Tony Bennett is likely 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 saying his retirement on Friday, in line 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 event 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 in opposition to.
Bennett’s groups have been constantly nice defensively because of his packline scheme, and he shortly changed into one of the profitable coaches within the nation. Beneath Bennett’s management, Virginia earned a No. 1 or No. 2 seed to the NCAA event 5 occasions 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 event 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 ceaselessly, however it could 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. Take a look at one other story on how a preseason rafting journey introduced them collectively following a historic loss.
Bennett is just 55 years outdated. The explanation for his retirement remains to be unknown. He’s the newest 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 group. 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 subsequent Jay Wright and out of the blue retire out of nowhere.
His response, verbatim: “I gotta name Jay Wright and see what he says, proper? I at all times have stated, whenever you’re doing this, you are on this…
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) October 17, 2024
Faculty basketball is shedding certainly one of its greatest 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.