{"id":13717,"date":"2018-11-19T17:39:55","date_gmt":"2018-11-19T22:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=13717"},"modified":"2018-11-19T17:39:55","modified_gmt":"2018-11-19T22:39:55","slug":"uva-head-coach-tony-bennett-motivated-loss-grounded-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/11\/uva-head-coach-tony-bennett-motivated-loss-grounded-faith.html","title":{"rendered":"UVA Head Coach Tony Bennett is Motivated by Loss and Grounded in Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Wikimedia<\/a>
Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Everyone needs a little reassurance now and then, and that is exactly what Virginia basketball coach Tony Bennett received from his friend Joe Stewart. Bennett had just lost the NCAA tournament when Steward forwarded a copy of a letter that Indiana\u2019s Bob Knight received in 1975 from Hall of Fame coach Clair Bee.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake a deep breath, get your bearings, set your sights on even greater heights and start all over again,\u201d Bee said in the letter. \u201cAll a frustrated young man can expect to see as he looks over his shoulder is a desolate cemetery where his broken dreams lie buried in defeat \u2026 [a leader] is strengthened by the blow that cut him down. Now he knows the rough spots that pit the road and the quicksand that lies so innocently nearby. He knows because he has fought his way up that path of agony\u2013almost to the very top\u2026He grasps the new challenge with eager hands, races for the starting line. He will be back!\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennet shared the letter with his team as a way of inspiring the Cavaliers and took it to heart himself so that he could look at the team\u2019s loss in a more constructive way. \u201cI look at things differently now, actually better, from what I\u2019ve experienced,\u201d Bennett said. \u201cI think if you know you can handle\u2026the worst thing that can happen and still find joy in the game, at some point you realize, \u2018Yeah, it stings, but it\u2019s okay, and I made it through it.\u2019 I think that\u2019s worth everything, and I think it does allow you to go after it harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennett\u2019s perspective and character is grounded in his Christian faith. He has said before that the challenge for each person is to discover their \u201csecret of contentment\u201d and warns against only being happy with winning. When that happens, the inevitable and eventual loss \u201cwill destroy you.\u201d For himself, Bennett finds his contentment with his wife and two children. \u201cThat\u2019s unconditional,\u201d Bennett said, \u201cand ultimately, that\u2019s based on my faith, and that\u2019s everybody\u2019s own individual journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Losses motivate Bennett, but it is his faith that allows him to walk away from otherwise crushing losses with only smarting pride rather than shattered hopes and dreams. \u201cThis is all temporary, I understand that. This is fleeting. It\u2019s worth pursuing in the right way, and that\u2019s good. But if you don\u2019t have something else where you find your contentment away from the game\u2026you\u2019re going to be torn up inside. I know that and I\u2019ve experienced that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hopefully, the letter will help motivate the Cavaliers to reach new heights next year. If not, Bennett is still happy to talk about how his religion keeps him moving forward or how he is going to help his team improve. \u201cI\u2019m a boring person,\u201d Bennett said, \u201cbut, I can talk about two things forever: basketball and faith.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone needs a little reassurance now and then, and that is exactly what Virginia basketball coach Tony Bennett received from his friend Joe Stewart. Bennett had just lost the NCAA tournament when Steward forwarded a copy of a letter that Indiana\u2019s Bob Knight received in 1975 from Hall of Fame coach Clair Bee. \u201cTake a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":616,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3383,10],"tags":[1162,3821,3820,3819],"class_list":["post-13717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-celebrity","category-sports","tag-basketball","tag-christianity-in-sports","tag-college-basketball","tag-college-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nUVA Head Coach Tony Bennett is Motivated by Loss and Grounded in Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tony Bennett may use losses to motivate himself and his team, but it is his faith that keeps him grounded in both success and failure.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/11\/uva-head-coach-tony-bennett-motivated-loss-grounded-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UVA Head Coach Tony Bennett is Motivated by Loss and Grounded in Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tony Bennett may use losses to motivate himself and his team, but it is his faith that keeps him grounded in both success and failure.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/11\/uva-head-coach-tony-bennett-motivated-loss-grounded-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-11-19T22:39:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Stephanie Hertzenberg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2018\/11\/Bennett_copy-200x300.jpg\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UVA Head Coach Tony Bennett is Motivated by Loss and Grounded in Faith","description":"Tony Bennett may use losses to motivate himself and his team, but it is his faith that keeps him grounded in both success and failure.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/11\/uva-head-coach-tony-bennett-motivated-loss-grounded-faith.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UVA Head Coach Tony Bennett is Motivated by Loss and Grounded in Faith","og_description":"Tony Bennett may use losses to motivate himself and his team, but it is his faith that keeps him grounded in both success and failure.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/11\/uva-head-coach-tony-bennett-motivated-loss-grounded-faith.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2018-11-19T22:39:55+00:00","author":"Stephanie Hertzenberg","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2018\/11\/Bennett_copy-200x300.jpg","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/11\/uva-head-coach-tony-bennett-motivated-loss-grounded-faith.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/11\/uva-head-coach-tony-bennett-motivated-loss-grounded-faith.html","name":"UVA Head Coach Tony Bennett is Motivated by Loss and Grounded in Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/11\/uva-head-coach-tony-bennett-motivated-loss-grounded-faith.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/11\/uva-head-coach-tony-bennett-motivated-loss-grounded-faith.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2018\/11\/Bennett_copy-200x300.jpg","datePublished":"2018-11-19T22:39:55+00:00","dateModified":"2018-11-19T22:39:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/2accd57241ae3de281b15e255b66b126"},"description":"Tony Bennett may use losses to motivate himself and his team, but it is his faith that keeps him grounded in both success and failure.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/11\/uva-head-coach-tony-bennett-motivated-loss-grounded-faith.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/11\/uva-head-coach-tony-bennett-motivated-loss-grounded-faith.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/11\/uva-head-coach-tony-bennett-motivated-loss-grounded-faith.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2018\/11\/Bennett_copy-200x300.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2018\/11\/Bennett_copy-200x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/11\/uva-head-coach-tony-bennett-motivated-loss-grounded-faith.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UVA Head Coach Tony Bennett is Motivated by Loss and Grounded in Faith"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/2accd57241ae3de281b15e255b66b126","name":"Stephanie Hertzenberg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/080\/080e3b9c5b3764a74a7323d03c0bfb80x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/080\/080e3b9c5b3764a74a7323d03c0bfb80x96.jpg","caption":"Stephanie Hertzenberg"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/authors\/s\/stephanie-hertzenberg.aspx"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/shertzenberg"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/616"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13720,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13717\/revisions\/13720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}