It is the end of an era in Virginia Cavaliers’ basketball. Virginia basketball coach Tony Bennett never seeked to be the center of attention or chased fame. That was true up until the end with his stunning and abrupt decision to retire and walk off into the sunset, effective immediately, which was announced on the eve of the start of the season.
The program said Thursday the 55-year-old Bennett will announce his retirement at a news conference on Friday at 11 a.m. ET. No explanations or details were given for his decision, which was revealed in an online post by the program just months after he had inked a contract extension to keep him on the sidelines through at least 2030.
It came just seven days after Bennett appeared at the Atlantic Coast Conference’s preseason media days, and with the Cavaliers’ opener against Campbell on the horizon at home on Wednesday, November 6.
Bennett led the Cavaliers to the national championship in 2019. In his 15 seasons as the coach in Charlottesville, he was extremely successful, making 10 NCAA Tournament appearances.
He went 364-136 at Virginia, a tenure that included two ACC Tournament titles and six regular-season conference championships. He was voted AP National Coach of the Year twice, once at Washington State in 2007 and at Virginia in 2018.
Bennett left Pullman for Charlottesville in a cross-country move ahead of the 2009-10 season, tasked with bringing back a program from the abyss that was a regular 1980s winner with 7-foot-4 Ralph Sampson but had reached just one NCAA Tournament in eight seasons. He led the Cavaliers back to March Madness by his third season as he implemented a defensive-oriented system that included slow-tempo offense that led to plenty of low scoring games and had Virginia fans roaring in approval at forced shot-clock violations.
The apex came in a run of six straight tournament bids from 2014-19, with four of those coming as a No. 1 seed. Yet that time also included an incredible one-year span of an unthinkable on-court humiliation, followed by the highest of highs.
In 2018, the Cavaliers were the top overall seed in the tournament, then they made history that no team wants to be associated with, becoming the first-ever No. 1 seed to lose to a 16 seed, shocked by UMBC. Awkwardly, he was named AP National Men’s Coach of the Year weeks later, an honor secured primarily on regular-season success.
However, Bennett handled it with class, dignity, and reassuring touch grounded in his faith, telling his shaken and emotional players, who even received death threats they had a chance to write their own ending to that terrible moment and that everyone, family, friends and critics were waiting to see how they would rebound. That next season, the Cavaliers went on to hold off Texas Tech Red Raiders in overtime to win the program’s only NCAA championship in an all-time redeeming moment in tournament history coming amid multiple white-knuckle moments.
Embed from Getty ImagesBennett relished that finish in Minneapolis, emphatically slapping the sticker bearing Virginia’s name on the champion line of the bracket during the trophy presentation. After players had taken part in the tradition of cutting down the nets and danced while confetti rained down on their heads, they all gathered as a team on stage to look at videoboards high above them as the annual “One Shining Moment” highlight montage that is a tournament-staple going back decades began to play.
Fittingly, the humble Bennett took in the celebratory scene from the background, leaning against a railing at the stage’s edge while clutching one of the nets.
Four years later, when Purdue Boilermakers, featuring Zach Edey became the second team to fall in a 16-vs-1 upset, Bennett sent a comforting text to Boilermakers coach Matt Painter.
“Matt is one of the best coaches we’ve got in the college game, he’s a man of character,” Bennett told the AP in February. “And not many can say, except for me: I’ve felt that pain. … So, I just wanted to tell him, ‘If you ever want to talk, I’m here. I think the world of you and hopefully your story is the same as ours.”
It very nearly was. Purdue made it all the way to the NCAA title game before falling to coach Dan Hurley in UConn’s final hurdle to a repeat title.
The 2019 crown proved to be the highlight of Bennett’s time at Virginia. He got the Cavaliers back to the NCAAs in three of his final four seasons, but the Cavaliers never were victorious in another tournament game. Through his journey at the university, concerns grew as to whether his methodical playing style could be as effective in a time of veteran players experiencing their own version of free agency, moving between schools without fear of repercussions through the transfer portal.
In March, the Cavaliers managed a dismal 42 points in a 25-point drubbing at the hands of Colorado State in the First Four. But Bennett was able to dust himself off and was back at the ACC’s preseason media days like usual in Charlotte, not far from the site of the UMBC upset, discussing plans for an upcoming season that pegged the Cavaliers to finish fifth in the expanded 18-team league.
“I think you have to look at your model and adjust it a little bit,” Bennett said then, offering no clues or indication of the bomb that was about to drop on Thursday.
Instead, Bennett, who was the ACC’s lone active coach with an NCAA title, became the latest in a group of high-profile league coaches to call it a career in recent memory, following Hall of Famers like North Carolina’s Roy Williams in 2021, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski in 2022 and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim in 2023 out the door.
“Tony Bennett embodies everything a high-quality basketball coach should be,” Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said in a statement. “He built strong relationships with his players, worked seamlessly with his administration, and earned deep respect nationwide — not just as a basketball coach, but as a person of great character and class. His presence will be deeply missed.”
Bennett’s first head-coaching job was a three-year stint with Washington State, where he won 69 games and twice reached the NCAAs, including a Sweet 16 appearance in 2008. Before that, the son of former college coach Dick Bennett was receiving a crash course on his father’s staff at Washington State and Wisconsin.
He coached eventual NBA All-Star and four-time world champion Klay Thompson of the Dallas Mavericks in his final season at Washington State, then coached numerous future NBA players like Joe Harris, Malcolm Brogdon, DeAndre Hunter and Ty Jerome.
Bennett played in college for his father at Wisconsin-Green Bay, then was a second-round pick of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets in 1992 and spent three seasons with the team.
