The Grounds

Like another poster said above, ML is probably the better recruiter and TB is probably the better X & Os guy. Without the recruits it's tough to win here...that's wny I'd pick ML to stay. I admire and respect both equally though.

I can honestly say, there is not another coach in either sport that I'd rather have than ML and TB. CL hit grandslams with both hires IMHO. Also, keep an eye on our baseball team. We will win a NC in the not so distant future.

I dnt give a damn bout skip or u. Im tugard and i am who i am. Never afraid of no man and his wits. So tell him that suck up. I live in one of the toughest neighborhoods in america. U think im worried about some old man that write columns. He should post without attackin people. I dnt give a damn who they r. Skip. U kiddin me LOL

Soree. I thogt u hd snse humr.

Plus, I answered your no-win question and WON! Much like your hero, Captain Kirk, in facing the Kobayashi Maru challenge, "I don't believe in the no-win scenario." Having thus circumvented your thorny provocation and, despite having cheated, I fully expect my reward for "original thinking."

Plus, you said "Have fun with me...." Incidentally, beware, that line got me banned from elementary schools.

Last note: We are close to cracking the mysterious identity of tugard. I have analyzed the speech pattern in over 1,000 tugard posts, and my team of linguists and proctologists has narrowed the identity down to one of the three men pictured below:

Interesting question. I love both guys and would really hate to choose. It's close, but I'd probably keep Bennett. My reasons:

1) I feel like basketball's glass ceiling is higher than football's. I can imagine us in the Final Four under Bennett, without much of a problem. It takes more imagination to see us in the 4-team football playoff.

2) At its core, at its absolute root, I think UVA is a basketball school.

3) London's the better recruiter, but I'm not sure it's not really, really close (recent consternation over point guard recruiting aside.) Meanwhile, I think Bennett is pretty solidly a better Xs and Os coach.

4) Neither coach runs my favorite type of system to watch. I'd prefer a wide-open, Air-Raid style spread to the pro-style London runs, and I'd prefer a 40 Minutes of Hell press and run to the Packline and Blocker/Mover Bennett runs. That said, I think given the fact that Virginia will probably never stack up top-5 recruiting classes in either sport, the more unique, cohesive, difficult-to-prepare-for system wins out. Bennett's system is tougher on opponents than is London's system. Plus, Bennett's system elevates ordinary athletes into great team basketball, while London's system is still almost completely reliant on the relative talent level of the players. In short, Bennett's system gets more out of less.

5) I think it would be easier to fill the football coaching vacancy with another quality candidate than it would be to fill the basketball coaching vacancy. Bennett is kind of represents our last chance to salvage our national credibility in basketball, whereas maybe we never even had national football credibility.

6) You can win in the ACC with an above-average football team, but it takes more than just above-average to win in the ACC in basketball. Plus, this is a basketball conference moreso than a football conference, as much as it saddens me to admit.

Kendall, I do believe you have saved this thread from disaster.

I would chose London over Bennett because of the time it takes to rebuild a football teams reputation, recruitment, depth, etc...in basketball you can rebuild a squad quicker; few spots to fill, only need a few special talents and some playable depth to compete. In football, if we lose London, we lose the family atmosphere, the faith from high school coaches, the reputation as a solid/long-term program, all the positive steps we've taken in the past three seasons to set the foundation for years to come.

In Bennett's case, his first recruiting class hasn't panned out with the exception of Joe Harris and it seems like we are "rebuilding" this year. That doesn't mean that we won't play well and finish alright in the ACC this season and maybe head to the NCAA tournament. It means that the turn around for playing high level basketball is quicker and a little easier to do out of a coaching change in UVA's case.

All this being said, I love that both the football and basketball staffs over the past few years have stuck together. Coaching tenure is a key factor for recruiting and on the field/court success. I don't want to lose anyone from either staff.

You have to feel good about the direction of both programs and I give Littlepage a good deal of credit for our overall athletic department - he's starting to balance the success of the overall department with the revenue sports and it's a beautiful thing.

Really good, strong points. It's impossible to measure the intangibles Coach London has instilled in the football program. And as coachrobbie indicated in the "Grapevine" thread ("When you have a coach who puts God 1st, then academics followed by football and this message is stressed, you'll get the recruits and the onfield success will follow"), being able to establish the program's "moral compass" might be the most important accomplishment of all. And we know from direct experience that not many coaches can accomplish that kind of thing.

Also, I believe it when London says Virginia is his dream job. Virginia might be Bennett's dream job, also... but I've always been under the impression that it's more like his dream challenge/opportunity with the way the specific stars had aligned here. It's less about UVA and more about UVA's situation pre-Bennett, UVA's conference, UVA's location, etc.

The good news is that we have both guys and don't have to make this decision!