Sources have confirmed that Washington State coach Tony Bennett is Virginia’s new men’s basketball coach.

Debate away!

I still think Grant from VCU would of been the best choice. Grant already knows the area which would help in recruiting. If this hiring doesn’t work out I believe Littlepage job should be in jeopardy since he has become AD both the football and basketball programs have suffered. I wish Mr. Bennett good luck and hope he can restore wins and pride in UVA basketball program just don’t know if he is ready for the ACC yet. The little bit of information I was able to find about him seems to me a lot of his success is on his father’s coat tails.

As a UVA student I hope we have a midnight madness first off. This was a total surprise to me, Bennett was in a much easier conference therefore he could have won more frequently out in Washington. My only problem is his experience and also whether he can recruit in the area. I would have preferred a Billy Gillispie but now that the Arizona job is open and other more high profile jobs will most certainly arise I doubt UVA could snag him. I’m glad at least we didn’t take a huge chance on an unproven mid major coach.

Congratulations Cavalier fans,  not only is Tony Bennett one the freshest new minds in hoops these days, he has a tremendous upside when it comes to recruiting.  Pullman Washington has to be about the toughest place to recruit too and Bennett was able to fill our shelves with talent.  Washington State was lucky to be able to keep him as long as we did.  He takes down the current powers that be in the ACC and bring back your glory years.  I need to go visit the liquor cabinet now and begin the mourning process….....

You don’t know how lucky you are to have Tony.  He turned down Indiana, LSU and Marquette and could have gotten a better job than UVA. 

He is a great coach and took what his father started to a whole new level.  He is a better coach than his father and coaches a different style.  You will be very happy.  Congratulations and enjoy the Tony Bennet era.

Unbelievable - with all of the resources at the disposal of Littlepage, et al, we go and hire a guy from the Pac-10 with no clear ties to the ACC or the recruiting hot beds of Virginia.  While Mr. Bennett may be a “coach’s coach,“ (which presumably Leitao was), UVa really needed to get a big name hire if for no other reason than to re-energize the fan base.  Consider the hire a dud.

I wish Bennett and his staff all the luck in the world at UVa, but I sincerely question this move from a purely tactical standpoint - will the seats be filled in JPJ next year, and does Bennett have any chance of landing the top recruits in the state and region?  From the outside looking in, the answer to both is no. 

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out Littlepage…

Holy Stink!!  You have got to be kidding!  Once again, Casteen and Littlepage make us the laughingstock of college basketball.  At this point, who can blame anyone for laughing at us… we actually deserve it.  How can we go from the real possibility of Tubby Smith to an unproven, novice coach like Tony Bennett???  Everyone would agree that UVA needed a big hitter at this crucial time if we didn’t want to fall even further behind the rest of the ACC pack, continue to lose fan support, suffer financially because no one attends the games, etc.—and this is what we get.  It’s almost as if Casteen and Littlepage don’t want us to succeed!  I don’t care how much money Casteen brings the university, FIRE him TODAY!!!!!!!!  Leito should be sitting back laughing his tail off with this announcement!  Once this latest move comes back to bite us in the butt, it will take many, many years to put UVA back on the basketball map, and it will probably be too late by then, as no quality coach will ever want to come to UVA because of the way things are handled.  Let’s face it—we’re a JOKE!  I’ve had enough.  I’ve decided to move on and become a UNC fan.  A quality school, classy coach and storied history… GO TAR HEELS!

Was this an April fools prank let out early?

Ok what I want to know is why?  Is UVA already a total joke and so Tubby and all the other big coaches turned us down?  Did UVA refuse to pony up the money?  What happened to make us lose out on the top choices?  All the names thrown around would have been acceptable except for Grant.

I will give Tony this though, he is much better than the Dave hire but that is not saying much as I thought the Dave hire was terrible.  Dave I gave a 2 out of 10 on his hire.  Tony gets a 6 of 10 but that is still a failing grade.

Best case senerio is Tony does great and with no ties to the East coast he bolts after 3-4 seasons.  Worst case senerio is that he sucks and is fired after 4-5 seasons.  Either way, we will be back looking yet again for a UVA Basketball coach.

Last year, Bennett turned down offers from LSU, Marquette and Indiana after taking the WSU men to their second consecutive NCAA tournament. He was named the Associated Press college basketball coach of the year for the 2006-07 season. This season, Bennett’s third year as head coach, the Cougars turned out a 17-16 record en route to a first-round exit from the postseason NIT.

Why is Virginia so special that Bennett turned down a lot of big programs then decided to take this gig?

This appears to be a hasty hiring. With all due respect, going after Anthony Grant, instead of thinking that Tubby Smith would consider UVA, would have been better. Hopefully Bennett understands what he is getting into. The wolves are howling and blood is wanted. It doesn’t matter if it comes from Littlepage or Bennett. I don’t know about this one.

UVA can be consistently competitive in the ACC. It will never overtake Duke or UNC but definitely better than the bottom third.

I am totally underwhelmed

I’m not sure UVA could have done better than this hire.  Take a look at Wazoo’s record before the Bennetts arrived on campus.  Tony recruited and Dick was the head coach to start out, then Tony took over and propelled them to another level.
What UVA needs is a coach with a system that can compete year in and year out.  The nay-sayers here are right - UVA is not going to out-recruit Duke and UNC, so they better have someone that can gameplan and get players to fit the system.  It will work.  I expect UVA to compete for the league title in two years.

I believe this could be a very good hire, he is young and has been ap coach of year. He has turned more storied program. As for his staff he needs to bring in someone who played at UVA such as Richard Morgan. GO HOOS

I think we Wahoo fans need to step back a bit. Tony Bennett has the playing pedigree (look it up). He spent almost 10 years as an assistant coach before becoming a head coach. As a head coach he took a losing program and led them to back-to-back NCAA Tourneys and 25-plus win seasons. A year ago, his team was younger than UVa’s team and they had a winning record in a top-tier (if sub-ACC) conference. He’s 40 years old and has been successful at every level of involvement in the college game. Mike Krzyzewski only comes along once a generation, but you can’t forget that Coach K was 33 with a career record near .500 at a program that wasn’t even CLOSE to ACC caliber when Duke hired him. Tony Bennett is not Coach K, but let’s give him a break. There was a reason Indiana, Marquette and LSU wanted this guy. We may be very lucky to have gotten him.

Let’s get used to our new head coach.  Anyone who thinks that UVa will go from worst to first isn’t very bright.
If Bennett can manage a winning season in 09-10 then he may qualify for coach of the year.

I am a WAZZU grad living in C-ville.  I am highly disappointed to lose him as my coach.  I was shocked!! Wait and see, he is great in the community, a great recruiter and do your homework—comes from a great coaching family.  I have been to several UVA games over the last few years, Leitao was a joke—his teams didn’t even play hard!  I guarantee you will see teams that play hard and he will get even better talent than he did at WSU.  He may not have the name or require the big price tag, but you are getting someone that will turn the team around quickly.  I woulg guess the Cavs will even be 500 this year!!