Virginia Basketball: Top 10 Players to play for Head Coach Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett has established himself as one of the best coaches in college basketball. Find out which 10 players helped him get to this point.

When it comes to basketball, Tony Bennett has always been a success. As a player, he averaged around 20 ppg in four years at Green Bay University before spending about a decade in the professional leagues.

Bennett started out as a college assistant coach at Wisconsin, before moving over to Washington State. He was named the head coach of the Cougars in 2006, with a pair of NCAA Tournaments in the three years he spent there. Considering how that program his performed since he left, Bennett has looked even better as a coach.

But where the 49-year-old has made his name is with his current spot at Virginia. After starting out .500 in his first two years there, the program has elevated themselves to “elite status over the last decade. The Cavaliers haven’t had a season with less than 22 wins and has a trio of ACC Regular Season Titles in the last five years alone.

Led by a historically strong defense, Virginia dominated the 2017-18 season, winning 31 games and being ranked as the No. 1 team in the country for weeks. And although Bennett and UVA did lose to the 16 seed in the first round, it doesn’t take away their accomplishments.

Bennett tends to rely on the overall team defense for the wins, but sometimes they needed some great offensive playmakers to get ahead. There certainly have been some over the years, and I’ll be ranking the very best that he has worked with over the years.

This is a continuation of my series of ranking the top players of the best active coaches in college basketball. Bennett was ranked No. 10 on the list and might be No. 1 himself several years from now.