It’s method, not madness
But that’s where we started this whole thing, was just trying to have the expectations and the vision where we could be relative.”
Texas Tech reached the Elite Eight for the first time last season. This season, with a mostly rebuilt team around star Jarrett Culver, the Red Raiders shared the Big 12 regularseason title for the first time and are now on the cusp of an unlikely championship.
Bennett’s belief he could challenge the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Tobacco Road powers came from his father, Dick Bennett. Wisconsin hadn’t been to a Final Four in more than 50 years when Dick Bennett coached them there in 2000 using a methodical style.
“Can you go and take a team and build your program in a way that you think is best and compete against the best?” said Bennett, in his 10th season at Virginia. “There’s a way that I know works — or that I believe works. So when you get in those spots, you hope, you have a vision and you hope, but you never truly know . ... You believe it, and you hope it, and then you just go to work.”
Tony Bennett took his father’s blueprint and turned Virginia into a perennial ACC contender, going toe-to-toe with Duke and North Carolina, but not until this season were the Cavaliers able to break through — doing so on the strength of two improbable last-second plays. And this is a year after suffering the most stunning upset in NCAA Tournament history, losing as the top overall seed to No. 16 seed UMBC.
Defense is the calling card for both the Cavaliers and Red Raiders, but Bennett is quick to point out, they are not similar when it comes to X’s and O’s, only results. By KenPom’s points allowed per 100 possessions, Texas Tech is ranked No. 1 in the country and Virginia is fifth.
Maybe they’re making defense cool again.
“I would like to think so,” Tech’s Brandone Francis said. “It’s like I love eating ice cream, no different than playing defense.”
This NCAA championship game might not lure in the casual fan, looking for one-and-done stars, iconic coaches and fast-paced 3-balling offenses like the ones Villanova used to win two of the last three titles.
“I think if you’re a basketball fan you’ll really enjoy the game,” Virginia’s Braxton Key said. “If you’re just kind of a highlight fan this isn’t the game to watch.”