Bennett discusses Shaka quote further

by Whitey Reid on January 31st, 2012

During his radio show last night, Virginia coach Tony Bennett expanded on his response to Shaka Smart’s assertion that the best teams in the state of Virginia are from the CAA, not the ACC.

In case you missed it, this was Smart’s quote yesterday:

“The reality is if you go by the numbers, if you go by postseason, if you go by even guys going to the NBA, the best programs in the state are in the CAA. It’s really not even close.”

This is what Bennett said last night when the quote was read to him:

“I didn’t hear it in that context, which actually clarifies it even more for me…

“If it’s about Final Four trips and advancing to the NCAA Tournament over the past few years, he’s absolutely right. I mean George Mason has gone to the Final Four, Old Dominion has advanced, certainly VCU went last year—so I’m not going to argue with that.

“I thought he was maybe saying, ‘Hey look, our league is better than the ACC.‘ To me, everybody is entitled to their opinion, but they have advanced over the past couple of years numbers-wise in terms of end of the tournament.

“But the ACC is a great league. Night in and night out you’re going against great teams. We played against George Mason and Drexel and they’re very good teams. So I respect coach Smart and yeah, if you’re looking how far we’ve advanced in the last five years in the tournament—those teams have [advanced further] compared to Virginia and Virginia Tech.“

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