Tony Bennett’s retirement has generated an endless supply of storylines to follow as the 2024-2025 Virginia men’s basketball season unfolds. Is this truly an audition for longtime assistant and current interim head coach Ron Sanchez to earn the full-time head coaching gig at UVA? How successful must this season be in order for that to happen? Will the players, who largely came to Virginia to play for Tony Bennett, buy in to Sanchez’s coaching style? Other than Jalen Warley, who entered the transfer portal earlier week, the rest of the roster is expected to stay intact for this season, but who will consider leaving the program next spring depending on how this season goes? How different will UVA basketball look with Sanchez at the helm?
On Monday, we finally had a chance to speak with the players to get their reactions to Tony Bennett’s retirement, how they feel about transitioning to having Ron Sanchez as their head coach, and their general sentiments about this upcoming season. One of the leaders of the team, Isaac McKneely, didn’t shy away from expressing his disappointment that he will no longer be playing for Tony Bennett, but he also said that he and the rest of the team are “excited” to play for Ron Sanchez.
We asked McKneely a few questions about Bennett, Sanchez, and the upcoming season on Monday’s media day. Here were his answers:
On Tony Bennett remaining connected to the program in retirement:
“He said he’d just be around as much as the coaches let him, which should be all the time in my opinion. I’m excited to have him around. He says we’re gonna like him more now that he’s not the head coach cause he won’t be yelling at us anymore. But, yeah, I’m excited to have him around, such a good resource, such a good human being. So, I’m super thankful for that.”
On his initial reaction to Tony Bennett’s retirement:
“Mixed emotions, for sure. Shock, just emotional in general. Cause, you know, that’s who I wanted to play for, is Coach Bennett. That’s who we all wanted to play for. But he’ll still be around, so we’re excited about that. We trust Coach Bennett. When he says he wants what’s best for us, he means that. So, we trust his decision making and we’re just gonna stick together and look at it in a positive way cause that’s all you can do.”
On Virginia basketball still being Virginia basketball under Ron Sanchez:
“Nothing’s changed, as far as what we’re doing offensively, defensively. The culture hasn’t changed. Coach Sanchez has been a head coach before, so he’s had that experience. We trust him and I know that we’re all really excited to play for him. In ways, he’s similar to Coach Bennett, but in ways, he’s different. So, I think that’s special and we’re all really excited to play for Coach Sanchez for sure.”
On his role in organizing player meetings following Tony Bennett’s retirement:
“That was me and Taine [Murray] kinda had the idea to do it. You know, we’re two of the ‘leaders’ on this team, two of the most experienced guys. So, we thought it’d be beneficial for us to just get together and get something off the chest, something you can say outside of basketball, just man-to-man. And I think that was really special having those meetings. I think it just brought us even closer together in a tough time.”
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