Virginia’s Tony Bennett retiring ahead of basketball season

Virginia men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett will announce his immediate retirement Friday, the school announced.

Bennett, 55, was set to begin his 16th season with the Cavaliers in less than three weeks, with the program’s first game against Campbell on Nov. 6.

Sources told ESPN that Bennett’s decision to retire was not health-related.

As of Thursday night, the school had not named an interim replacement. The most likely option is associate head coach Ron Sanchez, who spent five seasons as the head coach at Charlotte before returning to Charlottesville ahead of last season. Associate head coach Jason Williford also has been by Bennett’s side during his tenure at Virginia.

Bennett is a two-time national coach of the year who led Virginia to a national championship in 2019. He won six ACC regular-season titles and two ACC tournament titles.

The Cavaliers made 10 NCAA tournament appearances under Bennett but hadn’t won a tournament game since the national title run in 2019. They were picked fifth in the ACC preseason poll released Wednesday.

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips called Bennett “a tremendous person” and “one of the most accomplished coaches in the storied history of ACC Basketball.”

“He is a fierce competitor, but one who always leads with integrity, class and unwavering values,” Phillips said in a statement. “He has made an indelible impact on countless student-athletes and developed them not only in basketball, but also as young men. He is a legend who we will deeply miss having on the sidelines as well as his daily impact in the league, the sport and college athletics.” 

Bennett signed a two-year contract extension in June through the end of the 2029-30 season.

Despite leading the program to unprecedented success during his time in Charlottesville, Bennett also bemoaned the direction of college athletics. During an interview with ESPN at ACC media day last week, he was asked why there was a perception he could be the next Jay Wright and abruptly retire while still in his prime.

“I got to call Jay Wright and see what he says, right?” Bennett said. “I always have said, when you’re doing this, you’re in this profession, whether you agree how it’s going or not, you have to be true to yourself and really look at it and say, who am I? Can I operate how I want, and can it be successful enough? And you get to choose if you want to be a part of it or not.

“And when you feel it’s time, like Jay did, like Coach K, maybe [Nick] Saban, it’s their choice. And you can sit here and complain and gripe. Or you have a decision to make. Either you try to do it in your way or you get to make that decision. So I think Jay Wright probably foresaw where this is going. … It’ll be better whenever there’s regulations. Is that three to five years away? Who knows? But if it’s not — those are decisions that every man has to make when it’s his time.”

Before taking over at Virginia in 2009, Bennett led Washington State to two NCAA tournament appearances in his three seasons as head coach there. The Cougars had back-to-back 26-win seasons in 2006-07 and 2007-08, reaching the Sweet 16 in 2008.

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

Bennett played for his father at Green Bay, finishing his career as the Mid-Continent Conference’s leading career scorer and the NCAA’s leading career 3-point shooter. He was selected by the Charlotte Hornets in the 1992 NBA draft and spent three seasons with the franchise.