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GREENSBORO, N.C. -- When Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio was installing a new defense prior to the 2008-09 men's basketball season, he corresponded frequently with then-Washington State coach Tony Bennett.

"When I became the head coach at Wake, we were not a very good defensive team," said Gaudio, a former Deacons' assistant who was promoted following the death of Skip Prosser in July 2007.

"In [Prosser's] last year -- and that's my fault; I was like his top guy -- we were 241st in the country defensively. So, I said, 'We've got to do something different defensively.' "

Gaudio and his staff started the researching the Pack Line defense popularized by Dick Bennett, a former head coach at Wisconsin, Wisconsin-Green Bay and Washington State. Bennett's son, Tony, had taken over as the Cougars' head coach in 2006.

"I called Tony's dad, Dick, and had conversations with him," said Gaudio, whose comments came during Sunday's ACC Operation Basketball preseason media event in Greensboro. "And as we were going through that first year, I can't tell how many times I called Tony. I'd ask him, 'Tony, what about this?' Or: 'how would you handle that?'

"That sort of fostered a friendship."

Fast forward a year -- less than a year actually -- and Bennett was being introduced as Virginia's new coach.

"There was a little thing that happened the other day and I was watching film and I was like, 'I know I want to do it this way,'" Gaudio said, "and I almost picked up the phone and called Dick.

"I decided, 'Nah, I'm not going to put him in that spot.'"

Gaudio doesn't just have elements of the Pack Line in his defense.

"It's everything," he said.

As opposed to defenses that are geared toward pressuring the ball and creating turnovers, the Pack Line is predicated on packing the lane and contesting shots, even outside shots. Bennett said Sunday that one the most important statistics, in his eyes, is 3-point percentage defense.

"We play it 'A to Z' like his dad taught it," Gaudio said.

"It's funny. Tony and I were in the restroom and I said, 'Tony, it's been terrific for us.' He says, 'Yeah, we're tweaking it a little bit. When my dad comes to practice, he might get mad at me.'

"I told him, 'Tony, we're running it just like your dad taught it. Tell him to come to our practice."

At Wake, the Deacons practice with a dotted line at 17 feet, same as Virginia.

"Know what, my dad will tell him everything." Bennett said. "He's like that. He'll tell him, 'Sure, this is what you do.'

Bennett said that his father has been consumed with golf during his retirement in Wisconsin and has not been to Charlottesville since his son was introduced in late March.

"He spends his time Googling new golf clubs on the Internet," Tony said.

The master may need to find his way to Charlottesville if he wants a look at Virginia's version of the Pack Line.

"I don't know if he'll come to games or not," Bennett said. "He didn't come to that many at Washington State, just a couple here and there. He's real big on 'this your deal; you can call me any time.'"

Dick Bennett won't offer his advice unsolicited, "although, if he watched a couple of our practices, he might,' " son Tony said.

The Cavaliers, coming off a 10-18 season, were picked to finish 11th out of 12 ACC teams in a preseason poll conducted Sunday.

"He said his dad told him: 'Send me a couple of practice tapes,'" Gaudio said. "Tony said he hadn't sent them."

With the announcement Sunday that ACC teams will make a record 293 appearances on television this season, Dad will get a look at the Cavaliers soon enough.