Return to Traditions

As some of you know the University of Virginia is a very unique place, packed with weird traditions, secret societies, obscure names, and people clamoring to live in rooms with no A/C or bathroom. This extends, or at least used to extend, into athletics. When Coach Groh and Athletic Director Craig Littlepage came to UVA they seemed to start a war on tradition. Previously football games included traditions like “Guys in ties, Girls in Pearls” which meant that student would dress up to go see football games. This tradition dates back to when UVA was an all male school and student would bring dates to football games. Virginia also used to have the pep-band play at home football games. The pep-band was not your generic college football band by any stretch of the imagination, playing modern style music as well as UVA drinking songs such as rugby road. Upon entering the scene Littlepage and Groh quickly put at halt to this. In his attempts to make football into a national power Coach Groh initiated the “Sea of Orange” which was meant to eventually overtake the previous tradition of dressing up for games. Littlepage has also pretty much banned the pep-band from all sporting events in favor of the new, generic, marching band. Now UVA looks pretty much like every other school in the country on a Saturday afternoon.
But this movement toward the generic may be stopping. In the recent elections a referendum was offered that would take the money that is used to fund the free power of orange t-shirts in favor of providing the student with better access to water during the sweltering August and September games. While this seems like an innocent enough vote if you read between the lines it is a call from the students to return UVA sports to their traditional state. While I don’t think the pep band is ever coming back you can see from this vote that the students would like to see the traditions return, and I’m fairly certain the alumni would too. Imagine if you came back to your alma mater and everything was different from when you had been there. If the old traditions are going to die out let them die out naturally, don’t force new ones on fans like raising that stupid power of orange flag.
The reason I’m writing this today is that I think the new coaching hire is also indicative of something along these lines. Look UVA is a strange place with strange customs; it only makes sense to have a strange offensive strategy. The hiring of Coach Bennett, at least I feel, helps to emphasize the uniqueness of this school which has disappeared from the football program. This school prides itself on being out of the ordinary, especially academically, and I feel at least that the sports should reflect that. Bring back the old traditions and you’ll see people in the seats. Football games aren’t just about wins and losses, it’s the entire experience, and part of that is weird traditions that build the community as a whole. Yeah people might think we’re weird for doing all of this stuff, but at least it unifies everyone in our own obscurity.

A Changed View

Tony Bennett had his first press conference in Charlottesville today where he was introduced as the new head men’s basketball coach. I know initially I was critical of the athletic department but as I listened to Bennett field questions and speak with such enthusiasm about this opportunity I can see why Craig Littlepage and John Oliver chose him for the job and am now completely behind this hire. Though Bennett’s offensive style may not be flashy and up tempo it might just be the change up that could throw off the other teams in the ACC. There is a prime example of this in football in which Georgia Tech had tremendous success last year running a triple option offense. I also think that the fact that Bennett did not manage to bring in top flight recruiting classes at Washington State may also be viewed as a positive. As much as it drives me crazy this school will always have much higher academic standards than everyone else in the conference which will most likely handcuff the coaching staff a little bit when it comes to recruiting, which would prevent them from bringing in a top class. The fact that Bennett can still build a successful program without blue-chip recruits is a very positive sign for Virginia fans.

                My biggest concern which is stated on Tuesday was Bennett using this job in order to build up his name to jump to Wisconsin or another Big Ten school if the opportunity presented itself, but in listening to Bennett at the press conference today I am firmly convinced that he is not. Bennett spoke today of building this team into a national power and how he was going to adapt his style to better fit the ACC. If the coach was truly going to jump ship he probably would be much less open to adjusting his style.

                But my absolute favorite part of this coach has nothing at all to do with his coaching abilities. Coach Bennett appeared extremely open and approachable to the media and his sideline demeanor at Washington State was one of positive and motivational coaching. Bennett is truly a representative that this university can be proud of. Bennett could not be more opposite of Coach Leitao in this respect. While I would have been embarrassed to have someone see Coach Leitao as a representative of the university with his profanity laced tirades to have that same person see Coach Bennett be positive on the sideline and a visible presence in the university community makes me proud to have him represent this school.

                As surprising as this seems after my initial reaction to the hire I think the athletic department hit a home run with this hire. They secured a young, energetic, and dedicated coach that can lead this team and represent this university proudly for years to come. Craig Littlepage and John Oliver deserve a great deal of credit for finding Bennett and I’m looking forward to next season.

The Bennett Era Begins

                The Virginia Basketball coaching search ended yesterday as the Hoos announced that Tony Bennett would head up the Cavaliers next season. Besides being an excellent singer Bennett brings quite a coaching pedigree to Charlottesville. Bennett is the son of former Wisconsin and Washington State head coach Dick Bennett and served under him while at both schools. Bennett was also an All-American point guard at Wisconsin-Green Bay and went on to play 3 seasons in the NBA before a broken foot ended his career. Bennett took over the Washington State Cougars in 2006 and led them to their first NCAA tournament bid since 1994. In 3 seasons as head coach Bennett has led Washington State to a record of 69-33 and made the NCAA tournament 2 of the last 3 seasons. Bennett was named AP coach of the in 2007, in which he led the Cougars to the Sweet 16.

                Bennett’s personality will be a welcome change from Coach Leitao. While at Washington State Bennett was known for being a player’s coach, and fantastic with the players and media. I wouldn’t look for any profanity laced tirades this season out of him, and I would look for him to attempt to reestablish the presence the basketball team has in the community.

                The one major drawback to Bennett seems to be recruiting. In his 3 classes he has only managed to recruit one five-star rated player to Washington State. Hopefully this is just because it is difficult to recruit players to Pullman, Washington, which admittedly I could not find on a map. The first few months will be interesting to see what he can do recruiting wise with the fantastic new facilities we have here in Charlottesville. His first big test is Tristan Spurlock, the swing man from Springfield, VA who is the prize of this year’s class. A report from my dynamics class this morning said that Spurlock’s AIM away message just said, “wow…” in response to the announcement.

                The hiring does bring about one glaring question, and that is is this really Bennett’s dream job. There are many signs that point to no and that he would actually much rather coach in the Big Ten. First obviously are his roots in Wisconsin. Other than his brief tenure as a member of the Charlotte Hornets Bennett does not seem to have any ties or history in this area. Second is his playing style. If anyone watched Washington State play you see that they play a very slow, half-court, defensive style of basketball. This style is the signature of the Big Ten and traditionally does not fare very well against the faster, more athletic teams of the ACC, just look at the ACC-Big Ten challenge. Thirdly is Bennett’s track record. He was rumored to be the front runner for almost every job the last two seasons. This may be another consequence of being at Washington State but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear his name mentioned if there’s an opening in the Big Ten soon.

                This leads me to the manner in which the athletic department handled this search and the decision they made. While I have no problem with Tony Bennett as a coach I will admit something about it just doesn’t feel right. I can’t get over the fact that he seems to want and be perfect for a job in the big ten. He also is another coach that came completely out of the blue, just as Leitao did 4 years ago. When I heard the news on the bus I remember thinking that I would never have guessed that in a million years. Hearing names like Tubby Smith, Jeff Capel, and Rick Barnes for the last few days led me to believe that UVA was going to make a huge splash with this hire, which it doesn’t appear to have done. But that’s really not what irks me about this. What gets me is the fact that this appears to be a stop for Bennett. That was the first thing I thought when I started doing research for this article. If I could figure that out in 15 minutes of research then the athletic department had to have seen this, and if they knew that this was probably only a stop for Bennett on the road to where he really wanted to be then they have slapped all of us in the face and told us that the basketball team’s success is not important, that as fans we should expect mediocrity and to be a stepping stone program, which kills me as a Virginia fan. If the slogan of the athletic department, “Uncompromised Excellence” was reflected in this coaching hire, then they would be announcing Jeff Capel or Tubby Smith today as the head coach. Someone who we knew had ties to the region and was committed to building this team into a powerhouse because it was their lifelong goal to do so. Nothing about Tony Bennett says ACC, or UVA, or even east of the Mississippi river and his hiring is an indictment of the athletic department and will, barring tremendous success and me being completely wrong, probably spell the demise of Craig Littlepage and the rest of the athletic department.

                As a Virginia fan I really REALLY hope I am wrong about this and that Bennett will be able to take his slow, deliberate style of play and make it work in the ACC, but at this point I can’t see how this happens. I did hear directly from a few basketball players at lunch today and they all say they are staying so we’ll see what happens. This team definitely has the talent and this coach does know what he is doing. Go get a rep tie Coach and let the experiment begin.

An Interesting Story

I’m going to stay away from basketball for today and talk about the athletic program as a whole for today. As most of you know in my other life I drive a UTS bus here at UVA and I wanted to share a story of a conversation I overheard between two student athletes while I was driving my route on Sunday afternoon. The conversation was between someone who I believed to be a 4^th year and a new first year. The 4^th year was explaining to the first year about how his performance this season was slipping a bit as he was trying to get good grades this semester to get into grad school. The conversation then turned to something that I found very interesting. The 4^th year athlete began counseling the 1^st year that he needed to take his studies very seriously because, and this is a quote I really thought was interesting, “[Your sport] is what got you here, but your degree is what’s gonna get you out.” He then went on to explain that while athletics may be great, the likelihood of this player moving on to play professionally is slim and that he should use the opportunity he was given in order to get a degree from this prestigious university that will be an enormous advantage to him later in life. This was fantastic for me to hear because as much as you hear sports commentators talk about how receiving an education is payment enough for playing, until you hear it come out of an athlete’s mouth it’s hard to believe.

                This got me thinking about how the school handles the academics of its student athletes and while I was doing so I stumbled on a bit of a contradiction. Virginia has the highest admissions standard for athletes of any school in the ACC and one of the highest in the country. It also requires that athletes complete at least 54 credit hours by the end of their second year in order to remain eligible, a full 6 hours higher than the ACC mandated minimum. What this says to me is that Virginia emphasizes the student aspect more than the athlete in its student athletes, which is perfectly fine with me. However Virginia also demands results on the athletic field. As you can see by all the heat placed on Coach Leitao for this losing basketball season the athletics here are under tremendous pressure to do well. Now I’m just a lowly bus driver but occasionally I find it difficult to balance the 20 or so hours a week I drive with all my schoolwork. Think about having to go to practice for 35-50 hours a week and have games and go on the road, and still be expected to complete 13.5 credits per semester. That situation leads me to believe that UVA, since it is so committed to academics, would have one of the best academic support systems for its athletes of any school in the country, but this is not the case. In an interview with Adam Gottschalk of Sports radio 1400 WKAV, an unnamed UVA football graduate said that the UVA academic support system was a joke and that it felt like he was on his own to complete his degree. This statement to me is ludicrous and is something that absolutely needs to change. As the kid on the bus said we are presenting these kids with the opportunity of a lifetime, and to rob them of that because we’re demanding a winning team is unfair. The athletic department needs to either vastly reform the academic affairs branch or reduce the standards once the student athletes enter the school, otherwise you will see more and more cases like Jameel Sewell of students who just could not keep up, which to me is completely unfair. Athletics bring in millions of dollars and attention to the university each year. The least the school can do is give those athletes a fair shake.