Virginia’s Tony Bennett cites game status for retirement

Former Virginia men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett, who officially announced his retirement Friday morning, cited the “current environment” in college sports as one of the driving forces behind his surprising decision to step down from the Cavaliers.

“The hardest thing to say is when I looked at myself and realized I was 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 this, you have to go all-in. If you do it half-heartedly, it’s not fair to the university and these young men. So, looking at it, that’s what made me step down.”

Bennett, 55, has long bemoaned the trend in college athletics and the increased focus on the transfer portal, name, image and likeness.

“I think it’s right that student-athletes get royalties. Please don’t get me wrong,” he said Friday. “The game and college athletics are not healthy. It just isn’t. There has to be a change, and it’s not going back. I think I was equipped to do the job here the old-fashioned way. This is who I am now.”

“It will be closer to the professional model. There should be collective bargaining. There should be restrictions on the salary pool. There should be restrictions on the organization of transfers. There should be some restrictions on the involvement of agents with these young people.” You guys…and I worry a lot about the mental health of student athletes with all this stuff going down.

Bennett said he initially considered leaving at the end of the 2023-2024 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 through 2030.

However, last weekend, when fall break at the university ended and Bennett and his wife, Laurel, departed, thoughts of retirement took hold.

“We’ve been dealing with what the future is going to be,” Bennett said. “And that’s where I realized I couldn’t do it. It’s not fair to these men and this institution that I love so much to continue to operate when you know you’re not the right man for the job.”

Assistant coach Ron Sanchez will take over the program for this season. Sanchez was on Bennett’s staff from 2009-18 before leaving to become the head coach in Charlotte for five seasons. In June 2023, Sanchez abruptly stepped down as the 49ers’ head coach to return to Virginia and become Bennett’s assistant head coach.

“I always wished my time was up, whether it was Ron or Jason [Williford]Someone is going to take this over, because that means he’s in a good place,” Bennett, the two assistant head coaches, said.

During Bennett’s 15 seasons at the helm, he led the Cavaliers to unprecedented and sustained success. He was a two-time Coach of the Year and led Virginia to the national championship in 2019, also winning six ACC regular season titles and two league tournament titles.

“I wish I could go longer. I really do,” Bennett said. “But the time has come, and I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t think we had the right group of young people and the right staff to lead them forward in this way. I think I would regret more staying longer.” And not being able to give it my all and not being sure to give it my all to these guys instead of walking away with a little energy in the tank, that will be the biggest regret I will have.

Although Virginia has found itself in the national conversation more often under Bennett, the Cavaliers have not won an NCAA Tournament game since winning the national title in 2019. They were picked at No. 5 in the preseason ACC poll released Wednesday.

“I know you get to a point sometimes where winning is more of a relief than just celebrating and losing your sticks with you, and that hurts,” Bennett said. “These things are starting to take over.”

Before taking the Virginia job in 2009, Bennett led Washington State to two NCAA Tournament appearances during his three seasons as coach in Pullman. The Cougars posted a 26-game winning streak in the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons, finishing as high as 16th in 2008.

He had spent the previous three seasons as an assistant coach at Washington State after four seasons at Wisconsin where he coached under his father, Dick Bennett, and Bo Ryan.

Bennett played for his father in Green Bay, and finished his career as the Mid-Continent Conference’s leading scorer and the NCAA’s leading three-point scorer. 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 for two of his mentors. Bennett’s father retired from Wisconsin three games into the 2000-01 season, and was replaced on an interim basis by assistant coach Brad Soderberg, who had been on Bennett’s staff at Virginia. Ultimately Wisconsin hired Ryan rather than giving Soderbergh the job. When Ryan retired from the Badgers, he did so for 12 games in the 2015-16 season.

During Friday’s press conference, Bennett said he can look forward to being an advocate for student-athletes and coaches in today’s ever-changing college sports landscape.

“I modified some,” Bennett said. “But you can’t fight against yourself.”