NCAA Basketball: Top 10 head coaches from past decade (2010-19)
By Joey Loose
7. Tony Bennett
At the beginning of the decade, Bennett was only just settling in at Virginia after a successful three years across the country at Washington State. Now, he’s brought the Cavaliers their first national title, with a whole lot of achievement along the way.
It took three years to lead Virginia to the NCAA Tournament, but it didn’t take long to make this team an ACC power. In a conference run by Duke and North Carolina, the Cavaliers have finished in the top five of the league each of the last eight seasons, winning it four times in that span. There have been four 30-win seasons and tons of talent passing through Charlottesville, from Malcolm Brogdon to Kyle Guy to Deandre Hunter.
The highlight was clearly the 2019 national championship run, despite the difficulty it took to get there. His Cavaliers could have fallen apart after the UMBC loss, but they were strong and delivered the ultimate college basketball comeback story. Last year’s squad survived enormous challenges from Purdue, Auburn, and Texas Tech to win the program’s first title.
Bennett has been a master of slow, stout defensive basketball, even if that style directly led to the UMBC defeat because of a hot shooting night from the Retrievers. All in all, he resurrected a Virginia program reduced to mediocrity in a tough ACC, turning them into a national power for more than half the decade. Winning 70% of your games in ACC play is impressive enough, but last year’s title run gave Bennett the necessary boost to his resume, elevating him onto this list.