Virginia announces Ron Sanchez will not be retained as head basketball coach
Virginia will not retain interim coach Ron Sanchez as the head coach next season, the school announced. Sanchez led the Cavaliers to a 15-17 finish as their season ended in the second round of the ACC Tournament on Wednesday.
“I am grateful to Coach Sanchez for accepting this role during such a critical time for the program.” Virginia athletic director Carla Williams said. “Ron is the ultimate professional because he cares deeply about this program and this University.
“He is an exceptional person because he is gifted as an empathetic and caring human being. He is beloved within our department and in the UVA community. Ron and the staff provided great stability, guidance and support for the young men on the team and we are thankful for his commitment to UVA and the values that are foundational to Virginia men’s basketball.”
Ron Sanchez took over as interim coach at Virginia with less than a month before the 2024-25 regular season after Tony Bennett unexpectedly resigned. He had spent 10 seasons with the program before that as an assistant coach in two separate stints (2009-18 and 2023-24).
Sanchez was also the head coach at Charlotte for five seasons from 2018-23. He coached them to an 72-78 record and did not make any NCAA Tournament appearances. However, he did lead the 49ers to a CBI Championship during his final season at the helm in 2023.
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Sanchez played college basketball at State University of New York at Oneonta from 1993-96. He would later go on to become an assistant at his alma mater and then later for Indiana and Washington State before joining Virginia.
The Cavaliers are only six years removed from winning the national championship in 2019. They had a stretch under Bennett in which they made seven straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 2014-21 and were a No. 1 seed four of those times.
That in mind, they are likely eager to get the program back to the level that it was for so much of the past decade-plus. Moving on from Sanchez will allow them to focus on finding the coach that can get them there.