Virginia coach Tony Bennett can display devilish side when dealing with players

Virginia basketball coach Tony Bennett is a Scripture-quoting, God-fearing man but apparently he has a devilish side, too.

During a preseason team-building exercise, Bennett took his players whitewater rafting in West Virginia and apparently at least one player cannot swim.

“And some of our guys were scared to death, so it was even more fun to watch them be scared to death,’’  Bennett recalled Sunday. “It was the highest point of the rapids, and we had -- our guys' eyes were big. We had to beg Dre (De’Andre Hunter, a sophomore guard) — I can't remember some of them; I call him out -- ‘It's going to be okay.’ But, no, we just wanted to have a blast.’’

To hear from some of Virginia’s players, the whitewater rafting trip produced more anxiety than their next challenge — playing third-seeded Texas Tech Monday at U.S. Bank Stadium for the NCAA national championship.

“I don’t like water, I’m not a good swimmer,’’ Hunter said. “It was kind of tough for me to be there. …

“They kept saying they were going to flip the boat and push me in. It wasn’t funny. It was not funny at all.’’

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Marco Anthony, a sophomore guard, said the trip was fun — sort of.

“Me, personally, I don’t know how to swim, so I was kind of nervous the whole time,’’ he said. “But I had the life jacket on. Kinda helped me out a little bit.’’

Kyle Guy, Virginia’s star guard, apparently enjoyed it as much as Virginia’s coach did.

“When you see De’Andre and Marco getting in the water, that’s what you live for,’’ Guy said. “It’s created better chemistry off the court, and that’s probably translated to on the court.  That’s all coach Bennett. He’s a wizard with that stuff.” 

Contributing: Scott Gleeson, Nancy Armour