Tony Bennett is without doubt one of the most profitable males’s faculty basketball coaches of his era. Now he’s calling it a profession and retiring from the Virginia Cavaliers simply weeks earlier than the 2024-25 season begins.
Bennett is asserting his retirement on Friday, in accordance with this system.
The son of former faculty basketball coach Dick Bennett, Tony took over for his dad at Washington State in 2006, and instantly helped this system make two NCAA match runs whereas recruiting Klay Thompson. He took the Virginia job in 2009, and instantly turned the Cavaliers in certainly one of sport’s most irritating groups to play towards.
Bennett’s groups had been constantly nice defensively because of his packline scheme, and he shortly become one of the profitable coaches within the nation. Underneath Bennett’s management, Virginia earned a No. 1 or No. 2 seed to the NCAA match 5 instances over the course of six years between 2013-2019. Virginia made it to a Candy 16 in 2014, and an Elite Eight in 2016, however for some time his tenure was largely remembered for a loss.
In 2018, Virginia turned the primary No. 1 seed in males’s NCAA match historical past to lose to a No. 16 seed when UMBC pulled one of many largest upsets within the historical past of the game. The loss may have tainted Bennett’s profession without end, however it will have a storybook ending. The subsequent season, Virginia went on a nationwide championship run for the ages.
Learn my story on how Virginia gained the 2019 nationwide championship. Try one other story on how a preseason rafting journey introduced them collectively following a historic loss.
Bennett is barely 55 years outdated. The rationale for his retirement remains to be unknown. He’s the most recent legendary coach to hold it up within the face of the NIL and switch portal period, following the retirements of Jay Wright, Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski, and Jim Boeheim.
The timing of this announcement is weird. Bennett was simply at ACC media day answering questions on his crew. He was particularly requested if he’d retire early like Wright did at Villanova. Right here was his reply:
I requested Tony Bennett actually final week why so many individuals thought he may very well be the following Jay Wright and all of a sudden retire out of nowhere.
His response, verbatim: “I gotta name Jay Wright and see what he says, proper? I all the time have mentioned, whenever you’re doing this, you are on this…
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) October 17, 2024
Faculty basketball is shedding certainly one of its finest coaches, and Virginia is shedding the person who made this system related once more. The brand new faculty basketball panorama is right here, and nothing is similar.
