Yep. Just like Wisconsin. Classless in my opinion.
Interesting that one reporter compared it to Jay Wright. Not even close.
Coaching Carousel (Basketball)
Interesting that one reporter compared it to Jay Wright. Not even close.
aiwpfan
- Springfield, Il
Dad did the same thing, did he not?
What? I highly, highly doubt Tony has any issue with players making their fair market value.
If my job description changed the way his did, essentially overnight, I'd evaluate whether that change was something I wanted to deal with, if I had the luxury not to. (Hint: the change is not the players making their fair market value)
SKane
- Tennessee
I hope it is just that he is tired of the craziness of high-level basketball in 2024.
He seemed like a good guy and I don't have any problem with him using a somewhat boring style of play that helps his team compete.
As best as I can tell, he has a couple of well-qualified assistant coaches who can take over for the year.
He seemed like a good guy and I don't have any problem with him using a somewhat boring style of play that helps his team compete.
As best as I can tell, he has a couple of well-qualified assistant coaches who can take over for the year.
I have no problem with this. It's not as if schools don't fire coaches out of the blue on occasion, sometimes the table gets turned... Wanting to wait so that your #1 guy (Ron Sanchez) that has long been loyal to you can step right in as the interim, may not seem cool to some, but it guarantees a 1 year trial as the HC. You know the school will work the contract to their favor in case the program falls off a cliff and they want to cut the IHC loose.
What changed "essentially overnight"? Did I miss some news in the last few days or months?
sacraig
- The desert
I think it all depends on the nature of their complaints, and I don't know what Bennett's complaints are, specifically. I very much support athletes making fair market value as opposed to being exploited as unpaid (or under-the-table paid) showpieces.
On the other hand, I am sympathetic to the issue of having to recruit darn near a whole team every single year because everyone is a mercenary. Effectively, without contracts or regulations, every player is free to put themselves back on the market every single year. Not even the pros can do that.
Of course, if it eventually moves toward contracts that promise pay/incentives for staying with a team for a number of years, it may go smoothly for a couple years but I imagine that will get predatory quickly in the other direction (local car dealership offering a zillion dollars, all of which must be returned if certain metrics aren't met or if the player leaves, for example), which then rapidly leads toward collective bargaining.
Who knows. It's a time of upheaval and we don't really know what kind of equilibrium we will find. But coaches have to be getting whiplash over this. But if they are against players getting compensation for their worth, then I don't feel sorry for them.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
still a crappy deal for the players
LadyLoyalty
- Indian Wells, CA
The media is trying to spin this as a successful coach who is fed up with the current state of basketball, how it needs regulation for teams to compete fairly, etc.
All that would be fine and believable if it was the end of the post season and he made the choice not to participate in the portal/NIL chaos. Instead, he is quitting 20 days before the start of the season, leaving his players, new recruits, staff and thousands of fans high and dry. There’s clearly more to the story that we don’t know for Bennett to walk away right now and abandon everyone committed to him.
All that would be fine and believable if it was the end of the post season and he made the choice not to participate in the portal/NIL chaos. Instead, he is quitting 20 days before the start of the season, leaving his players, new recruits, staff and thousands of fans high and dry. There’s clearly more to the story that we don’t know for Bennett to walk away right now and abandon everyone committed to him.
The business side has become more and more of a beast as the revenue grows, but NIL and opening up transfer rules so the athletes have more of a say has broken the sport in ways that might not ever get fixed. I think certain programs have been at a crossroad with how they operate. Honestly have no idea if that applies to him, but the way programs are managed and led is changing rapidly.
As others have said, we have a great combination in Underwood, Whitman, behind the scenes program supporters, and of course, fans. The leadership isn't lamenting the past, just working their butts off for a bright future.
OrangeBlue98
- Des Moines, IA
Exactly this. If the players are essentially at-will employees, then they really can't complain if their coach decides he's done at a moment's notice.
I get a little weary of the sanctimony of these college coaches acting like college basketball was pure before NIL. I have a friend who was a college assistant for several high major programs 10+ years ago and he told me then that every coach I thought was "clean" was just better at hiding it than the others. He said, and I quote, "They're all dirty!" I love that BU has adjusted to the current college landscape, taken the challenge head-on, and built a power program.
That's not how it works though. The incoming freshmen can't just go back to the other teams that recruited them and ask if the can come play. The upperclassmen can't jump into the transfer portal and find a new team before the season starts. The players are either going to have to play for uVA this season, and burn a year of eligibility, under these unexpected circumstances, or decide to transfer and likely sit this season out. They absolutely can complain about that, and Bennett can be criticized for that.
And players have always been "at-will" employees, in the sense that the program has always had the ability to cut players for both off-court and on-court issues.
The job was easier before because they were exploiting their labor force's inability to freely move jobs or make money off their names...all while coaches did the same to become millionaires.
The current state is how the job should have always been and the loudest voices complaining seem to be those that benefitted the most from the old exploitative system. Bennett pointed to these other complaining coaches as having a point...so he gets lumped in for me.
Yup, don't feel bad or sad for these guys in the slightest.
Same issue with Dabo/Izzo/etc, Coaches wanna complain about how much tougher it is to be a coach now and how different it is? Point taken and accurate for sure. But you're getting millions upon millions and making almost generational wealth. Figure it out, or quit and retire to the Bahamas and enjoy your millions...but spare the rest of us the whining and complaining.
Look no further than Champaign Urbana for an example of a coach who has been able to adapt seamlessly to the new world of college sports without moaning to the media every chance they get or quitting in the face of actually having to change.
And also not his job to hire the next coach.
Basically a wealthy adult with the luxury of being able to retire at 55 taking his ball and going home and leaving everyone else to clean up after him.
Remember UVA's 1st round matchup last year? If more coaches were like Tony Bennett, CBB would die off in less than 50 years.
Well said.
"Won't someone think about the poor guy making 4.5 million/year who actually has to adapt to new working conditions?!?!?!?!" can be screamed by the coaches' media mouthpieces all day, but people aren't buying it.
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- North Aurora
What is going on here? Related somehow?
OrangeBlue98
- Des Moines, IA
I certainly don't have all of the answers for what major college sports have become, but I don't think this is what people had in mind. I don't really have a lot of sympathy for the coaches who made a career out of something one step up from indentured servitude as well, but this age of "NIL" (which really isn't NIL - it's just paying players. Real NIL is student-athletes being able to make outside income with commercials, appearances, camps, etc. based on their standing as a famous collegiate athlete) and players getting to move every year if they want isn't what I envisioned collegiate sports to be.
I don't really read it like that.
I assume he was on the fence and probably made up his mind a while back but staying until close to the season basically guarantees that his long time assistant coach, Rick Sanchez, gets a year as an interim head coach.
It gives his guy a chance to have a good year and get the Head coaching gig at a school that he likely wouldn't be in the shortlist for.
OrangeBlue98
- Des Moines, IA
So just to confirm, we need more uber-arrogant, pompous jerks who continuously play the victim to generate interest instead of upstanding individuals like Tony Bennett. Got it.
There's a reason why I sometimes wonder if being a good person and being successful in a competitive environment are mutually exclusive things . . .
Painter to Virginia?
Bennett brought in 2 HS recruits and 5 transfers this offseason. If Bennett told them he was doing this and they still came, and also told his returning players while they still had a chance to enter the portal, then good on him. If not, then he basically chose to lie to 13 scholarship athletes in order to help out his buddy.
I hear ya, I don't love it either. It's ultimately the NCAA's fault for refusing to face up to the inevitable and find a better solution that allowed players to receive compensation, but also provided some incentive for stability.
As to Bennett, of course there's nothing stopping him from retiring at any point he wants to, just like there's nothing stopping a player from leaving the program at any time he wants to. But I think we've seen that when a player leaves his team high and dry, he gets criticized plenty. When a coach does it, half of us criticize the coach, the other half praise the coach and criticize the changes that allow players to get paid.