Why did Tony Bennett retire? Virginia basketball coach makes unexpected decision to step away from Cavaliers | Sporting News

Shocking news rocked the college basketball world Thursday morning, as Virginia head coach Tony Bennett is retiring from coaching. 

Basketball analyst Jeff Goodman was the first to report the news that Bennett was stepping away from his role just a few weeks before the start of the 2024-25 NCAA basketball season.

Virginia basketball confirmed that he would make the announcement at a press conference on Friday at 11 a.m. ET. 

BREAKING: Tony Bennett to announce his immediate retirement in a press conference on Friday at 11 a.m. pic.twitter.com/jw9HYtyYaq

— Virginia Men’s Basketball (@UVAMensHoops) October 17, 2024

The news is stunning not only given the time of year but considering Bennett recently signed an extension keeping him with Virginia through the 2030 season.

The 55-year-old won a national championship with the program in 2019, and he has led the Cavaliers to two ACC Tournament titles in his 15 seasons at Virginia. Before he coached the Cavaliers, he spent three seasons as head coach at Washington State.

A replacement for Bennett has not yet been announced, but associate head coach Ron Sanchez would be a prime candidate to fill the vacant role. He stepped down as the Charlotte men’s basketball head coach last summer to return to Virginia after previously spending nine seasons under Bennett. 

Virginia kicks off the 2024-25 basketball season on Wednesday, Nov. 6, with a home matchup against Campbell.

Here is more on Bennett’s retirement and time with Virginia. 

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Why did Tony Bennett retire? 

It remains unclear as of Thursday afternoon why Bennet decided to retire from coaching. When the news of his retirement dropped Thursday, there was no reason attached to it — but Bennett is not retiring because of any health-related issue, Goodman reported.

BREAKING: Virginia head coach Tony Bennett is retiring, source told @TheFieldOf68.

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) October 17, 2024

Those questions are expected to be answered Friday morning when Bennett holds his press conference. 

ESPN’s Jeff Borzello recently asked Bennett about the possibility of him “pulling a Jay Wright” and retiring out of the blue. This was Bennett’s answer.

I asked Tony Bennett literally last week why so many people thought he could be the next Jay Wright and suddenly retire out of nowhere.

His response, verbatim: “I gotta call Jay Wright and see what he says, right? I always have said, when you’re doing this, you’re in this…

— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) October 17, 2024

“I gotta call Jay Wright and see what he says, right?” Bennett said. “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 a 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.”

Tony Bennett coaching record

Bennett finishes his time at Virginia with a record of 364-136. Coupled with his three years at Washington State, and the head coach retires with 433 wins on his college resume. 

As head coach of Virginia, Bennett helped lead the Cavaliers to six ACC regular season championships, two ACC tournament titles and an NCAA championship, which occurred in 2019, one year after the infamous upset loss as the No. 1 seed to No. 16 seed UMBC.