RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – Eleven years ago on Tuesday, the Virginia Cavaliers announced that Tony Bennett would be their new head men’s basketball coach.
Bennett inherited a UVA program that won just 10 games in the 2008-09 season and had made only three NCAA tournaments since 1995.
It took Bennett only two seasons to get the Cavaliers back over .500 and three years to put UVA back in the NCAA Tournament in 2012.
Now UVA has made the last six NCAA Tournaments, the longest run in program history, and this year would have been seven in a row had play not been suspended due to the coronavirus.
Bennett’s teams have gone 277-96, 136-58 in ACC play, and have won four ACC regular season titles, two ACC tournament titles and of course the program’s first national championship last year, completing a 35-3 season.
Bennett’s best job may have come this year, rebuilding a team that lost three players to the NBA.
Virginia had won its last eight games when the season was canceled and had a 23-7 record.
