Players pleased with new hire

“Who?”
Just like a large number of fans and media, that was the reaction of most Virginia players after they had heard Tony Bennett had been hired as their new coach.
But in the three days since Bennett came aboard, the reaction has morphed into an “Ahhh.”
Players have hit the Web, done their research and are now quite familiar — not to mention impressed — with the former Washington State coach, the national coach of the year in 2007-08.
On Wednesday, players met with the media for the first time since Bennett’s hiring.
“We were shocked about it,” said Virginia guard Mustapha Farrakhan, “but then once we knew who it was, it was just like, ‘OK, that’s not bad at all.’
“We’re really looking forward to it. He did a real nice job with that program and making it to the NCAA’s. He did a great job of turning that program around.”
Bennett met briefly with his new players on Tuesday.
“He was just real laid back, a chill dude,” said Virginia freshman Sylven Landesberg. “We all liked him. I don’t think any of us knew much about him coming into the meeting, so that cleared up a lot of things.
“From what I know and have heard, he’s a good coach — he wins. Whatever style he’s ready to play, I guess we can all adapt to it. He also told us that he adapts to his personnel, so whatever he thinks we’re capable of doing, he’ll let us do. It’s a new beginning…when they chose his name, it kind of came out of left field, but now we have a coach and I’m just happy.”
One player who was actually pretty familiar with Bennett was Sammy Zeglinski. The redshirt freshman, who had an up-and-down 2008-09 campaign, should benefit greatly from Bennett’s arrival.
Zeglinski is a gritty, fundamentally sound point guard — exactly what Bennett was as a college player at Wisconsin-Green Bay and in the NBA for the Charlotte Hornets.
“I couldn’t be happier with the decision,” Zeglinski said. “I think I can learn a lot from him. Obviously he knows a lot about the game.
“He played for his father who was a great coach himself and then he was coach of the year in 2007, I’m just really excited that they chose him.”
Freshman John Brandenburg wasn’t that familiar with Bennett until he remembered that Bennett used to be on Bo Ryan’s staff at Wisconsin. Ryan recruited Brandenburg coming out of high school.
Brandenburg, who hardly played as a freshman, said he was looking forward to a fresh start.
“He said his three principles are transition defense, rebounding and a structure on offense,” said the 6-foot-11 center. “I think the one thing we kind of lacked in the last couple of years was a structure on offense. It really was kind of a do-it-yourself offense. This will be interesting to see the change.”
Dunks
Solomon Tat was on crutches. The rising senior said he recently underwent microfracture surgery on his right knee and won’t be back in action until July. … Virginia will likely be in search of a new strength and conditioning coach. Former coach Shaun Brown is no longer with the program.