In the long 18 and a half hours between the initial announcement and the press conference, there were many rumors circulated around as to the reasoning for the timing of Tony Bennett’s seemingly out-of-nowhere retirement after 15 years as the head coach of the Virginia men’s basketball program. Bennett answered some of the many questions floating around surrounding his surprise retirement, left some unanswered, and possibly created some more questions in his 30-minute press conference on Friday morning.
With UVA director of athletics Carla Williams by his side, and many influential UVA athletics figures in attendance, including Rick Carlisle, Craig Littlepage, Amaka Agugua-Hamilton, and most of the current Virginia men’s basketball staff and players, Tony Bennett gave a 10-minute opening statement in which he explained how he arrived at what was clearly a difficult decision, given the emotions on his face and in his voice while he spoke, that it was time for him to “give back” the position of head coach at UVA:
“In thinking about this, what I would share, a quote from a missionary, Jim Elliott, came
to mind, and it says, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” I’ve been here for 15 years as the head coach, and I thought it would be a little longer, to be honest, but that’s been on loan. It wasn’t mine to keep. This position has been on loan, and it’s time for me to — excuse me. I knew that would happen. It’s time for me to give it back.”
“But to give it back to gain what I can’t lose — to be a better husband. I love Laurel with all my heart, and we’re going to find out if you love me with all your heart because I’m going to be around a lot more. To be a better dad to my daughter Anna and my son Eli. My parents are both 81 years old, and I don’t want to live with any regrets. Just to be around them, to be a better friend, a better brother. I know my sister, if she’s watching, would be saying that to me.”
“I look forward to the relationships with the former players and even with the current ones and the staff that you don’t always get to have when you’re grinding away. So I think about that. And it’s mine to give back, and I’ve given everything I can for 15 years.”
After emphasizing that it was time for him to prioritize his family over his coaching career, Bennett elaborated by saying that he felt he was “no longer the best coach to lead this program in this current environment.” Continuing, Bennett said, “And if you’re going to do it, you’ve got to be all in. You’ve got to have everything. If you do it halfhearted, it’s not fair to the university and those young men. In looking at it, that’s what made me step down.”
Of course, the “current environment” Bennett was referring to is the landscape of college basketball and its unprecedented challenges regarding Name, Image, and Likeness and the transfer portal. Ultimately, Bennett concluded that changes need to be made to better regulate NIL in college sports as well as the recruiting calendar with the transfer portal. But with those changes nowhere in sight, he does not feel he is fit to be the head coach of this program.
“This game, I think it’s right for players, student-athletes to receive revenue. Please don’t mistake me, I do. I think it is. But the game and college athletics is not in a healthy spot. It’s not, and there needs to be change. It’s not going to go back — I think I was equipped to do the job here the old way. That’s who I am, and that’s how it was. My staff has buoyed me along to get to this point, but there needs to be change. It’s going to be closer to a professional model, Coach Carlisle, I think it is, where there’s got to be collective bargaining. There has to be a restriction on the salary pool that teams can spend. There has to be transfer regulation restrictions. There has to be some limits on the agent involvement to these young guys. And there are good agents, and there are bad agents, and they’re driving some of this stuff that we’re in.”
Bennett felt this way at the end of last season and he said he had a moment where he considered retiring at that time. But a recruiting surge, during which the Cavaliers brought in five transfers, had something of a temporary revitalizing effect on Bennett, who signed a contract extension in June to keep him at Virginia through 2030.
“After the season, I thought about maybe stepping away. Every coach, you get to that. It was a long season. It was a hard ending. And I thought about that, but the way the recruiting calendar works, you literally jump in. For two straight months we’re in the transfer portal, and you guys know that. You’re involved in situations and conversations and things that I’m not great at, but because my staff, because of Coach Sanchez, Coach Williford, Coach Vandross, all the coaches, all the staff, Coach Zay, we got excited. We landed a really good group of transfers. We had two good incoming players. And I was excited about that and going forward. Then I was offered a contract extension, and I signed it. I didn’t know if I’d be able to do the whole six or seven years obviously, but I was excited and thought, I think I can do this. I’m excited about the way forward.”
Bennett says he did not seriously consider retirement again until earlier this week, when he and his wife took a brief trip while the team was on fall break.
“I felt some things as it went along, and it really wasn’t until fall break that we have here, where Laurel and I went away and just kind of processed about what the future would be. That’s where I kind of came to the realization that I can’t do this. It’s not fair to these guys and to this institution that I love so much to continue on when you know you’re not the right guy for the job. The reason I did it then instead of waiting — I’ve always wanted this to be taken over by one of my staff members. I always have. I just felt, if I knew it was the time, instead of trying to delay it, I wanted these guys and the staff to have a couple scrimmages, three weeks before they play games, to get together and just to step out of the way and get away.”
Watch Tony Bennett’s retirement press conference in its entirety here:
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