TheSabre.com Fan Friday: Tony Bennett, ACC Standard-Bearer

When it comes to the Tony Bennett era, the Virginia basketball program continues to reel off impressive consistency. Within the last week, the Hoos added a few more lines to his growing legacy.

  • Virginia won its 6th ACC Regular Season Championship (shared with Miami this time) in the last 10 seasons. This puts Bennett in a truly exclusive club as the only other coaches to accomplish it are Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, and Roy Williams. In fact, NC State is the only other ACC program to win at least 6 ACC Regular Season titles period with 7.
  • UVA advanced to the ACC Tournament Semifinals for the 7th time in 9 events.
  • The Hoos beat North Carolina in the ACC Tournament in Greensboro for the first time (0-6 prior to Thursday night’s win).

In many ways, Bennett is now the standard-bearer for the ACC. The Hoos are the last conference program to win the National Championship and no other active coach in the league has made it to the top of March Madness. That’s because Krzyzewski and Williams stepped away from Duke and UNC in recent seasons, while Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim wrapped up a 47-year run with a loss in the ACC Tournament this week. Only Miami’s Jim Larranaga and Carolina’s Hubert Davis have made it to a Final Four as a head coach with Davis getting there last year (but likely missing the tournament this year) and Larranaga guiding George Mason there more than 15 years ago.

Bennett has watched a lot of new faces join the league in recent seasons and Boeheim is not the only coach to be replaced so far this offseason either (Cuse already announced that assistant Adrian Autry will take over there). Notre Dame’s Mike Brey finished a 23-year stint with the Irish this season, but could return to coaching elsewhere. Georgia Tech reportedly parted ways with Josh Pastner on Friday as well. That’s three new head coaches for the upcoming year at minimum, while Mike Young (Virginia Tech, 4 years), Steve Forbes (Wake Forest, 3 years), Earl Grant (Boston College, 2 years), Davis (2 years), Jon Scheyer (Duke, 1 year) Kenny Payne (Louisville, 1 year) have been hired within the last 5 seasons as well.

As for Bennett, the Hoos will try to win their fourth ACC Tournament title under Bennett this weekend in Greensboro and they’ll return to the NCAA Tournament field next week as well. In other words, it’s a good time to be a Hoo fan.

Fan(s) Of The Week

Some Hoos showing sign love on Senior Day.

Virginia Cavaliers

Student Fan(s) Of The Week

Helping bring the noise at John Paul Jones Arena.

Virginia Cavaliers

Feature Photo Of The Week

Chase Coleman cuts a piece of net after Virginia won a share of the ACC Regular Season Championship.

Virginia Cavaliers