NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - FURMAN VS VIRGINIA

March 15, 2023

Tony Bennett

Amway Center

Virginia Cavaliers

Media Conference

TONY BENNETT: Glad to be here. Last year I told our guys we didn't make the NCAA Tournament, qualified for the NIT and had a great experience in it. But this year when we knew we'd be in it, just how different it felt. We've got some guys that in Jayden Gardner and Armaan Franklin who transferred to Virginia, and they had never played in an NCAA Tournament, and the hopes were that they'd get this chance. In that first year, we got kind of close, but played in the NIT, and it was a very good experience.

But for those guys who came here in Ben Vander Plas came here who obviously is not playing in this tournament, it's a big deal. It's always a big deal to be in this, so we're excited and know obviously the competition is excellent. And just, again, grateful to be here in Orlando and excited to get after it tomorrow against, again, a high-quality team.

Q. Coach Bennett, I was talking to Coach Richey a couple minutes ago and he was saying that this past summer you had given him some words of encouragement after they had lost that difficult Southern Conference championship game last year on a 35-footer at the buzzer to beat them. And you had kind of relayed the disappointment that you guys had as a 1 seed and then came back and won the National Championship the following year. Can you just take me through that conversation you had with Coach Richey and your relationship with him?

TONY BENNETT: Yeah, well, I have great respect for Coach Richey. I don't know him super well, but I have the ultimate respect and know what he's done there as a coach. He hired a guy that was like a video coordinator graduate assistant for us, and when you talk to people that you know well that have spent time with someone else, you get the real deal, the real scoop. He said he is a class man. He said he's a heck of a coach and a class man. Just the respect I have.

I don't know if Coach Richey knows, there's a guy named Roger Thompson who's a dear friend, passed away, but a huge Furman supporter, and he's been great to my father and me. And he's kind of tied us to Furman and the quality of that program, from Niko and now to Coach Richey.

But from that conversation, when you feel like you really want something and you're on the verge of it, and then something hard happens, we just talked about what adversity does and how it reveals a lot, and it tests you. It's humbling, but the ability to go through it with the right kind of people is of first importance.

I know Coach has that, and I know he's that kind of man, and I had that when that happened with the young men and my staff. I think it allows you sometimes to find things out about yourself and help you in your journey. There's no question. That's I think what has happened for them.

What a terrific year they've had and how they got to this point. So much respect, and again, there might have been a few more things, but that's what I recall.

Q. Obviously transfers have sort of changed the face of college sports, basketball and football in particular. I'm just wondering, do you have an opinion, has the portal been good or bad for college athletics, college basketball in specific?

TONY BENNETT: Yeah, I think -- well, I'll tell you what it does. In the NCAA Tournament, it's just seeding, all that stuff. With the COVID fifth year, and that'll end in one or two more years, and then the transfers, being able to come and play right away, teams, now in a year can flip it. There's so many quality players and teams that have been together for longer now or are older.

It makes it parity, even more. I think in college basketball there's so much parity. Maybe it's a little different in football, it's coming. But as far as your specific question about transfers, I think if you would have asked most of the coaches, 99 percent would have said it's probably best how it was, if a student-athlete come and maybe they sit a year, if they're going to transfer to make sure. That was the desire of most of the coaches, but that's changed, and now I think it's helped programs, it's helped some young men.

But it is challenging, and I've been coaching -- this is my 14th year at Virginia, in it for a while, and you have to say, okay, this is how it is now. You adjust, you get to decide how you want to build your program. But there's some valuable lessons. The question that was just asked about adversity, going through adversity and what it does and how it can train you with the patience, and sometimes those lessons are getting lost. That's the stuff that I think can be hard.

But this is the state of college athletics, the ability to transfer and play right away, and there's some positives to it, and I'd be lying if I said there weren't negatives to it. It's both.

Q. You guys have largely been successful imposing your will on pace of play in games. What do you have to do to slow down Furman because they want to play fast.

TONY BENNETT: Yeah, they'll get down the floor so fast, after a make, after a miss, and they're efficient. They lead the country in two-point percentage, but they shoot a lot of threes from all five spots.

There aren't teams -- I don't know if there's any teams in the ACC quite like them. That's what makes that always challenging and intriguing.

But they have to do what they do well, and we've got to try to do what we do well. And it's always can you get your defense set against teams that really like to push, so they're playing against a set D and then you've got to go to work. Sometimes if you get back and get them stopped, you're in great shape. You've got to do that against them, but then when their ability to stretch you and cut and move, you've got to be continuous and really good.

It's just can you have a high level of focus and quality in that area. And then obviously there's so much more to it, but of course it has to start with transition defense. I think every coach would tell you that.

But they put pressure on you. You can see that from watching the film and the success they've had and just their numbers.

Q. You mentioned leading the country in two-point percentage. What is your impression of how they have accomplished that?

TONY BENNETT: Good players but good offense. Good cuts, good -- they have an ability with their combination of how many threes they shoot to stretch you, but then -- whether it's cuts or actions. And then they're a veteran team and they've got guys who can play, there's no question of that. That shows.

So the ability of their players, and the spacing and the system that they use really puts pressure on you. Take away the three, run them off the line; well, they've got stuff in there, too. Coach Richey has done a good job with that team, and there's some continuity there for sure.

Q. You talk about how the transfer portal has changed the sport and also with a veteran-laden team, what are the challenges of a team that has played so many basketball games together and two fifth-year seniors in Mike and Jaylon?

TONY BENNETT: Yeah, I think it's remarkable that they came back in today's deal. It speaks highly to the culture that's established there.

But you play a lot of older teams. We played in the ACC, Miami, there's so many fifth-year-laden teams. The transfer portal has helped us, Jayden Gardner and Armaan Franklin are here, and Ben Vander Plas, I wish he was here -- he's here, I wish he was here playing. So we've benefitted from it, so understand that.

But I think experienced players, they've been through a lot, so that continuity, there's no substitute for having the reps and the games and all that. It's just being ready, and it'll be, again, who can last the longest and play the highest level of their kind of basketball for the 40 minutes that it takes.

Q. I was struck when you started and talked about how much this means. You maybe more than anyone have had really the ups and downs of March Madness and so much is made of those Cinderella stories. How much does this mean, coming in and experiencing this and having that perspective that you've been able to garner over these years, and especially even last year going to the NIT and now being back.

TONY BENNETT: Yeah, in all things, give thanks. We get to do this. It's a privilege. I look at these guys that -- I played at Green Bay. Oh, man, I wanted to get to this tournament so bad. I played for my father, and I remember we -- he went there to build a program, and I decided to go there. And I said, Dad, I think maybe some day we can get to the tournament. So that experience of playing for him, getting there, winning our conference tournament, there's just such elation.

Then Steve Smith hit a last-second shot to beat us against Michigan State in the first round. So understand coming from a mid-major school, that excitement -- or low major, whatever we were, whatever they called us back then -- it didn't matter because good basketball knows no divisions or no limits. That's one thing I was raised on.

Seeing the excitement of that, going to Washington State, being part of programs -- I watched my father, he always had a rebuild, he went to more of the bottom of the leagues. We went to Wisconsin, then went to Washington State, and seeing that program turn around and get that chance to get this stage. And then even at Virginia, that's where it started.

Again, when you've been humbled in this tournament, when you've tasted the great success that we have, I look at all as an incredible opportunity to just go through it. But it's wonderful, there's so much excitement made of it, and it is, I think it's the best sporting event going.

I love it, and it's a wonderful opportunity, and again, it's the one-and-done mentality. That's a different deal.

Again, just grateful, and again, I never take it for granted because it's hard. People say, well -- it's hard to get to this tournament. There's 68 teams. It's good. It's hard even to get into the NIT because there's a lot of good teams around. So when you qualify for it, it's great. And then you want to be as ready as you can because the excitement that comes when you can play well and advance, it just gets better and better, and it can almost become like a fairy-tale.

Q. You mentioned that Michigan State experience against Green Bay. What do you recall about your team's confidence level and approach to that game, and do you think Furman will bring a similar approach against you tomorrow?

TONY BENNETT: Absolutely. I talked to our team about that. There's no question when you come from a mid-major conference -- again, I don't believe -- good basketball knows no divisions or limits, and you play a team from a major conference, that's motivation. When you're the lower seed, and it's just like -- there's just something about that, that the crowd gets behind that. You have to be ready for that intensity and that energy.

I said that to Ben Vander Plas, and they beat us in the NCAA Tournament. He was at Ohio. I said, you know how it is when a so-called Power Five -- and we had a good year this year, we were co-champs in the ACC. Our guys know they've got to show up and they've got to battle, but there's a motivation there that the mid-major schools have that you have to understand.

That was ours. We'll go toe to toe, we're not backing down. Again, you have to have that. I think good teams, whether you're from a Power Five or mid-major, you respect everyone you play and you don't fear them. That's a common thing. But you have to have that mindset.

The game goes to who can establish it, and that's the beauty of it. The ball gets tipped, who plays, who's quality, who's going to overcome it? It doesn't matter where you're from or even with the experience. It's just what happens in that 40 minutes or so.

But yeah, I think there is that certain motivation that you get from these opportunities. And again, it's there -- I don't know the last time Furman was in the tournament, but especially the heartache they had last year not getting in, they'll be excited. And I know our guys are hungry and excited, as well.

Q. Tony, you brought a team here to Orlando six years ago. Even Kihei wasn't on the team then. Any flashbacks or reminders or something just familiar about coming back to a place where you played another NCAA Tournament round?

TONY BENNETT: Yeah, I remember in the first round we played Kevin Keatts' team in a hard-fought game. Now he's at NC State. And I remember Isaiah Wilkins, who's now on our staff, got sick and couldn't play. We had some unfortunate things happen in that. And then we played a real good game, and the Florida just blew our doors off in the next round here.

Again, not a lot has changed in this tournament. You'd better be ready. Because I can't remember our seed, but it was a great venue, great town, all that stuff, and we were excited to be here.

But I remember playing Coach Keatts, and they played -- we had to change and go with almost five guards and play against them. They were a little unique in terms of what we had gone against, and then played against a really good Florida team in the next game.

Q. This doesn't really affect tomorrow's game, but have you seen from Leon and Isaac the development that you hoped when they elected to redshirt this season?

TONY BENNETT: Yeah, it's always a hard decision. I think it was wise because I think they really poured into their game. We've had a great track record when guys have redshirted and what's happened after.

Again, delayed gratification. Sometimes that's an important quality when you need to have some patience. And when you do and you work and you're willing to wait for it, it's good. I've seen them really improve. They still have improvement to do, but I think it was significant what they did.

There's many times in practice where I've said, did we do the right thing, they could have helped us, and that's a good thing. But they've gotten stronger and better, and they've had to learn perspective and patience, and I think that's never a bad thing in today's times.