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12 ◆ CAVALIER CORNER BY ANDREW RAMSPACHER F OLLOWING ONE OF THE MOST deflating losses in University of Virginia men's basketball his- tory, Tony Bennett was asked what he told his Cavaliers. After all, there's no script for a coach who has to face his team shortly after their Final Four dreams are wiped away like the Wahoos' were against Syracuse on March 27, 2016. UVA led the Orange by 15 points with a little more than nine minutes remaining, only to lose by six at the final buzzer. Syra- cuse took the NCAA Midwest Region while Virginia's Final Four drought hit 32 years. Bennett soon entered a somber locker room. "Weeping may endure for the night," he told his players, "but joy comes in the morn- ing." The saying, part of an old church hymn, was a way to lift individual heads on a bunch that won 29 games and advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time in two decades. UVA didn't accomplish its main goal, but it did enough to look back at the 2015-16 season as a great one. Bennett, too, was keeping the program's window of opportunity open. Soon the "morning" was going to stand for a new season, another chance at triumph on a na- tional stage. The 2016-17 Cavaliers are going to look different than the most recent version. At- lantic Coast Conference Player of the Year Malcolm Brogdon is gone, and so is two- time All-ACC player Anthony Gill. But Vir- ginia was still ranked in the preseason top 10 of both major polls. Why? It's debuting a talented batch of newcomers, including touted Memphis transfer Austin Nichols, and it returns a fourth-year point guard who still hasn't watched tape of what happened in Chicago last March. "It's just fuel, fuel to the fire," UVA fourth-year floor general London Perrantes said. "We were so close to making it to that Final Four, for us to lose it that way was tough for me. It still is. There's nothing we can do about it now other than let it fuel us and let it fuel the season. "I haven't forgotten about it at all. It's still there. It's a fresh wound for me, still." When Perrantes hit his sixth three-pointer against the Orange, Virginia took a 54-39 lead with 9:33 remaining. In the end, though, his team-high 18 points didn't matter a whole lot. Different Cavaliers took the gut-wrench- ing defeat in different ways. Third-year forward Isaiah Wilkins said the sting went away once practices began in the summer. Third-year guard Marial Shayok said the loss still serves as motivation. As for Bennett? "You think about it," he said. "When I pre- pare practices, what are things we can work on when we play them [Syracuse] again? What would have I done differently? What personnel decisions, substitutions? If we could have finished a couple of those press- break baskets, would that have been just enough separation? We could have guarded the curl better. "We couldn't guard them. Our defense let us down in that. They made some big-time shots. "So I see a lot of those things. I think about that, when it's appropriate and time to do it." Bennett is in a league where he's sur- rounded by peer accomplishment. Between Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, North Carolina's Roy Williams, Syracuse's Jim Boeheim, Louisville's Rick Pitino and Miami's Jim Larrañaga, there are 33 Final Four appear- ances and 10 national championships. The most decorated of this bunch feels Bennett will soon join the club. "Going to the Final Four is like a right passage so to speak," Krzyzewski said. "You go to a different place in coaching and you take your group with you. Sometimes it's just a matchup thing. "We should celebrate when we do it. And then you got to be careful that you celebrate so much that you don't try to win the na- tional title. "Basically, the equivalent of going to a Final Four is the equivalent of winning four bowl games in football. Well, you only made it to the Sweet 16? Well, that means we won two bowl games. "So much of our sport is judged very harshly on what you haven't done instead of what you've done, so what he's done is he's only built one of the best programs in America. But because of what he hasn't done, that's the focus of attention. If we were coaching another sport, you would have said, 'Look at all the success that he had.' Players such as third-year forward Isaiah Wilkins, who averaged 4.6 points and 4.1 rebounds per game during the 2015-16 season, will be asked to take on a greater role this year. PHOTO BY MATT RILEY/COURTESY UVA UNFINISHED BUSINESS With Last Year's Elite Eight Loss As Fuel, The Reloaded Cavaliers Are Ready For Another Run QUICK FACTS Head Coach: Tony Bennett, 165-72 at UVA (8th year); 234-105 career (10th year) 2015-16 In Review: 29-8, 13-5 ACC ( T-2nd); advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament Starters Returning/Lost: 3/2 Lettermen Returning/Lost: 9/5 Key Additions: F Mamadi Diakite, G Kyle Guy, F Jay Huff, F De'Andre Hunter, G Ty Jerome and F Austin Nichols Key Losses: G Malcolm Brogdon (18.2 points and 4.1 rebounds per game), F Anthony Gill (13.8 and 6.1) and C Mike Tobey (7.3 and 4.4) RETURNING LEADERS Points: London Perrantes (11.0 per game) Rebounds: Isaiah Wilkins (4.1 per game) Assists: Perrantes (4.1 per game) Steals: Perrantes (1.0 per game) Blocks: Wilkins (0.8 per game) FG Pct.: Darius Thompson (53.8) 3FG Pct.: Perrantes (48.8) FT Pct.: Perrantes (80.3)