ACC tournament 2012: Virginia's Tony Bennett buoyed by his faith There, he reaches into a side drawer of his desk and, one by one, retrieves three items from a manila folder: an old quote of his memorialized on laminated paper, a plea from one of his grandchildren written in crayon and a handwritten note from his son. This is the "important stuff" that helps explain how Dick's son, Tony, came to be a successful college basketball coach in his own way. To be clear, Tony Bennett burns just as intensely when his team is on the court as his excitable father used to. But Tony possesses a poise founded on a faith-based perspective that, he and others who know him well say, enables him to persuade his players to buy into a style of play - and a style of life - fueled by selflessness and collective will. He did not guide an injury-depleted Virginia men's basketball team to a 22-8 record and first-round bye in the ACC tournament in his third season in Charlottesville by making sure his message was heard. Rather, Bennett steered the Cavaliers to the verge of their first NCAA tournament appearance in five years by ensuring his message was absorbed. Bennett spoke about his faith for this story hesitantly. He said the last thing he wants to come across as is holier than thou. "But," he said, "this matters to me." My life really changed During the summer before Tony's eighth-grade year, Dick Bennett took his family to a Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp in Colorado. It was there, Tony said, that he felt for the first time a deep spiritual connection. "That's where I became a Christian and a believer in Christ," Tony said. "I know a lot of people look at that, and they're like, "Oh, what's he talking about?" But from that moment on, my life really changed. . . . I had been all about basketball and being about mine and getting whatever I could. That's where it shifted for me. His family took notice. Anne Bennett, Tony's mother, said her son no longer was afraid to talk about his faith, regardless of what his friends thought. "You can always tell when someone is just a little bit surer, a little more confident, just secure in who he was and what he wanted," said his oldest sister, Kathi Bennett, who coaches the women's basketball team at Northern Illinois. His perspective really changed about what mattered. Dick Bennett estimates that Tony influenced him and Anne more than any church they ever attended. Tony never evangelized, according to his father, but his tranquility was contagious. After Dick's Wisconsin team defeated Purdue to advance to the Final Four of the NCAA tournament in 2000, he was asked in the postgame press conference whether the victory was the achievement of his life. Dick offered a response his son can recite verbatim to this day and one that is printed on a laminated sheet of paper that is kept in Dick's desk.