8. Tony Bennett
Current Position: Virginia Cavaliers head coach
Head Coaching Record: 344-122
As one of the more successful and notable college basketball head coaches in the entire country, Virginia head man Tony Bennett would be a hard to for really any NBA team. Bennett has a solid job with a near blue blood hoops program in Charlottesville. There’s not much reason for him to leave unless the perfect opportunity comes around.
However, there’s not much better in terms of storied big market NBA franchises that could come calling for Bennett than the Chicago Bulls. While the Bulls are in a bad spot at the moment, it shouldn’t take much out of a competent head coach to move them into playoff contention in the Eastern Conference.
It just seems like GarPax would clash with Bennett in terms of coaching styles. He would likely want to keep his style around that he uses with the Virginia basketball program. And GarPax showed in the past that they don’t really like when their head coach tries to outsmart them, which doesn’t appear to be all that difficult.
Looking to the coach that faced Beard in last season’s National Championship, Bennett could also be a good fit at 50-years-old. Short of the blue blood head coaches, like John Calipari or Mike Krzyzewski, he is about the best that an NBA team could do in terms of proven college head coaches. He would also be a more logical hire than the Cavaliers made by landing the former Michigan Wolverines tenured head coach John Beilein.