Virginia After WSU: A Difference In Expectations For Bennett?

(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Forget the southern accents (which really aren't that southern in a state that has become more and more mid-atlantic, like Delaware, than southern, like Tennessee).

The biggest difference new UVA Coach Tony Bennett will find in Virginia is a bit of a difference in basketball expectations. 

It's not an overwhelming change, but it's at least one he needs to be aware of.

While Virginia alums may pride themselves on having attended a school where sports are not the main attraction (and they aren't, not by a long shot)...the University did just shell out $1.7 million a year for a new basketball coach.

So even though the UVA fans won't expect the same things they expect year-in and year-out at Kentucky—which just hired a $4 million per year used-car salesman—they do expect a little something-something in return.

And...they always have.

Let's look at the past 50 years of coaches at Virginia and Washington State, to get a glimpse of the coaching expectations where Bennett is coming from and where he is going.

Since 1960, there have been four coaches who won at least as many games as they lost at Virginia; and three coaches fitting that description at Washington State.

So what has happened to the coaches between .500 (mediocre) and .600 (good)? 

At one school, they are considered to have done a bang-up job and eventually move to greener pastures. Very bad for fans!

At the other, they seem to get fired. Very bad for the coach.

WASHINGTON STATE
Tony Bennett (.676 in three seasons)—left! For Virginia in 2009.
George Raveling (.551 in 11 seasons)—left! For Iowa in 1983.
Kelvin Sampson (.500 in seven seasons)—left! For Oklahoma in 1994.

VIRGINIA
Terry Holland (.653 in 16 seasons)—retired in 1990.
Jeff Jones (.584 in eight seasons)—fired! In 1998.
Pete Gillen (.559 in seven seasons)—fired! In 2005.
Dave Leitao (.512 in four seasons)—fired! In 2009.

Of seven decent coaches at two schools, only one had a result that you would hope for as a fan. 

A coach who does a very good job (I consider a 60-70 percent career winning percentage to be very good at an ACC school like Virginia) and decides to stay at your school for basically his entire coaching career.

As any Virginia fan knows, that man was Terry Holland. (And the same thing happened more recently in football with George Welsh, .609 in 19 seasons before retiring.) 

To this day, Coach Holland is beloved in Charlottesville.

So...what does this mean for Bennett?

It means the man has got to be able to deal with some expectations. They aren't overwhelming at Virginia, but they are there.

And if he can meet those expectations, Charlottesville is somewhere he will never want to leave.

But maybe we've just been lucky so far?

It seems a whopping five coaches (three basketball coaches and two football coaches: Dennis Erickson and Mike Price) have left Washington State for other, less remote, jobs in the past 30 years.

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