What Tony Bennett likes about this Virginia basketball team

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Virginia didn’t make the cut in the national preseason top 25 polls and was fourth in the ACC preseason poll from Wednesday’s Tip Off event in Charlotte (see release about the picks and preseason all-conference team), and all of that is okay with Tony Bennett.

“I don’t know where they’ll pick us … none of that stuff really matters because it’s going to be what you do, not what anyone says, so we’ll have to prove it,” Bennett said Wednesday, a day before the ACC vote results were announced. “It’s a little bit of a reset for us, but we’re trying to build it.

“There’s some excitement. We’ve looked good at times, we’ve looked bad at times. I like this team because the core of this team, if all goes right, we’ll stay together for the next two or three years, and that’s important.”

That’s one benefit that Bennett — entering his 15th season at the helm of the Cavaliers — sees for the future of the program. But that’s not the only reason the veteran likes this team, which has 10 new faces in the program, coming off winning the ACC regular-season title last in 2022-23.

Bennett likes the fact that this “new” team has tried really hard in practices, which have been very intense. The effort has been good except for Tuesday’s practice, during which the coach uncharacteristically exploded on his team to let them know his dissatisfaction (see related story).

Bennett interrupted practice to gain his team’s attention, particularly some of the new players, who were seeing their coach’s competitive side, his passionate side, for the first time. Otherwise, Bennett has been delighted with what he has seen in this team.

“I think there’s a little more athleticism, and with their ability, their length and quickness, we can do some things that has helped us at times in the past,” Bennett said. “We have some guys that when the lights are on, some of the guys that you wouldn’t expect have surprised us and performed well in either practices or even in the UConn scrimmage.”

While UVA had what Bennett described as “our ups and downs” in that scrimmage against the defending national-champion Huskies, he knows he has legitimate depth with this basketball team.

“Even our starting lineup could be based on who we’re playing [in terms of] matchups,” Bennett said. “It could revolve. When you look at Reece (Beekman), you look at Ryan (Dunn), different guys with their length and quickness, that hopefully can equate to being more aggressive defensively. Dante Harris (transfer from Georgetown) is one of the better on-ball defenders I’ve seen.”

Harris spent most of last season redshirting, but practiced with the team along with Leon Bond III, who practiced with the squad all of last season and recently led all scorers in the intrasquad Blue-White scrimmage. Isaac McKneely returns from a solid freshman year, while Taine Murray returns as well.

Besides Harris, there are solid transfers in Jake Groves, a 6-foot-9 grad transfer from Oklahoma, 6-9 Jordan Minor, a graduate transfer from Merrimack, and 6-6 Andrew Rohde, a sophomore from St. Thomas, where he lit it up offensively.

There are four talented freshmen in 6-10 Blake Buchanan from Lake City, Idaho, 6-4 guard Elijah Gertrude from Jersey City, N.J. (Gertrude has been compared to Justin Anderson in terms of his athleticism and explosiveness), along with 6-10 Anthony Robinson from Peachtree City, Ga.

“We’ve got to try to figure things out, but patience is required,” Bennett said. “What you are now, you’re not going to be that at the end of the year. That’s why these scrimmages are so valuable.”

Bennett said the coaching staff learned a lot about the team in its first scrimmage against UConn, and will no doubt learn more in a second scrimmage against Maryland.

“These transfers do have experience,” the coach said. “Andrew Rohde was a really good freshman at St. Thomas. Jake Groves, Jordan Minor, Dante Harris, all those guys played in college games. They won in the Big 12, they won in the Big East and other leagues.”