Bennett On Coming Back To Charlotte: “It Stung, But It’s OK”

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Tony Bennett walked into the Spectrum Center on Wednesday. He was wearing a smile.

Yes, it was the same building where his Virginia basketball team suffered the humiliation of becoming the first No. 1 seed to ever lose to a 16. Bennett and two of his players, senior Jack Salt and All-ACC guard Kyle Guy accompanied him for ACC Media Day.

They stayed at the same hotel as last March. They walked onto the same playing floor. Guy called it facing his demons.

There was no gloom and doom from these victims of March Madness.

“Walking in here and all that … hey, that’s the bench where I sat … that’s where we turned it over … that’s where that guy was banging threes,” Bennett chuckled.

“It stung, but it’s OK,” the coach said.

For those requiring a history lesson, Virginia rose to No. 1 in the nation after having not been ranked in the preseason. The Cavaliers won the ACC Tournament in New York and came to Charlotte with the overall No. 1 seed.

They lost – badly – to obscure UMBC. By 20 points. UVa was favored by 20.

“We played like s#*t,” Guy said of the night that shocked the basketball world. He was right in his four-letter analysis. Might have even been an understatement.

As numbing as the upset was, as much as it stung, the Cavaliers learned to live with it, own it, and use it as fuel toward a new season. They’ve already been projected among the top five teams in the nation in various national polls after bringing back three starters in addition to the ACC Rookie and Sixth Man of the Year (De’Andre Hunter), and adding Alabama transfer Braxton Key, a two-year starter for the Crimson Tide.

For the horde of media attending Wednesday’s event, if they were expecting Bennett and his players to still be bummed out to return to the scene, they were dead wrong.

“I look at things differently now, actually better from what I experienced [last March],” Bennett said.

He shared a story that he often uses as a message to his team. A guy called the Story Teller, an older gentleman, came to Charlottesville and offered up a lesson on handling adversity.

If you learn to use it right, it can buy you a ticket to a place that you wouldn’t have gone any other way,” Bennett relayed the story.

That’s how he is choosing to use last March.

It was a historical season at Virginia, success at the highest level, then a humbling, crushing loss.

“I think if we use it right, it’s part of our journey,” Bennett said. “You have to embrace it. How we respond and how we use it, it’s equipping us, maybe empowering us to go to a place we haven’t gone. Maybe that means success in basketball, maybe in a life situation. I know that people will always bring it up wherever we go, but that’s OK.”

Bennett, a man of strong faith, doesn’t run away from that aspect of his life either. He claims to be boring, but that he can talk about two things until the cows come home, basketball and faith. With him, the two are one in the same.

He still loves the game, has joy in his heart, and can’t wait until the season begins.

In fact, he believes the loss has freed him up to go after success like never before.

The fire in his belly has never been stronger.

“The most important thing I learned from that experience, it kind of sparked something in me,” Bennett said. “I desperately want Virginia and this team to have a chance to hopefully one day play for a national championship, win a national championship, go to a Final Four. I want to really go at this in the right way.

“That has inspired me in a way that maybe a loss like that only can,” Bennett said.

Bennett made peace with it all and felt much worse for his former seniors Isaiah Wilkins and Devon Hall from a basketball standpoint. If he never coaches in a Final Four, Bennett is Ok with that, and he’ll tell you why momentarily.

Don’t mistake that as a lack of desire.

“But boy do I want to get there,” he said. “Boy do I want to do that, and have great seasons every year.”

If you’re wondering what allows him to carry that positive attitude, it’s faith based, but also lessons learned.

He’ll never forget when his dad – Dick Bennett – guided Wisconsin to the Final Four back in the day. Asked at the time if it was the greatest thing that had happened in his life, Daddy Bennett said from the euphoric standpoint, yes, but from a life standpoint, not even close. It was all about faith and family and things dear to his heart.

Tony gets it, too. He will sometimes ask his players an intriguing question.

“I ask them what is their secret of contentment?” Bennett said. “If it’s only when you’re winning, well, you’ll never win enough. And when you lose, you’re going to be destroyed.

“Where I find my secret of contentment is my relationship with my wife and my kids, and my players. That’s unconditional. It ultimately is based in my faith. Everyone is on their own individual journey,” the coach said.

After that painful defeat last March, someone sent Bennett a copy of a letter that Clair Bee once sent to Bobby Knight after a staggering defeat. Bee was one of Knight’s heroes, so the letter was meaningful.

“Bee wrote basically to be strengthened by the very blow that cut you down,” Bennett said. “The whole premise was that it’s a new season, that you need to run to the starting line, not the finish line.”

Bennett realizes that now the preseason polls and the expectations are saying Virginia’s got to get back.

“This is a new team,” Bennett said. “No Isaiah. No Devon. No Ron Sanchez (his longtime assistant, now head coach at Charlotte). Will we run to the starting line? That’s all that’s guaranteed.

“We might be terrific this year, we might not be. But it’s all about running to the starting line,” Bennett concluded.

After talking to Guy and some of his teammates, I can safely make this prediction:

Virginia will not be just running to the starting line. The Cavaliers will be in an all out sprint.