CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Tony Bennett doesn’t deal with consideration all that comfortably. He is by no means one to hunt a highlight and, to my thoughts, has by no means referred to as a member of the press searching for credit score or to suss out a buzzy behind-the-scenes rumor. Bennett, generally to the frustration of the media, is commonly humble to a fault. Predictably, that humility was on show once more Friday, maybe for one final time.
“The College of Virginia is a tremendous place due to individuals like Tony,” athletic director Carla Williams stated throughout her introduction of Bennett’s retirement press convention.
As Williams’ opening remarks led right into a standing ovation for Bennett, the coach predictably donned a sheepish grin, his shoulders slouched as he channeled the power of a kid who would not know what to do with their physique when all people is singing the blissful birthday tune to them. In the event that they’d have let Bennett retire with out nothing greater than a paragraph’s price of a press launch, he in all probability would have taken it.
What a surreal scene it was, although. One of many recreation’s best coaches is strolling away, on this odd day of the 18th of October, almost on the eve of the season, turning into the newest high-profile coach to tug the ripcord. And in doing so, Bennett places that rather more consideration on the unstable atmosphere of faculty athletics that has lots of people soul-seeking and scrambling for options to existential issues that go a hell of quite a bit deeper than one man’s determination to not coach basketball.
“I believed it could be just a little longer, to be sincere, nevertheless it’s been on mortgage and it is time for me to offer it again,” Bennett stated as he held back tears. The scene raised the query of why a 55-year-old was stepping away like this, 18 days earlier than the beginning of the 2024-25 season, and Bennett offered solutions.
After his information convention, he took much more questions in a one-on-one interview with CBS Sports activities, stepping into the specifics of his exit.
“Till there’s parameters, I do know I can not do it, and that is the entire deal right here,” he instructed CBS Sports activities. “I believe generally you nearly speak your self into issues as you are doing it. Like, I can do that. I’m geared up. We will alter. And also you form of inform your self sure stuff and also you begin believing. Yep, I can. However while you form of step again and look. Can I be as efficient as I have to be? Am I absolutely aligned with the way it must be for this college, for these younger males? Can I give all the pieces, can we construct a program on this method, or is it, is my far more designed for the outdated mannequin?”
However earlier than digging into the large shifts within the school basketball panorama which have pushed out different legendary coaches as properly, it’s essential return to how Bennett’s unplanned voyage started. Earlier than the 433 wins and the final word redemption of that Homeric 2019 national championship. Earlier than the eight mixed ACC titles, the nationwide coach of the 12 months awards and the more-than-you-realized variety of NBA picks he developed in Charlottesville.
All of Bennett’s success and ACC domination over the past decade has obscured the truth that, for a lot of the primary half of his life, he was not eager on teaching. Initially, he resisted it. He simply might have by no means chosen this path. Bennett noticed and realized from — and was generally bewildered by — the life and vocation his father took. The incandescent Dick Bennett received 489 video games of his personal throughout three a long time. He’s a legend in his personal proper, but his competitiveness tortured him. In 1999, standing on the doorstep of 30 together with his enjoying days behind him, Tony tiptoed towards the teaching sideline the one method he knew how: by providing himself as a servant for others. Greater than that: He primarily did it as a favor to his father. Dick knew having Tony on his workers was the one method he might spend extra time together with his son. So, a Corridor of Fame-worthy profession started as a volunteer assistant for the Wisconsin Badgers.
If Dick would not ask Tony to offer it a strive, school basketball and the College of Virginia’s program are quite a bit totally different due to it.
Tony was shortly promoted to an assistant’s put up, a spot he quietly held for seven years, first at Wisconsin after which at Washington State, till Dick retired following the 2005-06 season. Tony took over within the dim and distant outpost of Pullman, Washington, and proceeded to virtually break the legal guidelines of basketball physics by profitable 69 video games in his first three seasons and guiding the Cougars to their solely back-to-back NCAA Match appearances in class historical past. After doing the near-unthinkable with Wazzu, he was the clear alternative almost 2,500 miles away at Virginia in 2009, when former athletic director Craig Littlepage made the rent that might consequently alter school basketball for the following 10-plus years.
Virginia the perfect of what is round beneath Bennett
Lower than three weeks after Bennett acquired the job in 2009, he was in John Paul Jones Area — the place the crew’s workplaces are — working late on the weekend. Hometown heroes Dave Matthews Band have been again on the town and enjoying a few reveals that night time. Because it acquired nearer to showtime, Bennett pulled again one of many curtains to peek on the scene. The place was bought out. JPJ Area wasn’t even three years outdated at that time, and ‘Hoos hoops wasn’t pulling in crowds like these. Not even shut. As he took within the view, Bennett felt a jolt.
“I keep in mind pondering, man, sometime if we are able to construct this program, it may seem like this for basketball video games,” Bennett stated Friday.
Bennett’s band would certainly break via. By 2014, he’d received his first ACC title. Quickly sufficient, he was filling JPJ identical to DMB.
Beneath Bennett, Virginia skilled its most sustained success in class historical past. He stubbornly minimize towards the grain of tactical developments and new-age Xs-and-Os. His groups did not a lot play within the mud as they lived in it, repeatedly logging final in adjusted tempo at KenPom.com.
“We did it in a singular method,” Bennett stated. “That was my imaginative and prescient, our imaginative and prescient as a workers. Can we construct this program that possibly is just a little totally different than the way in which you do it? That is the great thing about this sport. You get to decide on the way you do it, with who you do it, within the fashion you do it.”
“Embrace the Tempo” grew to become a cheeky mantra for this system, buoyed by Bennett’s signature pack-line protection. Virginia was a scouting nightmare to scheme towards. Even when Bennett’s groups did not win each time, his tempo would. There was no rushing up towards Wahoos. He was criticized for the cosmetics however the outcomes have been simple. Bennett received 70% of his ACC video games, his success over Duke and North Carolina unmatched by some other program within the convention throughout his tenure. He is one of many best coaches in ACC historical past.
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The 74-54 flameout vs. UMBC within the first spherical of the 2018 NCAAs marked a historic blast. By no means earlier than had a No. 16 seed toppled a No. 1. (Virginia was, actually, the No. 1 total seed in that event.) Bennett, drawing on his father’s instincts, refused to desert his ideas. Placing his belief in his religion, he believed he was imagined to expertise such humiliation with a view to discover larger floor. One 12 months later, the Cavaliers rebounded to most reclamation and hit the mountaintop by profitable the nationwide title, doing so with one of the dramatic runs of close-call video games in NCAA historical past. They might properly play school basketball for a millennium to come back on this planet, and nonetheless the human race may not see a year-over-year redemption story prefer it once more.
That was the excessive level. Now, the sober actuality.
Previously 12 months, Bennett stated, his assistants successfully needed to proceed to tug him nearer to the brand new mannequin, the brand new method of faculty teaching. He gave retirement critical thought within the days following Virginia’s 67-42 loss to Colorado State within the First 4 — I can now share that Bennett talked about this with me off the file in April — however earlier than he might actually permit himself to push via on that, recruiting within the portal pulled him into the following part of the job, after which the following. He did not wish to be pulled any extra.
This week, he broke free.
Bennett might have had one other decade of good-to-great teaching in him if he felt it. However that feeling sapped from him in current months, and in simply the previous week, the epiphany hit. With three days to get away, Tony and his spouse, Laurel, headed out of city to Tides Inn, on the Rappahannock River. Over the course of 48 hours, he confronted his reality. He stated it hit him in a method that was inescapable.
“We misplaced a variety of gamers that I believe we would not have misplaced [before NIL regulations],” Bennett stated. “And that is OK as a result of it is a new mannequin. And so you have to resolve, the place’s the road, how far can we go? … It is complicated. I will be sincere, it is complicated.
“I spotted if we won’t have the precise gamers to compete, the hole might develop,” Bennett added. “I felt I used to be the one holding them again.”
Bennett referred to as Williams to ship the information Tuesday. She requested him to sleep on it and resolve for positive after going via Wednesday’s follow. Bennett instructed me he went into that follow open-minded and keen to possibly double-back on his determination, simply in case he wanted to be nudged again onto his course.
“In follow, I attempted,” he stated. “I felt the issues that might in all probability take a few of my skill to speak with them and the enjoyment that is wanted for them to play together with the depth and the aim. I felt that, even in that follow, once I knew in all probability what I used to be doing and it was nearly confirmed.”
Certainly one of Bennett’s favourite quotes, for many years, purportedly comes from a missionary named Jim Elliott, who stated: “He’s no idiot who provides what he can’t hold to achieve what he can’t lose.” Bennett used the quote in his press convention on Friday.
The factor he can’t lose is what he finds himself wanting most now: time together with his household, time spent on these closest with him, time not wasted by worrying on daily basis in regards to the state of a basketball roster, how a lot a participant within the switch portal will value, how a lot cash Virginia has to boost to verify it would not fall a tier or two down within the hierarchy of the ACC. These issues have picked and peeled away at a job that could be very a lot not what it was in 2019, not to mention in 2009.
“Now that I am not in it, I can say this. It is an excessive amount of,” Bennett instructed me. “You go from the second the season ends, you are attempting to fill your roster and also you’re in there and also you gotta go, go, go. You gotta be on campus. And the season’s lengthy sufficient, whether or not you might be within the event, the second it ends you are instantly attempting to rebuild your roster, and also you’re in there, and it was two months of insane work. You are simply going, going, going.”
For as pure as Bennett’s fame is as a coach, a father and a person, the timing of it has understandably come beneath some criticism. After Bennett went as far as to attend ACC Tipoff per week in the past to satisfy with the media, the transfer comes off as calculated. To go up and stop on this system whereas overseeing a crew peppered with unproven gamers was to place Virginia in a really tight spot. And in doing so, it pressured the hand of Williams, who tapped longtime Bennett lieutenant Ron Sanchez as interim head coach for the season.
Choice to retire could not wait
I requested Bennett about why retiring now was applicable. The offseason is over. The time coaches cherish probably the most — the precise video games — is upon us. He might have privately determined to retire come March 2025 and saved to himself.
“It wasn’t like I acquired this set and I deliberate this date,” Bennett stated. “For those who’re battling issues and you are not all in and have the fervour to offer. You need to know who you might be, and you must be all in with all the pieces. If you understand you are preventing your self on this — since you’re nonetheless recruiting, you are still concerned with stuff — you are gonna should hold constructing, and also you’re at all times worrying about what’s subsequent. And I felt, even within the fall, I felt issues I have never felt for a very long time, or possibly I have been battling and training a few of my perspective. Typically, you understand, my anger — and folks say, ‘Oh, you do not get offended’ — however I felt myself turning into just a little extra transactional in mindset. At instances. After which I might catch myself, however I felt that battle being waged inside, and I by no means wish to be like that. That is why I am not geared up for this.”
It is honest to criticize the timing of the transfer, however not the explanations behind it. Bennett is not dismissing the skeptics, however to listen to him on Friday was to listen to a person snug in his reality and assured within the subsequent part of Virginia’s program. If he wasn’t, he would have seemingly pushed via for one closing season.
Bennett signed a contract in June, tricking himself into pondering he was prepared. However the rules and guardrails he hopes come to the game for the soundness of everybody concerned have been by no means within the near-future. School sports activities is evolving at a tempo that’s pushing championship-winning coaches out of the occupation. First it was Roy Williams in 2021. Then Mike Krzyzewski and Jay Wright in 2022. However Bennett is 55, simply the youngest of all of them. A man who by no means initially needed to get into teaching discovered himself wanting round and questioning what occupation he was in. It actually wasn’t the one he volunteered for in Madison 25 years in the past.
“When you’ve got that battle, in the event you’re not all in and locked … I did not wish to have the remorse of being 80% of what I may very well be. As a result of it is a nice line right here,” Bennett stated. “We do not have all of the issues the others have by way of five-stars — we have got good gamers — nevertheless it’s a method that you must construct them. If I am 70%, 80%, that is not honest to the gamers. You realize what? This workers, they’re those which are pondering they will deal with this mannequin higher than I can. And till it modifications, nobody will be capable to deal with it absolutely, however that is what led to it right now.
“You do should be all in, and I do not know precisely what that appears like,” he stated. “There’s good issues about this new stuff. I discussed that [in my press conference], and I imply it. However there’s quite a bit that is not wholesome and never good, and it is spinning uncontrolled. There must be change.”
He’ll foyer for a real shutdown interval within the offseason — if not two — the place coaches are mandated to not have any contact with recruits, to allow extra steadiness. With out it, he is aware of extra accelerated retirements are assured within the subsequent few years. He desires to be an agent for optimistic developments in school athletics. Making an allowance for the cash that is now flowing throughout high-profile school sports activities, Bennett sees a significant psychological well being disaster coming for faculty athletes if extra protections aren’t put round them ASAP.
For as a lot as he has concern there, he additionally desires to offer himself to his household greater than he ever has — spouse, kids and oldsters. Dick and Anne Bennett are 81 years outdated. He is solely gotten to see them a few times a 12 months lately. I keep in mind Bennett calling me on an August morning in 2023 for our Candid Coaches sequence as he sipped espresso exterior subsequent to his mom. He was as chatty then as I’ve ever heard him.
“I do not wish to stay with regrets,” he stated Friday.
And so, this appears to be it. I requested if he was retired for good from all of basketball teaching, not simply school.
“Proper now, I believe it is finished,” Bennett stated. “I would like a break. That was even one thing Carla talked about. Perhaps you want a sabbatical, or one thing like that. However on this panorama, I do not foresee myself getting again. I actually do not. That wasn’t the intention in any respect of this, to only get a break. I believe you understand when it is your time, and I hope I can affect in no matter method it’s, whether or not it is across the recreation in numerous methods, or one thing else, that is too quickly to know.”
Laurel Bennett instructed me the one stipulation of this determination was that there have been no extra large selections coming quickly thereafter. No plans for subsequent week, subsequent month, subsequent 12 months.
He’s no idiot who provides what he can’t hold to achieve what he can’t lose.
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As for his position across the crew, do not count on him to pop up at a variety of video games within the season forward. Bennett stated he would not plan on being a continuing public presence round official Virginia basketball occasions; he is aware of he wants to supply far to finest assist the transition course of.
“This was by no means mine, and it was time to offer it again,” Bennett stated. “And that is the peace that I’ve.”
About an hour after he instructed me these phrases, after the Bennetts quietly made their method off campus to go take pleasure in a really stress-free weekend and entered the following stage of their lives, the sounds of the inevitable season manifested as they do. A bouncing basketball may very well be heard inside John Paul Jones Area from one of many gamers who was out early to rise up photographs. The video board displayed a graphic with a number of photographs of the best coach in Virginia basketball historical past, full with championship trophies at his ft. It learn: “THANK YOU COACH TONY BENNETT.”
One after the other, increasingly more, all of them popped into the world. Gamers, coaches, managers. Most of them have been there due to one man: Tony Bennett. Apply was quickly to start. The music over the PA audio system acquired louder. Shortly earlier than 2 p.m., Sanchez walked out, a folded follow plan in his left hand. Indiana Pacers coach/Virginia alum Rick Carlisle spoke to the crew in a circle at mid-court.
At 2 p.m., the video board flickered. The graphic with Bennett’s footage swapped, changed by what’s nearly at all times there as default: a brand for Virginia basketball.
In Charlottesville, a brand new period begins. And in that second, the truth hit arduous in additional methods than one.
Tony Bennett has left the world.
