Last Thursday morning, I was fortunate enough to be able to sit down with first-year Virginia men's basketball coach Tony Bennett for an interview. In addition to being a great listener and easy to talk to, he seemed genuinely interested in my questions despite having received a high volume of interview requests, according to media relations officials. It was evident through his answers that he is a relentless teacher of defensive basketball and that he gets his team to give 100 percent every night. During the first half of this two-part interview, he discussed the general progress the team has made, the ACC and the question of how successful his team would be without his leadership. (Note: This interview took place prior to the Wake Forest game, when Virginia was still 3-0 in the ACC.)
So the last time that most of the student body saw the team play was against Penn State. If you had had Mike Scott, you might've beaten Auburn. What are the major changes that the students are seeing now? Was that [exam] break a turning point - those practices?
I just think we've gotten a little better over time. We've handled some adversity well in games late - made free throws, taking care of the ball. I just think we've improved some but we need to because of the competition now, the ACC. With [junior forward] Mike Scott certainly being healthy, that's helped make us a little more complete. Different guys have stepped up at different times. We've had some balanced scoring - more guys in double figures. We're probably a little better defensively. We have been taking care of the ball and we're just riding some emotion of the home crowd ... I was pleasantly surprised with the turnout of the students on Monday against UNC-Wilmington. It's been a nice atmosphere - the UAB game, the Georgia Tech game and Miami. It was a great turnout. It can get better but it was exciting ... Momentum's a funny thing. Hopefully we can keep that up, but it's been a nice, pleasant surprise.
At first, you guys couldn't buy a win against a major conference school. Do you think the team has learned how to win down the stretch, or is it being sounder system-wise?\nBoth. I think when you're a coach, you realize how small of a margin there is. That N.C. State game was hanging in the balance - we were down 10 in the second half. One play here or there and it could've been a different outcome - same with Georgia Tech. But I think you just have to acknowledge that and know that in conference play, if you play well, you're going to be in a lot of close games and tight games, and it'll come down to making some plays and trying not to beat yourself down the stretch - being solid, and that's [how it is for] a lot of teams. I think if we can just be one of those teams that doesn't beat itself and takes care of things, you sometimes find yourself in a more successful spot than not. I think that's happened with eliminating some turnovers, making some free throws and guys making some big shots - you always need that down the stretch, a big play or two to be made. And the defense has to keep getting better. [We are] fortunate. There's so much conference play in front of us that I tell the guys, 'Keep an even keel, don't get too up and don't get too down regardless of the outcome, and let's just keep trying to get better over the course of this year and see where that takes us. Use the success as a motivation but don't let it make you be anything but who we have to be.'
The outside expectations for this team were low at the beginning of the year. And now that you're getting some praise, how do you keep a level head? Also, what were the team's goals at the beginning of the year and have they changed at all since going 3-0 in the ACC?
You realize, first of all, with the league you're in, you can't take anything for granted - how close games have been, how fortunate you are to come up with victories. Just having a realistic view of your team - knowing your strengths, knowing your areas where you're weak and continuing to work on those. One of our principles is humility, which really means - for our basketball team - don't think too highly of yourself and don't think too lowly of yourself. Just have a realistic view of who you are as a team. Know who you are and don't veer from that, as far as what we have to do to be successful. I think that helps, and our guys are hungry to want to do well, but they know how competitive the league is and how fine of a line you walk between being successful or not. I think that really helps you - I hope it does - as a team, just focusing on quality and focusing on getting better and know that if we do that, wins and losses will take care of themselves. The goal is qualitative first over quantitative. Let's just focus on quality, knowing that quantity - the wins and losses - will take care of themselves ... Just continuing to improve and focusing on that process more than end results has been the message and what we're trying to do as a team.
Now that you've played three ACC games, how is it different to you than the PAC-10? As we all know, the PAC-10 is struggling right now.
It's early to tell you but I'll say this: The proximity of the teams, the intensity of the following ... because you fly from Pullman [Washington] to California, [which] is such a long geographic distance between your opponents and here, you're bussing to places, you've got close games. And early on, there's some parity in the ACC, and that's the case in a lot of conferences. But just the intensity and the following - the genuine interest in games. When N.C. State and Virginia played, preseason teams picked at the bottom of the ACC, there were a lot of people [at the game]. That speaks volumes about this league and the excitement that surrounds it. There's just a lot of individual talent, too, in this league. You see the players when you watch TV. Certainly there's pro [prospects], but there's high-level players, whether it's the team projected near the bottom or certainly at the top, you can see the talent. And the quality of coaching appears to be of a high, high quality.
The team must be responding well to you and your staff. Can you talk about that a little and how coachable they are?
I think they have a good attitude. Certainly, having some wins here and there to validate what we're trying to do helps. I think they're a group that's hungry to improve from the last couple years ... Credit goes to coach [Dave] Leitao and his staff for seeing something in these guys to bring them in here, to work with them, to instill some things - even though some of them for two years didn't taste a lot of success, they've stayed at it. We're just trying to build on that. They're a year older, they're mature - I don't think we're an old team, I don't think we're a young team, I think we're probably a middle-aged team. There's some third-years, there's some second-years, a first-year that's playing right now in [guard] Jontel [Evans]. [Forward] Jerome [Meyinsse] as a fourth-year is really coming into his own ... so I think the maturity has helped and I think they're just hungry to try to establish some credibility, and it's hard to get traction doing that. It's a battle, it's a climb, but hopefully we can keep pushing in that direction.
How much difference do you think it makes that this team is basically the same as it was last year? Do you think they could've had success this year if Leitao had still been here? How much does that chemistry matter?
Certainly [they could've had success]. I think there's a maturity that helps. There's no substitute for experience. Good experiences, bad experiences, there's great wisdom in that. And some of these guys have one year under their belt, and some of them have two under their belt, and a couple have three. That's important. I'm sure that team would've kept gelling and coming together ... I have more questions than answers as a coach and I have a lot of areas to improve on. I'm just thankful these guys are gelling together and have, at times, grasped what we're trying to do and have come together, and I think that's important. I think their experience is a big factor in this.
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