Former Virginia men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett, who officially announced his retirement Friday morning, pointed to the “current environment” in college sports as one of the driving forces behind his abrupt decision to step down with the Cavaliers.
“The hardest thing to say is when I looked at myself and I realized I’m no longer the best coach to lead this program in this current environment,” Bennett said at his retirement news conference. “If you’re going to do it, you gotta be all-in. If you do it halfhearted, it’s not fair to the university and those young men. So in looking at it, that’s what made me step down.”
Bennett, 55, has long bemoaned the direction of college athletics and increased emphasis on the transfer portal and name, image and likeness.
“I think it’s right for student-athletes to receive revenue. Please don’t mistake me,” he said Friday. “The game and college athletics is not in a healthy spot. It’s not. And there needs to be change, and it’s not going to go back. I think I was equipped to do the job here the old way. That’s who I am.
“It’s going to be closer to a professional model. There’s got to be collective bargaining. There has to be a restriction on the salary pool. There has to be transfer regulation restrictions. There has to be some limits on the agent involvement to these young guys. … And I worry a lot about the mental health of the student-athletes as all this stuff comes down.”
Bennett said he initially thought about stepping away at the end of the 2023-24 season, but he and his staff immediately began the rebuilding process and he signed a contract extension in June that would have kept him in Charlottesville until 2030.
Last weekend, however, when the university had its fall break and Bennett and his wife, Laurel, went away, the retirement thoughts solidified.
“Just kind of processed about what the future would be,” Bennett said. “And that’s where I kind of came to the realization that I can’t do this. It’s not fair to these guys and to this institution that I love so much to continue on when you know you’re not the right guy for the job.”
Associate head coach Ron Sanchez will take over the program for the season. Sanchez was on Bennett’s staff from 2009 to 2018 before leaving to become the head coach at Charlotte for five seasons. In June 2023, Sanchez suddenly stepped down as the 49ers head coach to return to Virginia and become Bennett’s associate head coach.
“I always hoped that when my time was done, whether it was Ron or Jason [Williford], the two associate head coaches, that someone would take this over,” Bennett said, “because it means it’s in a good place.”
In Bennett’s 15 seasons in charge, he guided the Cavaliers to unprecedented and consistent success. He is a two-time coach of the year who led Virginia to the national championship in 2019, also winning six ACC regular-season titles and two league tournament titles.
“I wish I could have gone longer. I really do,” Bennett said. “But it was time, and I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t think we had the right group of young men and the right staff to lead them forward in this way. I think I’d have more regrets staying longer and not being able to be all-in and not sure in giving everything to these guys than stepping away with maybe a little more energy in the tank. That would be the bigger regret I’d have.”
Though Virginia found itself in the national conversation more often than not under Bennett, the Cavaliers hadn’t won an NCAA tournament game since their national title run in 2019. They were picked fifth in the ACC preseason poll released Wednesday.
“I know you get to a point sometimes when winning is a relief more than a celebration and losing sticks with you, and it’s a pain,” Bennett said. “That stuff has started to take ahold.”
Before taking over at Virginia in 2009, Bennett led Washington State to two NCAA tournament appearances in his three seasons as the coach in Pullman. The Cougars had back-to-back 26-win seasons in 2006-07 and 2007-08, reaching the Sweet 16 in 2008.
He had spent the previous three seasons as an assistant coach at Washington State after four seasons at Wisconsin coaching under his father, Dick Bennett, and Bo Ryan.
Bennett played for his father at Green Bay, finishing his career as the Mid-Continent Conference’s leading career scorer and the NCAA’s leading career 3-point shooter. He was selected by the Charlotte Hornets in the 1992 NBA draft and spent three seasons with the franchise.
Bennett’s retirement follows a similar pattern to two of his mentors. Bennett’s father retired from Wisconsin three games into the 2000-01 season, replaced on an interim basis by assistant coach Brad Soderberg, who had been on Bennett’s staff at Virginia. Wisconsin ultimately hired Ryan instead of giving Soderberg the job. When Ryan retired from the Badgers, he did it 12 games into the 2015-16 campaign.
During Friday’s news conference, Bennett said he could look to be an advocate for student-athletes and coaches in today’s ever-changing college sports landscape.
“I adjusted some,” Bennett said. “But you can’t fight against yourself.”