fucla and Tony Bennett?

[BDFC]

https://www.zagsblog.com/2019/02/14/source-ucla-going-hard-after-tony-bennett-and-he-has-not-said-no-yet/

What ever keeps Luke out of westwood is good with me.

[BearDown93]

Seems like a long shot.  Complete change of lifestyle from VA to LA.  UCLA microscope and expected to win immediately.  Style of play not conducive to LA baller style.  Has to rebuild the program. 

Out of curiosity, how long is Miller's contract? 

Article mentions owing 4.5 million to the fired head coach.  Why do these schools sign long contracts and then run out of patience before the contract is done?  Why fire him before you have a new head coach? 

Seems like they pi$$ away money like it's not theirs.  If we got rid of our coach at the end of the year how much are we on the hook for and how many years does he have left?

IMO if you signed a contract with the guy then see out the contract. 

[Bear]

Baller? Maybe Lavar is available and brings a recruit with him.

[2012Cat]

No chance. No way. UCLA is not an upgrade from virgina anymore and he has virgina as a yearly top 10 team at this point. Not to mention I can't imagine LA fans coming out in bunches to watch 45-40 point games

[KansasCityCats]

Bennett has proven that he can compete with Dook and UNC in the ACC...which is unbelievably hard to accomplish.

Would be crazy to jump to UCLA...a place that can't fill the stands and expects John Wooden's standard of winning.

I'd still prefer Bennett over Luke in a heartbeat.  Go get him, Bruins!

[Liquidated]

No chance. No way. UCLA is not an upgrade from virgina anymore and he has virgina as a yearly top 10 team at this point. Not to mention I can't imagine LA fans coming out in bunches to watch 45-40 point games

Not saying Bennett will happen...but UCLA is still and always will be a HUGE step up from Virginia. Virginia needs to win 3 or 4 championships (will never happen while Bennet is there or at least while he uses the idiot pack line D) to even be close to being a blue blood.

Bennet has a nice program of hard working kids who play a mid 1980's mid major gimmick defense and do so exceptionally well. But they get their ass kicked in tournament play and against most good coaching.  Coach K beat them twice already this year and this is supposed to be the best VA team yet.

I'd be shocked if UCLA or any other good BB program anywhere hired a Pack Line D coach. Analytics has destroyed any pretense that it is a valid D.

[Jav]

Seems like a long shot.  Complete change of lifestyle from VA to LA.  UCLA microscope and expected to win immediately.  Style of play not conducive to LA baller style.  Has to rebuild the program. 

Out of curiosity, how long is Miller's contract? 

Article mentions owing 4.5 million to the fired head coach.  Why do these schools sign long contracts and then run out of patience before the contract is done?  Why fire him before you have a new head coach? 

Seems like they pi$$ away money like it's not theirs.  If we got rid of our coach at the end of the year how much are we on the hook for and how many years does he have left?

IMO if you signed a contract with the guy then see out the contract.

I doubt it will be hard to win immediately at UCLA.  They pull in highly ranked recruits no matter who is coaching there.  I get what you're saying about style of play, but I think a good coach won't have much trouble winning at UCLA.

[mvpreed2]

People are throwing Bennett out and truly believe that he will leave Virginia?
Virginia > UCLA right now and it isn't even close.
The perks are better at UCLA for the most part, but this isn't UCLA from 2005-2008 so there will be a transition period until Bennett can bring UCLA to the level that Virginia is at IF he could do it..

[Liquidated]

People are throwing Bennett out and truly believe that he will leave Virginia?
Virginia > UCLA right now and it isn't even close.
The perks are better at UCLA for the most part, but this isn't UCLA from 2005-2008 so there will be a transition period until Bennett can bring UCLA to the level that Virginia is at IF he could do it..

Key words: 'Right now'. Using that qualifier, no succesful coach would ever leave a program anywhere. Miller would still be at Xavier (where he did a lot better than he's done here). Xavier was in a much better spot than AZ when Miller came here.

I don't know if Bennet should, would or could leave VA, but removing the specific person, there is absolutely no comparison between Virginia and UCLA. Honda's new Accord may be car of the year, but it is not better than the Mercedes E Class.



RECRUITING:
Virginia has exactly 1 player from west of the Mississippi, and they have 4 international players (a risky, by any standard, strategy). Virginia does not have the recruiting reach that Duke, North Carolina, Louisville or Syracuse has... not sure about Notre Dame in BB but my hunch is they have an easier time recruiting than VA. That will not change until he wins some championships. Virginia will always have to compete for top recruits with the critical mass of eastern basketball powers, of which there are at least 20-ish programs at VA's level as program on the east coact. There are 8 million people in Virginia.

UCLA is in L.A. and they have OWNED L.A. recruiting even in their worst years. It would take exactly one year to land a better, more talented group of players than Virginia..oh what, they've already got them. Pretty sure I could recruit at UCLA...even if they hired Sean Miller. There are 18 million people in the greater Los Angeles area and there is not a single school in California or the west, other than AZ, viewed to be on par with UCLA Basketball.

$$$$$
UCLA can easily be the heights paid basketball coach in the country if they want to be. Virginia is a great school, and I am sure has plenty alumni who can raise plenty of money, but Basketball would never command the same level of support at VA as UCLA.

PAC12 vs ACC
Duh. No Duke. No North Carolina and no 7 other programs who are all going to get a bid to the tournament...every damn year.

I am really hoping UCLA screws up this hire - Miller is tanking, Altman and Hopkins are rising, Enfield and Hurley are dangerous. AZ has lost its edge in the conference.   

[KansasCityCats]

That's a pretty strong compliment to Bennett's pack like defense. If he hasn't recruited at the same level as Dook/UNC, but has outplayed them over the past three years with efforts, it's obviously a result of good coaching!

How is Altman on the rise?  He just made a final four, came in with a Top-10 team but they're on their way to a 13-loss season (and only played one Top-25 team).

Similarly, Enfield already has 12 losses with a stacked roster, and Hurley is trying to piss away another opportunity to make the field of 64 by losing easy PAC-12 games.

Hopkins is the only coach mentioned above that did a decent job with their talent level this season.