Virginia head coach Tony Bennett retired on his own terms and celebrated the beauty of the game by standing on the pillars he used to build a national title contender.
Bennett, in jest jabbing at his preferred well-critiqued methodical style of play, said he won’t miss answering questions about pace of play but smiled through emotions in sharing he felt he was no longer the best coach to lead the Cavaliers’ program.
“I am so grateful,” the 55-year-old Bennett said at a press conference Friday. “I think about those pillars. Humility and passion. Humility means know who you are and have sober judgment. Passion means do not be lukewarm. Be wholehearted in all you do. I think those are the ones that caused me at this time to look and have sober judgment about where we’re at. That’s probably the thing that choked me up the most. When I looked at myself and realized I’m no longer the best coach to lead the program in this current environment. If you’re going to do it, you’ve got to be all-in. And if you aren’t it’s not fair to the university. To these young men.”
Bennett met with players and coaches to share his decision on Thursday.
He said he came close to retiring when the season ended. Throughout the offseason and dealing daily with the toll of the relatively new and exploding business side of college athletics, from open transfer windows and NIL demands, Bennett came to terms with stepping aside. He said he was still equipped to do the job “the old way” and clarified he has no problem with student-athletes receiving revenue.
“Please don’t mistake me. But the game and college athletics is not in a healthy spot. It’s not, and there needs to be change,” Bennett said. “… It’s going to be closer to a professional model. There needs 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 agent involvement with young guys.
“And I worry a lot about the mental health of student-athletes as all this stuff comes down.”
National championship-winning college coaches Jay Wright of Villanova and Nick Saban, a seven-time title winner in college football at Alabama, cited the weight of similar off-field factors in their own retirements.
Bennett signed a long-term contract extension in June after bringing in what he said was an exciting class of transfers and recruits.
He said he came to the final decision during fall break on a trip with his wife, Laurel, to reflect and analyze the past, present and future. He decided he needed to walk away now to give coaches and players time together in scrimmages and practice before the regular season begins the first week of November.
He plans to stay connected to Virginia and will “be around” if the university would like him to be there.
“I don’t have a specific thing I’m walking into,” Bennett said. “My faith in the Lord is everything. It’s the hope that I have. It’s the peace that gives me perspective.”
Bennett spent three seasons as the coach at Washington State (2006-09) before taking the Virginia job. He said he was motivated back then by competing with “bluebloods” and coaching against Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and North Carolina’s Roy Williams. His lone goal was “to build a program that lasts”.
In 18 seasons as a head coach, Bennett has amassed a 433-169 record (.719 winning percentage) and taken 12 teams to the NCAA tournament, including 10 in his 15 years at Virginia. He received national college coach of the year recognition in 2007, 2015 and 2018.
The Cavaliers reached the Sweet 16 in 2014 and the Elite Eight in 2016. They were the No 1 overall seed in the 2018 NCAA tournament and became the first No 1 seed to lose to a No 16, UMBC, the year before returning to the dance and winning the program’s first national championship in 2019.
“What happened – I hoped and didn’t know – was beyond my wildest expectations. To win six regular-season ACC championships, two tournament championships, to be in Sweet 16s and Elite Eight, win the national championship,” Bennett said. “The hard losses. The hard losses in the tournament. It’s all part of it. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. We did it, we did it in a unique way.“
“I can remember 15 and a half years ago sitting here and how special that moment was. It’s been an emotional couple days. In thinking about this, what I would share, a quote from a missionary Jim Elliot comes to mind: ‘He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.’ I’ve been here for 15 years as a head coach and I thought it would be a little longer to be honest. But it’s not mine to keep. To give it back to gain what I cannot lose. To be a better husband. To be a better dad. My parents are both 81 years old. I don’t want to live with any regrets. Just to be around them. To be a better friend. To be a better brother, I know my sister if she’s watching would be saying that to me. It’s mine to give back. I’ve given everything I can.”
