Tony Bennett is one of the most successful men’s college basketball coaches of his generation. Now he’s calling it a career and retiring from the Virginia Cavaliers just weeks before the 2024-25 season begins.
Bennett is announcing his retirement on Friday, according to the program.
The son of former college basketball coach Dick Bennett, Tony took over for his dad at 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 turned the Cavaliers in one of sport’s most frustrating teams to play against.
Bennett’s teams were consistently great defensively thanks to his packline scheme, and he quickly turned into one of the most successful coaches in the country. Under Bennett’s leadership, Virginia earned a No. 1 or No. 2 seed to the NCAA tournament five times over the course of six years between 2013-2019. Virginia made it to a Sweet 16 in 2014, and an Elite Eight in 2016, but for a while his tenure was mostly remembered for a loss.
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 one of the biggest upsets in the history of the sport. The loss could have tainted Bennett’s career forever, but it would have a storybook ending. The next season, Virginia went on a national championship run for the ages.
Read my story on how Virginia won the 2019 national championship. Check out another story on how a preseason rafting trip brought them together following a historic loss.
Bennett is only 55 years old. The reason for his retirement is still unknown. He is the latest legendary coach to hang it up 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 bizarre. Bennett was just at ACC media day answering questions about his team. He was specifically asked if he’d retire early like Wright did at Villanova. Here was his answer:
I asked Tony Bennett literally last week why so many people thought he could be the next Jay Wright and suddenly retire out of nowhere.
His response, verbatim: “I gotta call Jay Wright and see what he says, right? I always have said, when you’re doing this, you’re in this…
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) October 17, 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.
