Bennett joins Dean Smith, Krzyzewski with ACC milestone

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Legendary Houston Oilers coach Bum Phillips once summed up the great Bear Bryant with an unforgettable quote.

“Bryant can take his’n and beat your’n, and then he can turn around and take your’n and beat his’n,” Phillips said of the Alabama football coach.

Virginia basketball coach Tony Bennett might not quite have reached that status just yet, but he’s not far from it after Saturday’s win over Wake Forest.

With the win, the Cavaliers improved to 20-6 overall and 11-4 in the ACC. That last number is the important one for those counting.

The win over the Deacs (see related game story, notebook, box score and sidebars in our basketball archives) assured Virginia of finishing above the .500 mark in ACC play for the 13th-consecutive year.

That ties Bennett with Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, major college basketball’s all-time winningest coach, for the second-longest such streak in ACC history, both well behind North Carolina’s Dean Smith, who set the bar at an unreachable 33-straight winning seasons against ACC competition.

“It’s Hall of Fame level,” Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes said of Bennett’s accomplishment following Saturday’s game. “You know, I said it last year when you guys sound-bited me and put out there for recruiting for Virginia. I said he’s the best coach in the league, but I didn’t say that frivolously.

“I say that with all good intentions, and the experience that I have in 35 years of knowing what good looks like and what shit smells like. And it looks good here. So he’s a Hall of Fame coach and Virginia is very fortunate to have him here, not just as a coach, but as a person in their culture.”

Forbes went on to say that over time, consistency and winning are the hardest things to do, and so he appreciates those qualities in Bennett, whom he considers a friend.

“If you said to me, you know [Bennett] is one of the top five coaches in the country, then credit to him,” Forbes said. “The first thing you have to have is home-court advantage. What has he lost here, 26, or some crazy number? That starts it. Then you’ve got to be tough and win on the road. So he deserves every accolade that he gets.”

Forbes echoed a thought from Krzyzewski from a few years back after Bennett brought a national championship to Virginia in 2019, that Bennett should become more of an outspoken leader for the ACC.

“He’s the dean [of the conference] in my opinion,” Forbes said. “He’s the voice of our league, and I would like to see him take that mantle and run with it because he’s the most respected coach in our league and nationally, he’s a guy people respect.”

By comparison, prior to Bennett’s arrival in Charlottesville 15 seasons ago, Virginia’s program had posted only 12 winning seasons in ACC play, which began in 1954.

Saturday also marked the 12th Virginia season over the last 13 with 20 or more wins overall, something that Pitt coach Jeff Capel pointed out last week before his team delayed Bennett from reaching the ACC milestone a game earlier.

“I don’t care what conference you’re in,” said Capel, who played and then coached alongside Krzyzewski at Duke. “It is really hard, but especially in this league, when you look at the teams, the programs over those 13 years that he’s had to compete against.”

When Bennett came into the league, he was going up against Smith, Krzyzewski and Gary Williams at Maryland, all Hall of Famers. He would go on to face more Hall of Famers in Rick Pitino at Louisville, Jim Boeheim at Syracuse and Roy Williams at Carolina, along with likely future Hall of Famers Jim Larrañaga of Miami and Leonard Hamilton of Florida State, and with other quality coaches such as Mike Brey, who coached at Notre Dame for two decades.

“You look when he took over the job, where it was and what he has built that program into,” Capel said. “They have been the most consistent program in this conference, especially over the last 10 years. I didn’t know it was 13.

“What he has done is truly remarkable, and he’s done it in different ways. He’s had groups that have been together for a while. The past couple of years he’s had guys that have transferred, so he’s had guys come in one year and they’ve been able to pick up their defensive stuff, their offensive stuff.

“And so, man, it’s a testament to him and his staff. The consistency of excellence they’ve been able to have is the reason [Bennett’s joining] two of the greatest coaches ever in Coach K and Coach Smith. Tony has proven during his time at Washington State and Virginia that he’s one of the premiere coaches that this game has ever seen.”