{"id":24093,"date":"2023-03-13T10:44:11","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T14:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=24093"},"modified":"2023-03-13T10:44:11","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T14:44:11","slug":"uva-coach-tony-bennett-leads-team-with-foundation-of-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/03\/uva-coach-tony-bennett-leads-team-with-foundation-of-faith.html","title":{"rendered":"UVA Coach Tony Bennett Leads Team with Foundation of Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_24102\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24102\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/03\/tony-bennett-uva-coach-credit-youtube.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24102\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/03\/tony-bennett-uva-coach-credit-youtube.png\" alt=\"tony bennett\" width=\"768\" height=\"496\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-24102\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Virginia Sports TV\/YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The University of Virginia\u2019s men\u2019s basketball team has a habit of bouncing back from the lows that have happened during Tony Bennett\u2019s 14-year stint as head coach. A national championship came after a tragic loss to UMBC. However, after missing the NCAA tournament last season, the Cavaliers are right back in the Associated Press\u2019 top ten poll this year.<\/p>\n<p>Virginia was ranked 18th at the start of the season, moving to number two in the country after an 8-0 start. Now, the team is the 4-seed in the South Region for the NCAA Tournament. Earlier this year, coach Bennett earned his 400th career win as a coach after a 76-67 win over Wake Forest. Bennett\u2019s first 69 wins came while coaching Washington State before coming to UVA in 2009.<\/p>\n<p>In a postgame press conference, interviewers asked Bennett why his team was so successful on the road. He replied, \u201cWe talked about before the game: simple, faithful and purposeful. Simple in terms of don\u2019t overcomplicate this. You know what you have to do. Be faithful to who you are, your kind of true self as a team, and then do it with great purpose and passion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bennett has emphasized the importance of unconditional love and shared the comforts he finds in knowing he has that through his relationship with Jesus. Before UVA\u2019s 2019 national championship started with a win over Gardner-Webb, coach Bennett reflected on his team\u2019s loss the previous year.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Bennett on hardships: &#8220;You certainly feel things and things bother you, but where does peace and perspective come from? I always tell our guys, it has to be something unconditional. I know I have that in the love of my family. And I know I have that in my faith.&#8221; ?\u2694\ufe0f? <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/GoHoos?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GoHoos<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8kdDivLeRC\">pic.twitter.com\/8kdDivLeRC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Virginia Men&#8217;s Basketball (@UVAMensHoops) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UVAMensHoops\/status\/1108820573323288577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 21, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In his pre-game media availability, Bennett said, \u201cYou certainly feel things, and things bother you, but where do peace and perspective come from? I always tell our guys it has to be something unconditional. I know I have that in the love of my family, unconditional acceptance and love. That\u2019s huge. And I know I have that in my faith in Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He elaborated on the topic during a visit to the Sports Spectrum podcast, saying, \u201cThose things that are unconditional \u2014 when you\u2019re loved and accepted unconditionally \u2014 there are only a few things that can do that. The ultimate is, obviously, the unconditional love and acceptance you get through your relationship with the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since arriving at UVA in 2009, Bennett has led the Cavaliers to five ACC regular-season titles, eight NCAA Tournaments, and two conference tournament championships. He\u2019s become one of the faces of ACC basketball, especially with the retirements of North Carolina\u2019s Roy Williams and Duke\u2019s Mike Krzyzewski. His program is built on\u00a0five pillars\u00a0\u2014 humility, passion, servanthood, thankfulness and unity \u2014 and he put his core values on display in 2019 when he\u00a0turned down a raise\u00a0after winning the national championship.<\/p>\n<p>Even in difficult moments, Bennett is determined to remain grateful to God because he knows those moments are opportunities for spiritual growth. \u201cYou have to rejoice and give thanks for what God\u2019s doing or how you\u2019re being equipped through the hard situations that we have,\u201d he said on the Sports Spectrum podcast. Coach Bennett knows that anything is possible as long as he has God. Good luck to the Cavaliers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The University of Virginia\u2019s men\u2019s basketball team has a habit of bouncing back from the lows that have happened during Tony Bennett\u2019s 14-year stint as head coach. A national championship came after a tragic loss to UMBC. However, after missing the NCAA tournament last season, the Cavaliers are right back in the Associated Press\u2019 top&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":24102,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3630,10],"tags":[3820,3662],"class_list":["post-24093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletes","category-sports","tag-college-basketball","tag-tony-bennett-uva"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>UVA Coach Tony Bennett Leads Team with Foundation of Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"University of Virginia&#039;s men&#039;s basketball coach Tony Bennett attributes his team&#039;s success to his foundation of faith and putting trust in God.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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