Tony Bennett retirement: UVA coach explains abrupt decision

It was a move that stunned the college basketball community, Virginia head coach Tony Bennett retiring weeks before the 2024-25 season tipped off. And now there’s more clarity as to why.

At a press conference on Friday, Bennett offered his first public comments on his decision and his reasoning as to why he retired and the timing of his choice during an emotional, candid press conference.

“I realized I’m no longer the best coach to lead this program in the current environment. If you’re going to do it, you’ve got to be all-in. You have to give everything. If you do it half-hearted, it’s not fair to the university and those young men,” Bennett said. “That’s what made me step away.”

Bennett also intimated that assistant coach Ron Sanchez, who left a head coaching role to return to the Cavaliers staffs last offseason, will step in to the head coaching role. Sanchez previously worked as an assistant under Bennett from 2009-18.

“The staff, with Coach Sanchez leading it, and the rest of the staff, have a chance to take this group and do the job,” Bennett said.

Earlier in his presser, Bennett spoke about the moment in more abstract terms, and offered recognizance that while the job at Virginia was his for so long, it was not his to keep forever.

“This position has been on loan. It wasn’t mine to keep, and it’s time to give it back,” Bennett said.

Bennett’s final decision seems to have come recently, after ACC media days.

Bennett and his wife, Laurel, took a fall vacation prior to the season where he actually had some time to reflect on his life, his role in coaching, as a father, husband and whether he wanted to keep on his current path. He didn’t, he said, and that humbling realization led him to his retirement decision.

“It wasn’t until fall break where Laurel and I went away and just kind of processed what the future would be. And that’s where I came to the realization that I can’t do this. It’s not fair to these guys, to this institution I love so much, to continue on where you know you’re not the right guy for the job,” Bennett said.

Bennett, 55, has been the head coach at UVA since 2009 and has a 364-136 record in Charlottesville. During that time, the Cavaliers won six ACC regular-season titles and won the 2019 national championship – one year after becoming the first No. 1 seed to ever lose to a No. 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Bennett arrived at Virginia from Washington State, where he was the head coach from 2006-09 after three seasons as an assistant. He was also an assistant coach at Wisconsin from 1999-2003. All told, during his time as a head coach in Pullman and Charlottesville, he amassed a 433-169 record.

Over the course of his career, Bennett received multiple notable honors. He is a two-time Naismith College Coach of the Year, a four-time ACC Coach of the Year and the 2007 Pac-10 Coach of the Year. In addition, he won three Henry Iba Awards as the best college basketball coach in the nation by the United States Basketball Writers Association.