Tony Bennett is one of the most successful men’s college basketball coaches of his generation. Now he is calling it a career and is retiring from it Virginia Cavaliers Just a few weeks before the start of the 2024-25 season.
According to the program, Bennett is announcing his retirement on Friday.
Former college basketball coach Dick Bennett’s son, Tony, replaced his father Washington State in 2006, and immediately helped the program make two NCAA Tournament runs while recruiting Klay Thompson. He took the Virginia job in 2009 and immediately made the Cavaliers one of the most frustrating teams in the game to play against.
Thanks to his packline scheme, Bennett’s teams were consistently excellent defensively, and he quickly became one of the most successful coaches in the country. Under Bennett’s leadership, Virginia earned a No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament five times during the six years between 2013–2019. Virginia made the Sweet 16 in 2014 and the Elite Eight in 2016, but for a while his tenure was mostly remembered for losses.
In 2018, Virginia became the first No. 1 seed in men’s NCAA Tournament history to lose to a No. 16 seed when UMBC pulled off one of the largest upsets in the history of the sport. The loss could have forever tainted Bennett’s career, but it would be a storybook ending. The following season, Virginia entered the national championship race for the ages.
Read my story on how Virginia won the 2019 national championshipSee another story next How a preseason rafting trip brought them together after a historic loss,
Bennett is only 55 years old. The reason for his retirement is still unknown. He is the latest Giants coach to hang it out in the face of the NIL and transfer portal era, following the retirements of Jay Wright, Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim.
The timing of this announcement is strange. Bennett was answering questions about his team at ACC Media Day. He was specifically asked if he would retire early like Wright did at Villanova. Here was his answer:
I literally asked Tony Bennett last week why so many people thought he could be the next Jay Wright and suddenly retire out of nowhere.
His response, verbatim: “I’ll have to call Jay Wright and see what he says, right? I’ve always said, when you’re doing this, you’re in it…
– Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) 17 October 2024
College basketball is losing one of its best coaches, and Virginia is losing the man who made the program relevant again. The new college basketball landscape is here, and nothing is the same.
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