrition of four of the six 2010 recruits, and Tristan Spurlock from the 2009 class.

I get it -- Bennett is doing more with less. He is finding good lumps of coal and forming some diamonds.

But this year, he built a cohesive team and earned his first expectations as Virginia's head coach. Failing to make the Big Dance would be a failure to meet those expectations, imho. It's a reason to not extend his contract is all I'm saying.

That being said, I absolutely think Tony Bennett is the right coach for UVA. I just think we need to see him take a team to the Tournament.