There’s Something About Ty: Bennett Shares Recruiting Story

By Jerry Ratcliffe

MINNEAPOLIS — At least two of Tony Bennett’s greatest finds while recruiting at Virginia have been by accident.

Bennett was attending games in Pennsylvania scouting another player when another point guard caught his eye, a kid named Ty Jerome. At first, he wasn’t overly impressed, but he didn’t forget.

Same thing happened years before when former UVA assistant coach Ritchie McKay stumbled upon Malcolm Brogdon at a summer AAU game. McKay was there to look at another guard, but was blown away by the Georgia kid, who had only been offered by an Ivy League school.

That storytale discovery turned out well as Brogdon became ACC Player of the Year and helped the Virginia’s program to greatness before he became NBA Rookie of the Year a few seasons ago.

Jerome, a junior for the Cavaliers, may or may not reach those milestones, but he has been a key figure in UVA’s 65-6 run over the past two seasons, capped by this weekend’s trip to the Final Four.

Bennett was talking about Jerome during Thursday’s interviews at U.S. Bank Stadium, host of this year’s event, and it was interesting to learn that upon that first glance of Jerome, there was something about the kid that Bennett just couldn’t forget.

“[Jerome] wasn’t near as big and all that, but I just kept saying, man, he’s really good,” Bennett said. “But in my mind, I’m like, ‘No, no, he’s not moving that well.’ But man, he’s really good.”

It was springtime of Jerome’s sophomore year, and so Bennett saw him one more time and thought again, this kid is really good. He went back to his staff and told them they at least needed to check out the youngster. Nobody was recruiting Jerome at the time.

“Then that summer, I go to watch another player we were very high on, and I had kind of forgotten about Ty … my staff should have kept tabs … just kidding,” Bennett continued with the story. “But I forgot about him.”

On that trip to see another player, well, there was Jerome again, playing against that player’s team.

“I didn’t go to watch Ty, and he played like Ty played, and I told my staff, I’m locking in on [Jerome],” Bennett said. “There’s something there. I think he’s got a chance. I bulldogged him and followed him, and he kept making a believer out of me. I followed him to Kansas City [AAU]. I think I was one of the only head coaches there.”

Bennett was convinced that Jerome was his next point guard.

“When you see it, you know it, and I knew it,” the Virginia coach said.

Jerome had gotten quicker, moved better, still not many schools were interested in taking a chance on the New York guard. After he committed to UVA, other schools surely would have come after him, but it was too late as he continued to improve.

Bennett’s backcourt came together nicely with Jerome and Kyle Guy committing, becoming friends — Guy even invited himself to stay at Jerome’s house for one AAU tournament — and great teammates. They both got their feet wet as freshmen, some good, some not-so-good moments, like the one in Orlando when the Cavaliers got boat-raced by a Florida Gators team in the NCAA Tournament.

Three minutes left and Bennett put Guy and Jerome in the game. They’re waiting to check in at the scorer’s table and Bennett went over to talk to them before they entered.

“I went and knelt down next to them and said, ‘take this and remember this. We’ve got to take the next steps,’” Bennett recalled.

After last year’s shocking loss to UMBC in the first round, Bennett approached the two sophomores in the locker room and told them that they were going to the post-game podium to represent the team.

The coach told them he chose them for two reasons, he wanted to honor the team’s two seniors, Devon Hall and Isaiah Wilkins, and Bennett didn’t want them to be on the podium, facing media, after such a heartbreaking way to end their careers.

Bennett told Jerome and Guy that it was going to be one of the hardest things they’ve ever had to do, how they’re feeling and what they would have to respond to.

“But it’s going to mark your life,” Bennett said. “This is going to be something we’re going to try to overcome.”

The two junior guards have bonded over the years and are so close that they can finish each other’s sentences. Bennett describes them as smart, resilient, tough-minded, and have a good feel for the game. They know how to play the game, they are athletically better thanks to the strength and conditioning training from UVA’s Mike Curtis.

Jerome said that after Virginia returned to Charlottesville after that UMBC defeat that Bennett took him to lunch to talk about spreading the offense and doing some things differently.

Coaches and players were still reeling from the stunning defeat and Bennett recognized they all had to be there for one another to heal and to build for the future.

“It was about sitting together, talking, and just working through stuff and battling through it, and trusting each other,” Bennett said of that lunch.

He said the loss made him look at every aspect of his program, not the core beliefs, but some of the methods. The loss brought Bennett closer to his family, his faith, his team, but also ignited more of a desire to take Virginia to the Final Four, not so much for himself, but for his players, the program.

“Those situations put you in that [mode], but also, what can we do to be better in certain situations as a team? You think differently. Through any adversity, there’s such wisdom in it,” Bennett said.

It wasn’t by accident that Bennett did his homework in moving away a little from the blocker-mover offense to running more ball-screen continuity, perhaps stemming from that conversation with Jerome about spreading the offense.

Part of it, of course, was because with the 3-point shooting ability of Guy and Jerome, and even De’Andre Hunter, it would be a strength of the team. Shooters have to come off ball screens while hunting shots.

So Bennett got up with Kirk Penney, who played for Bennett’s dad at Wisconsin, then later played at Tel Aviv, Maccabi, all over Europe. Penney is like a little brother to Bennett.

Because Bennett has a lot of respect for European coaches and their ability to create, he asked Penney that in all his experiences in Europe, did he run any stuff that opens the court. Penney shared some thoughts on the ball-screen continuity, and Bennett studied it and thought it would be a good complement to some of the things Virginia was already doing, and it fit the strengths of his returning personnel.

This year’s offense is a blend of both, in addition to some of the old stuff Virginia ran with Joe Harris and those guys.

Of course, none of this would have likely happened if Bennett hadn’t followed his first instinct and continued his pursuit of the New York kid who didn’t move so well.