UVa Insider, the column: Bennett on his father, Assane Sene

After a phone interview Friday with Miami coach Jim Larranaga, in which he detailed his connection to former Wisconsin-Green Bay coach Dick Bennett, there was a question I was dying to ask after the Hurricanes’ game Saturday with Virginia.

Dick Bennett, the father of UVa coach Tony Bennett, was known as a defensive guru and certainly Saturday’s 52-51 affair, won by the Cavaliers, would have won his stamp of approval.

“What would Dick Bennett have thought of this game?” I asked Larranaga, whom I had last covered 25 years earlier, when he was a UVa assistant.

“This was a Dick Bennett game,” Larranaga said.

If Bennett had seen it.

“You know what, he didn’t watch it,” Tony Bennett said Monday. “I talked to my dad yesterday. He called me after [the Denver Broncos beat the Pittsburgh Steelers] and said, ‘Did you see that?’ “

Dick Bennett wanted to know his son’s thoughts on the winning touchdown pass thrown by Denver quarterback Tim Tebow.

“I said, ‘Did you watch our game?’ “ Tony said. “He said, ‘No.’ I don’t know where he was. They were going to tape it and he couldn’t figure out how to [use] the DVR machine, so they missed it.”

I asked Bennett about senior Assane Sene during Monday’s teleconference and, as frequently happens, I haven’t had much of an outlet to use Bennett’s quotes till now.

Sene isn’t the player he was during the first month of the 2011-2012 season, when he had a horrible time just catching the ball, but he’s put up some rather pedestrian numbers this year (5.1 points, 3.7 rebounds, 0.9 blocks).

Sene has started all 15 games for the Cavaliers and is averaging 21.3 minutes.

Compare that to the last 15 games of the 2011 season, when Sene averaged 7.6 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.6 rebounds, while playing 28.2 minutes.

I remember telling people that I thought Sene was on the verge of a breakout season in 2011-2012, but maybe he’s had his breakout season and that was in 2010-2011.

I thought Sene would be even tougher to handle because teams would have to concentrate on Mike Scott, returning from a hardship year, but maybe the reverse has happened.

Sene had more opportunities last year because Scott was out. Sene couldn’t come out of games last year because UVa’s only other frontcourt players with height were senior Will Sherrill and freshman Akil Mitchell.

Sherrill had 4-man height and 3-man skills. Mitchell was thought to be a potential 3-man when he came into the program but, fortunately for last year’s UVa team, he is a bona-fide shot-blocker who is not uncomfortable playing inside.

Plus, the Cavaliers have another shot-blocker this year in freshman Darion Atkins, who has gotten some of his minutes at Sene’s expense. In fact, UVa has so many inside people at the present time that James Johnson elected to transfer (not that there would have been an abundance of big men next year).

Sene “did have a strong finish [in 2011-2012] and did have some games where he was finishing and grabbing some rebounds,” Bennett said. “I think, right now, Assane would tell you that he’s been missing some opportunities.

“Whether it’s his [left, shooting] thumb injury or he’s just been a little bit of out sync, he hasn’t played up to his potential, I think. It’s not where we’re clearing out and letting him go to work on the block, but just getting some of those opportunistic baskets.

“Heck, there were more misses last year, so he had more chances to corral some rebounds and put them in, but my hope is that we find some of those opportunities for him as the season progresses.”

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