Tony Bennett retires

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LasVegas said:
Even smart people make bad decisions. He doesn’t have to be a moron to make a moronic decision. He quit on his team. Full stop. If he thought that was the best decision, that’s ok. It doesn’t change the fact that he quit on his team a couple weeks before the season.
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If that's the lens you want to view this through then okay.
 
azzefkram said:
Does anyone here believe that Tony Bennett is a moron? I don't, and for simplicity's sake, I will assume that most here don't as well. Since we have loosely established that Tony is not a moron, he had to be aware of the reaction it would cause and the potential damage it would inflict on his legacy for many people. So with the knowledge that a mountain of poo, self-inflicted though it may be, poised to come crashing down on his head, he still decided to step away now. To me, that speaks volumes about what Tony was feeling and thinking. The easy choice would have been to go to the powers that be at UVA and tell them that this will be his last season and then sleepwalk through the season collecting a paycheck and the adoration of fans. Tony made the hard and unpopular choice. It is easy for us to say we would have handled it differently, but the reality is that I would be shocked if any of our careers were remotely similar to a high major D1 coach. It is easy to say Tony should have sucked it up and stayed for the season. From what I've experienced, silent suffering is a bunch of malarky because suffering doesn't need to be loud to permeate, and Tony sticking around for the kids would have had a cost.

I am just sad for all involved. I don't think the solutions put forth make it any better. They just lipstick the pig.
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I think this is a heck of a contortion to make his decision not only understandable but positively heroic.
 
budwom said:
I’m only surprised by the rancor this has produced on this board. Not sure why
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Matches said:
I was thinking about it in a similar context. I’m a litigator. I can quit anytime I want, just like my employer can fire me any time they want - but if I quit the day before a big trial or even, say, two weeks before a big trial I think it’d be frowned upon by many. Not that anyone would begrudge me leaving (and if they did, tough, for the reasons others have listed), but I do think my co-workers and the client would feel shafted. Of course I don’t know any of the UVa players or coaches and I don’t speak for any of them, so if they’re good with it, great.

Ultimately this isn’t what anyone is going to remember about Tony Bennett’s career. It’s fodder for this moment. It’s K chastising Dillon Brooks - a bad look or a bad moment in a distinguished career.
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Your attorney position carries with it the ethical and fiduciary responsibilities attendant to your grant of license. Bennett, as a basketball coach, does not have to follow those professional standards.
 
azzefkram said:
Does anyone here believe that Tony Bennett is a moron? I don't, and for simplicity's sake, I will assume that most here don't as well. Since we have loosely established that Tony is not a moron, he had to be aware of the reaction it would cause and the potential damage it would inflict on his legacy for many people. So with the knowledge that a mountain of poo, self-inflicted though it may be, poised to come crashing down on his head, he still decided to step away now. To me, that speaks volumes about what Tony was feeling and thinking. The easy choice would have been to go to the powers that be at UVA and tell them that this will be his last season and then sleepwalk through the season collecting a paycheck and the adoration of fans. Tony made the hard and unpopular choice. It is easy for us to say we would have handled it differently, but the reality is that I would be shocked if any of our careers were remotely similar to a high major D1 coach. It is easy to say Tony should have sucked it up and stayed for the season. From what I've experienced, silent suffering is a bunch of malarky because suffering doesn't need to be loud to permeate, and Tony sticking around for the kids would have had a cost.

I am just sad for all involved. I don't think the solutions put forth make it any better. They just lipstick the pig.
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We don't really know all the reasons Tony Bennett resigned. Perhaps he felt the team may play better without him, for reasons we don't know. But I think he's a winner, and in his mind he thinks that going out now is the best for U Va basketball.
 
Billy Dat said:
I didn't like Handsome Tony's style of play, or his teams, but I had 100% respect for his accomplishments, the way he went about his business, etc. Some of this is because I found their style boring and brutish. It's mostly because he came in and shortly started to dominate.

He was a major credit to the conference, and it's a major blow to the conference that he's gone.

Is he a Naismith Hall of Famer?
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Agree 100 percent. Yes, he's definitely a HOFer in my opinion.

Having watched the presser, it didn't seem like there was anything but good feelings from the Virginia folks. One might not like the timing, but when is the 'right' time to leave, really? As he pointed out, the calendar doesn't really ever stop for a top D1 hoops coach, so there's never truly a 'good' time to effectively pause and reflect. Seems Bennett finally got a moment to do that while on a brief vacation with his wife, and upon reflection he realized that the game has evolved so much in the past few years alone that it has effectively passed him by. So rather than giving only a portion of himself to the team, he decided to hand over the reins to a new generation, one that has the full energy and passion required to focus on all aspects of the program that require TLC in order for it to thrive in the new world being reordered by NIL and the transfer portal.

Is there truly a 'right' or 'wrong' time to make such a decision, or do you just come to a realization and honestly communicate it to all the folks involved, then let the chips fall where they may? I wish him well, and hope he has many years to enjoy with his loved ones. That said, I also believe it's completely understandable and legitimate for any of his players to feel let down by him in the given situation. Like I said, let the chips fall where they may.

All of this aside, it seems like health concerns were not the issue, which is always good to hear.
 
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53n206 said:
We don't really know all the reasons Tony Bennett resigned. Perhaps he felt the team may play better without him, for reasons we don't know. But I think he's a winner, and in his mind he thinks that going out now is the best for U Va basketball.
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We do know why he resigned. He told us why and I see no reason to doubt what he said. He said he was the right coach for 15 years ago but not the right coach for today. He said that there are lots of problems in CBB today. He mentioned agents, inequality in salaries, lack of salary cap, threats to the continuation of non-revenue Olympic sports, among other things. I think he was measured in his language but it is clear that he is not happy with the state of CBB today and doesn’t want to participate in it as a coach.
 
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Dan Wetzel has his usual informed take.
Summary (* my comments)

Tony brought in 7 new players last Spring (2 HS, 5 Transfers) under the existing NIL and transfer rules.
Tony provides no real reason of why now instead of the Spring (he was enthusiastic at ACC Tip-Off with only Fall break luxury vacation being different*)
Players likely stuck unless they want to use a redshirt year (if they have it*) although a year in college at Charlottesville not prison.
It looks an awful like Tony wanted to force the job to go to Ron Sanchez (who had 72-78 record at UNCC*).

sports.yahoo.com

In decrying the new problems with college athletics, Tony Bennett employed the old problems of college athletics

In declaring that the transactional nature of modern college sports is just too much, Bennett hit his own personal transfer portal, leaving everyone high and dry.
sports.yahoo.com sports.yahoo.com
 
DavidBenAkiva said:
By retiring now, he's screwing over the players on his team. They could have transferred in April or May. Most rosters are set and teams are practicing. He's locked them into the season for all intents and purposes. My hope here is that something beyond his control or ego has led to this, because it will change my opinion of him if that's not the case.
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These are now paid professionals. Period. It's what you wanted. Now you got it, the good with the bad. It's grown up life. Your post is three years beyond sell by date IMO. Besides, your post assumes the replacement coach will somehow be so awful as to screw over players. Again, absurd. FTR early returns seem to indicate no hard feelings of being screwed on the part of the players.
 
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DavidBenAkiva said:
As one of the major critics of this decision, I'll reiterate that it wasn't about the reasons for me. It was about the timing. I'd have supported the decision if he announced he will retire effective April. To do it now has rubbed me the wrong way.
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Would that really be better for the program? If the season started going off the rails, would he be able to get buy-in from the team? The other coaches? Would everyone mentally pack their bags and start auditioning for their next gig?

UVa has been the strongest team in the ACC regular season for a while. When teams like that start to slip, there can be a feeding frenzy.

He’s gone now, with no time for anyone to do anything other than absorb the news and then get back to it with one of the lieutenants taking command.

I get where you are coming from, but am not convinced its the right way to look at it.
 
Indoor66 said:
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Your attorney position carries with it the ethical and fiduciary responsibilities attendant to your grant of license. Bennett, as a basketball coach, does not have to follow those professional standards.
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Curious how you’d square that position with K’s oft-repeated statements over the years about the trust placed in him by players’ families.

Maybe the answer would just be that the game has changed. And obviously it has. Has it changed so much that K’s statements are obsolete?
 
Matches said:
Curious how you’d square that position with K’s oft-repeated statements over the years about the trust placed in him by players’ families.

Maybe the answer would just be that the game has changed. And obviously it has. Has it changed so much that K’s statements are obsolete?
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Speaking for myself, not Indoor66, but TB has said that he believes a change from him to another head coach is what is best for the program. If this is what he truly believes, then he has acted in the best interest of his players and their families. I see no reason to think he was not being truthful.
 
azzefkram said:
Does anyone here believe that Tony Bennett is a moron? I don't, and for simplicity's sake, I will assume that most here don't as well. Since we have loosely established that Tony is not a moron, he had to be aware of the reaction it would cause and the potential damage it would inflict on his legacy for many people. So with the knowledge that a mountain of poo, self-inflicted though it may be, poised to come crashing down on his head, he still decided to step away now. To me, that speaks volumes about what Tony was feeling and thinking. The easy choice would have been to go to the powers that be at UVA and tell them that this will be his last season and then sleepwalk through the season collecting a paycheck and the adoration of fans. Tony made the hard and unpopular choice. It is easy for us to say we would have handled it differently, but the reality is that I would be shocked if any of our careers were remotely similar to a high major D1 coach. It is easy to say Tony should have sucked it up and stayed for the season. From what I've experienced, silent suffering is a bunch of malarky because suffering doesn't need to be loud to permeate, and Tony sticking around for the kids would have had a cost.

I am just sad for all involved. I don't think the solutions put forth make it any better. They just lipstick the pig.
Click to expand...
Smart people make bad and/or dumb decisions all the time. Also all most of us really know about him is that he’s really good at coaching basketball and giving pressers. Who knows if he’s a moron in real life (probably isn’t, but let’s not suffer from athlete worship syndrome, we don’t know the guy)
 
I confess to not listening to the press conference so maybe this was addressed. What were the feelings of the players? Were they losing confidence in Bennett? Did he, perhaps, factor that into the decision? Have any players or staff spoken out? Were they surprised, did they suspect, or did they actually know before it came out?
 
RoseBowl1942 said:
Smart people make bad and/or dumb decisions all the time. Also all most of us really know about him is that he’s really good at coaching basketball and giving pressers. Who knows if he’s a moron in real life (probably isn’t, but let’s not suffer from athlete worship syndrome, we don’t know the guy)
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I don’t see the relevance of the degree to which TB is moronic. He has said that he does not believe that he is the best person to coach UVA’s MBB team in the current environment. Maybe you and others believe differently but that strikes me as supreme arrogance to think that you know better than TB who is the best person to lead UVA’s program, and that you know better than TB about the state of his own mind.

Also, RB 1942, didn’t you say you made a mistake by venturing into a MBB discussion and were going back to FB? 😆
 
FosterCoachK82 said:
I don’t see the relevance of the degree to which TB is moronic. He has said that he does not believe that he is the best person to coach UVA’s MBB team in the current environment. Maybe you and others believe differently but that strikes me as supreme arrogance to think that you know better than TB who is the best person to lead UVA’s program, and that you know better than TB about the state of his own mind.

Also, RB 1942, didn’t you say you made a mistake by venturing into a MBB discussion and were going back to FB? 😆
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I’m not alone in thinking that it was a jerk thing to do to the players. Please see above in this thread. It’s not at all an uncommon or unfair take to say this. Not sure why I’m being singled out in this regard. Is it because I mentioned football?
 
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