MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.– Tony Bennett is a three-time national Coach of the year and a four-time ACC Coach of the Year at Virginia. He led the Cavaliers to outright ACC regular season and tournament championships in 2018 and another regular season championship this season.
But last spring, he may have been the most criticized coach in college basketball after his top-seeded Cavaliers flamed out in post season, becoming the first team in 35 years to lose to a 16 seed when UMAC stunned Virginia, 74-54, in the first round of the South sub-region in Charlotte.
Great coaches are defined by March.
The loss to an American East team left deep scars on Virginia’s psyche. “Just the fact it happened, it’s part of our story,’’ Bennett said. “You have to embrace it. That’s not going to change. Losing that game was a punch in the gut, but it inspired me to be a better coach, and I hope it’s done the same for our players.
“That was such a pivotal moment and devastating and humbling in so many that I knew we had to had to be there for each other. The situation made me look at a lot of things. It drew me closer to my team, my family and my faith.’’
Miracles were forged out of the fire.
Bennett realized he couldn’t rely solely on his defense and had to make some serious changes in his offense. So, he had lunch with his starting guard Ty Jerome at a place called “Pico Wrap” in Charlottesville after the season about ways to bounce back and talked about spreading the floor to upgrade his team’s scoring.
Virginia (33-3) is the only top seed left standing in this year’s tournament. The Cavs, who play SEC tournament champion Auburn (30-9) Saturday night at the U.S. Bank Arena here, survived and advanced with an 80-75 overtime victory against Purdue last weekend in Louisville.
But the road to the Final Four hasn’t been easy. Virginia had been a No. 1 seed in six of the last six seasons, a No. 2 once and a No. 5 once, but they never cracked the glass ceiling. They were living with the stigma of being the team that roars through the regular season then fails spectacularly at tournament time.
The Cavs were down 30-14 to 16th– seed Gardener-Webb—a team making its first appearance in the NCAA tournament—with 6:42 left in the first half of a first-round game in Columbia and Bennett was having flash backs to 2018. But unlike last year, when Virginia got tighter and tighter as UMBC made shot after shot and the players could feel the coaches panicking in the locker room at halftime, Bennett took a more measured, calmer approach, never mentioned last year’s loss.
“Don’t you dare leave anything in this locker room,’’ Bennett told the players. “But you don’t panic.’’
The Cavaliers opened the second half with a 25-5 run and forced Gardner Webb into 11 turnovers in the first 12 minutes. Red shirt sophomore forward De’Andre Hunter, who missed the UMBC game after breaking his wrist in the ACC tournament, led the Cavs with 23 points.
When Virginia defeated Oklahoma in the second round, Bennett poked fun at himself by running into the locker room with a stuffed monkey on his back, ripped it off and yelled, “I’d so glad to get rid of this thing,’’’
But Virginia’s ordeal wasn’t over yet. The Cavs only defeated 12th seed Oregon, 53-49, in a rock fifth during a Sweet 16 game at Louisville and the Cavs were faced with a bigger crisis in the final moments against Purdue in their Elite Eight game. Guard Carsen Edwards, who finished with 42 points drained 10 threes was lighting up the Cavs and banked in a 3 to give the Boilermakers a 69-67 lead with less than a minute remaining in regulation.
But Virginia had a chance after Ryan Cline made one of two free throws to send Purdue up 70-67 with 16.9 seconds left. Jerome drew a foul with 5.9 seconds to play. He made the first and deliberately missed the second, but forward Mamadi Diakite tipped the miss out to half court. Freshman guard Kihei Clarke chased it down and found Diakite, an erratic shooter, at the elbow.
Diakite rose up and nailed desperation jumper at the buzzer, forcing overtime. “I took it and it went in,’’ Diakite, finding it hard to describe what happened.
Bennett knows. He has watched the tape three times. It was the doorway to salvation. “It was unreal for the presence of mind of Mamadi and Kihei, Mamadi to tip it out and Kihei to chase it down, to make that pass,’’ Bennett said.
Diakite, who is from Guinea, has since become a world-wide sensation. “A couple of teammates told me it’s all over Africa now,’’ Diakite said. “The news is talking about it. It’s a great thing to get to the Final Four. I’m on a list where we have Hakeem Olajuwon and Udoka Azubuike of Kansas. My cousins told me that if I were to go home the whole population would come welcome me and here in the United States everywhere I go people want to take pictures with me.’’
Bennett is on a list too. He and his father is one of only two father-son teams to make the Final Four, joining John Thompson Jr. and John III of Georgetown. Bennett’s father Dick coached Wisconsin to a Final Four in 2000. “Now he can’t look at me and say, ‘I’m one up on you, son. At least he can’t do that. That’s no bragging rights on his part, now,’’ Bennett said.
