NCAA Basketball: Top 12 candidates for 2022-23 Coach of the Year
By Joey Loose
Tony Bennett (Virginia)
At the beginning of the year, Virginia was seen as a fringe Top 25 team. The Cavaliers were coming off a rough season last year, one in which they missed the Big Dance for the first time in nearly a decade. Bennett’s squad brought back nearly all of their talent from last season and were expected to take a step forward. Virginia has already won five ACC regular season titles under Bennett’s leadership and is no stranger to surprise success, but they’ve certainly exceeded expectations this season.
Expected to play third fiddle at best, behind talented squads from Duke and North Carolina, Virginia has instead asserted itself as the conference’s best team this season. The Cavaliers sit 17-4, with a very solid 9-3 mark in ACC play, which barely trails an upstart Clemson team for the conference lead. They started the season with impressive wins over ranked Baylor and Illinois teams.
National champion point guard Kihei Clark has been fantastic in leading this program, while key pieces like Armaan Franklin, Jayden Gardner, and Reece Beekman have been playing up to their potential this year. As previously mentioned, success is certainly not new at Virginia, but nobody anticipated this squad spending a month in the AP Top 5. It’s just another fine coaching job from Bennett, whose team is doing it with more than just defense this year.