Tony Bennett shockingly resigns; Why’s he leaving; Who’s the successor?

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Wahoo Nation and the college basketball world were shocked late Thursday afternoon when it was announced that Virginia basketball coach Tony Bennett is resigning immediately, 22 days before the Cavaliers season opener.

Bennett, 55, will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. Friday to explain his decision.

On one hand, I’m surprised Bennett is resigning, but on the other hand, I’m not. There were red flags galore back in May when a handful of us “fringe media” learned that Bennett had not signed a new contract, and even after he later signed a new deal, it left him an easy out if he wanted to step away.

It was abundantly clear that Bennett was fed up with the way college athletics were trending with NIL and transfer issues that drove some of the nation’s best coaches into retirement: Jay Wright, Nick Saban, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams.

We’re told that Bennett’s decision is not health-related, which is great news, but likely after long consideration of how much more he wanted to deal with losing recruits to NIL deals, not being able to know what his roster was going to look like from one season to the next, and the whole nine yards of what’s wrong with college athletics.

Just last week at the ACC Basketball Tip Off media days in Charlotte, ESPN’s Jeff Borzello asked Bennett why some sportswriters thought Bennett would be like Jay Wright and retire out of nowhere. Here’s what Bennett said:

“I gotta call Jay Wright and see what he says, right? 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 wanna be part of it or not. And when you feel it’s time, like Jay did, like Coach K, maybe 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.”

Apparently, this is Tony Bennett’s time.

After 15 seasons as UVA’s head coach, the man who put Virginia basketball back on the map is hanging up his whistle as the Cavaliers’ winningest coach: 364 wins, 136 losses, a national championship in 2019, two ACC Tournament titles, six ACC regular-season championships and 10 NCAA tournament appearances, ACC Coach of the Year four times. He was National Coach of the Year three times.

While he was an excellent coach, he is even a better person, earning the total respect of his peers. A national poll of coaches a few years ago asked if they had a son, who would they want him to play for. The overwhelming response was Tony Bennett, a coach who not only stressed sound basketball, but put as much energy into developing young men as developing them as players.

At Friday’s press conference, it is expected Bennett will hand over the keys to his program to one of his associate head coaches, Ron Sanchez or Jason Williford. Speculation is that’s why Sanchez left his job as head coach at Charlotte to return to Bennett’s program. Further speculation is that Bennett may have waited this long to step away in order to assure that he could hand pick his successor rather than open things up for a national search, although it could be that he was also just teetering on whether or not to coach this season and suddenly decided just to walk away, that enough was enough.

Sanchez, who came to UVA with Bennett from Washington State, gained some head-coaching experience going 72-78 at Charlotte, having his best season in his last year there with a 22-14 record.

It should be noted that with Bennett resigning, the transfer portal automatically opens for the next 30 days for Virginia players who may not want to stay, although with the semester having already started, it may hinder some from transferring to another program, at least until the end of the semester, should they consider leaving.

Speaking of Jay Wright, the former Villanova coach chimed in on Bennett’s resignation, saying: “Tony is one of the most talented and toughest coaches we ever competed against. We always respected him and his teams at the highest level. A class guy _ inspirational _ spiritual an an incredible competitor.”

It’s college basketball’s loss that two of its most respected coaches won’t be roaming the sidelines next month when Virginia and Villanova meet on the court in Baltimore. It’s a sad day for the game.