Virginia on Friday flamed out of the ACC Tournament in heartbreaking fashion. Some fans are blaming head coach Tony Bennett for the early exit.
Virginia led 58-55 over NC State with just six seconds left at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
Virginia guard Isaac McKneely was intentionally fouled and missed the front end of a one-and-one. NC State wing Casey Morsell grabbed the rebound and dished it to senior Michael O’Connell, who banked in the game-tying shot to send the contest to overtime.
Not. Done. Yet.
📺: ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/h601Pxdk04
— NC State Men's Basketball (@PackMensBball) March 16, 2024
NC State outscored Virginia 15-8 in the OT period, setting up a rivalry matchup against North Carolina in the ACC Tournament title game.
O’Connell was able to dribble the ball up the court completely unimpeded right before getting his clutch shot to fall.
Several fans wondered why Bennett didn’t instruct his team to use one of their three fouls to give in order prevent such a clean look at a three.
Tony Bennett is going to the HALL of Fame, and I'm not even the best coach in my family, but how does he not foul when they had THREE FOULS to give on either of the last 2 possessions? I thought that was strange. Just FWIW…
— Bob Valvano (@espnVshow) March 16, 2024
Tony Bennett has three fouls to
Give, what in the world are you doing allowing that to play out. Awful coaching!!!!— John Jastremski (@john_jastremski) March 16, 2024
Horrific coaching job by Tony Bennett
You have THREE fouls to give up 3 points and you let a guy dribble the entire court and get a shot off???
No one under the basket to potentially get a rebound or at least pressure/foul??
Disaster class https://t.co/q8Ambr9Lmd
— Evan O'Neill (@E26football) March 16, 2024
So let's ask the million dollar question. Why did Tony Bennett not foul? They weren't in the bonus yet. You could have made them inbound with less than 3 seconds to go.
— Clutch Sports: UNC (@ClutchSportsUNC) March 16, 2024
The Cavaliers were up 58-52 with just 52 seconds left in the contest and seemed headed for victory. Missed free throws and poor late-game execution led to an all-too-familiar crunch time collapse by Virginia.
DJ Burns Jr. was NC State’s top scorer with 19 points on 8/11 shooting. He scored 7 of his 19 points in OT.
