For the second time in nine seasons as a collegiate head coach, Virginia’s Tony Bennett has been named the U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s Henry Iba National Coach of the Year. Announced Monday by the USBWA, the award comes on the heels of Virginia’s program-record-tying 30-win season and second consecutive outright ACC regular-season title.
Bounced from the NCAA Tournament by Michigan State for the second consecutive year, Bennett’s Cavaliers (30-4, 16-2 ACC) excelled throughout the regular season, reeling off 19 consecutive wins to start the season and becoming the first ACC team to post 16-plus conference wins in back-to-back campaigns. Virginia ceded a nation-low 51.5 points per game while rising as high as No. 2 in both the AP Top 25 and the USA Today Coaches Poll.
Bennett — previously the Henry Iba Award winner in his first season at Washington State, when the Cougars soared to 26 wins despite being picked to finish last in the former Pac-10 — has won 136 games and lost only 64 in six seasons in Charlottesville. Virginia upped its win total each of his first five seasons before matching its 30-win total from last season in 2014-15.
The Cavaliers have now won 23-plus games in three consecutive seasons, a feat last achieved from 1981-1983, when legendary center Ralph Sampson dominated the paint at University Hall.
Bennett becomes the ninth coach to win the Henry Iba Award — first presented to Marquette’s Eddie Hickey following the 1958-59 season — multiple times. UCLA’s John Wooden captured the honor on seven occasions, while UNC’s Roy Williams, St. John’s Lou Carnesecca, Temple’s John Chaney, Purdue’s Gene Keady, Indiana’s Bob Knight, DePaul’s Ray Meyer and Ohio State’s Fred Taylor all won the award twice. Bennett and Williams — who first received the award at Kansas in 1990 — are the only coaches to garner the honor at two different schools.
—compiled by Matthew Morris
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