Bennettball: How Tony Bennett Turned UVA Basketball From Pretenders to Contenders
A deep dive into Tony Bennett and his very successful career at The University of Virginia.
What makes a great coach? Is it the team’s success, the attitude they have, or how well they elevate their players’ level of play? To me, Tony Bennett embodies what it means to be a great coach. It has been nearly fourteen years since Bennett was hired by UVA to be their new head basketball coach. While his career is not even close to over, Bennett has already created a winning culture at a school that wanted major changes for their basketball program, and will forever be known as the greatest basketball coach in Virginia history. He has been described time and time again as “boring”, because he implemented a pack line defensive scheme and a slow pace of play on the offensive side. Even so, Tony Bennett exceeded all expectations to create not only a successful program but a program that helps young adults become better people.
The Five Pillars
Tony Bennett came to UVA with hopes to build a “program that lasts”. His philosophy starts with his Five Pillars: Humility, Passion, Unity, Servanthood, and Thankfulness. These pillars demonstrate what it means to be a Virginia basketball player, and what it means to be a better person. Tony Bennett has been successful in both creating a winning college program but also helping players elevate their game to the next level, helping many reach their dreams of the NBA. Skills and talent are one thing, but the person you are and the attitude you carry are another. Bennett knows that building better and kinder athletes is bigger than the game of basketball and will leave each student-athlete with a lifetime of success.
Offensive Play
Tony Bennett’s offensive style mirrors The Five Pillars he uses for his program. His offensive schemes (mainly a Blocker Mover offense) promote selfless play and set up his players for open opportunities near the basket and around the arc. Virginia usually does not have players who are All-Americans or are recognized by the media, simply because of their slow pace of play and selflessness with the ball. Take this year’s team, where the starting five are very comparable in stats such as PPG. Armaan Franklin leads the team with 12.7 PPG, Jayden Gardner comes close with 11.8, Kihei Clark is nearly identical with 11.1, and both Reece Beekman and Ben Vander Plas are in the same realm as well. Bennett is a very strong recruiter, but only recruits players who play hard and will work for a spot on the team. Many of the best Virginia players in the Tony Bennett era were low 3-4 star recruits who were not graded very highly by NBA scouts and analysts. His system utilizes each and every player’s best attributes to their full potential and helps craft teams that mesh together well. The 2019 National Champion Virginia team was full of low-ranked recruits, and advanced a lot further than teams that were filled with top recruits, such as Duke and North Carolina. Bennett’s efficient and smart offensive play is one of the many reasons for his success in his tenure at Virginia.
Defensive Play
Tony Bennett’s teams have been very efficient and elite on offense, but he is mainly known for his coaching on the defensive side of the game. Bennett traditionally uses a Pack Line Defensive scheme which tries to prevent players from attacking the paint and forces the opposing team to settle for long outside shots. Pack Line originated with Dick Bennett (Tony’s father) at Wisconsin but has been Virginia’s defensive scheme for the majority of the Tony Bennett era. Pack Line is effective, especially at the college level, because it forces bigs and centers to pass which is usually out of their skillset, and prevents easy layups in the paint. The action of trapping players forces them to make decisions under pressure, which leads to easy turnovers for Virginia. The only real downside to this scheme is it can leave players open outside the arc and can lead to uncontested threes. However, Bennett’s system tries to prevent this from regularly happening by having players retreat to their man and contest their shots. While it is not foolproof, Pack Line defense is a very smart and efficient style of play that works very well at the college level.
Achievements
Now for what most people have been waiting for: achievements. Tony Bennett, in thirteen years at Virginia, has won a National Championship, won the ACC Regular Season five times, won the ACC Tournament twice, been the ACC Coach of the Year four times, the National Coach of the Year once, and has made the NCAA Tournament eight out of his thirteen years. Wow. He not only created one of the winningest programs of the last decade but has sustained this success through tons of adversity. In what Jim Nantz deemed “the all time turnaround title”, Virginia won the National Championship just one year after they suffered the biggest upset in tournament history to UMBC. Most college programs take years, even decades, to return from heartbreaks like that. But Tony Bennett trusted his team of young men and helped them win their first title in program history.