Virginia basketball coach Tony Bennett by no means chased the highlight. That included along with his gorgeous and abrupt choice to retire efficient instantly, introduced on the eve of the beginning of the season.
This system mentioned Thursday the 55-year-old Bennett will announce his retirement at a information convention on Friday at 11 a.m. EDT. No causes got for his choice, which was unveiled merely in an internet publish by this system months after he had signed a contract extension to maintain him within the job by means of a minimum of 2030.
It got here per week after Bennett appeared on the Atlantic Coast Convention’s preseason media days, and with the Cavaliers’ opener towards Campbell looming at residence on Nov. 6.
Bennett led the Cavaliers to the nationwide title in 2019. In his 15 seasons because the coach in Charlottesville, he made 10 NCAA Match appearances.
He went 364-136 at Virginia, a tenure that included two ACC Match titles and 6 regular-season convention championships. He was voted AP nationwide coach of the yr twice, as soon as at Washington State in 2007 and at Virginia in 2018.
Bennett left Pullman for Charlottesville in a cross-country transfer forward of the 2009-10 season, charged with resurrecting a program that was notably an everyday Eighties winner with 7-foot-4 Ralph Sampson however had reached only one NCAA Match in eight seasons. He bought the Cavaliers again to March Insanity by his third season as he put in a defensive-oriented system that included slow-tempo offense that led to loads of low scores and had Virginia followers roaring in approval at pressured shot-clock violations.
The height got here in a run of six straight event bids from 2014-19, with 4 of these coming as a No. 1 seed. But that point additionally included an unimaginable one-year span of a crushing on-court humiliation, adopted by the best of highs.
In 2018, the Cavaliers had been the highest total seed within the event, then they grew to become the first-ever No. 1 seed to lose to a 16 seed, shocked by UMBC. Awkwardly, he was named AP nationwide males’s coach of the yr weeks later, an honor secured totally on regular-season success.
However Bennett dealt with it with a deft, regular and reassuring contact grounded in his religion, telling his wounded gamers who even heard demise threats that they had an opportunity to write down their very own ending to that horrible second and that everybody — household, associates and critics — was ready to see how they’d reply. That subsequent yr, the Cavaliers went on to carry off Texas Tech in time beyond regulation to win this system’s lone NCAA championship in an all-time redemptive second in event historical past coming amid a number of white-knuckle moments.
Bennett savored that end in Minneapolis, emphatically slapping the sticker bearing Virginia’s identify on the champion line of the bracket through the trophy presentation. After gamers had reduce down the nets and danced amid confetti, all of them gathered on stage to stare upon videoboards excessive above them because the “One Shining Second” spotlight montage that may be a tournament-capping custom started to play.
Fittingly, the common-or-garden Bennett took within the scene from the background, leaning towards a railing on the stage’s edge whereas holding one of many nets.
4 years later, when Purdue grew to become the second workforce to fall in a 16-vs-1 upset, Bennett texted Boilermakers coach Matt Painter.
“Matt is likely one of the finest coaches we’ve bought within the school sport, he’s a person of character,” Bennett advised the AP in February. “And never many can say, aside from me: I’ve felt that ache. … So I simply needed to inform him, ‘If you happen to ever need to discuss, I’m right here. I believe the world of you and hopefully your story is similar as ours.’”
It very almost was. Purdue made all of it the best way to the NCAA title sport earlier than falling in UConn’s ultimate step to a repeat title.
Nonetheless, the 2019 crown proved to be the apex of Bennett’s time at Virginia. He bought the Cavaliers again to the NCAAs in three of his ultimate 4 seasons, however the Cavaliers by no means gained one other event sport. Alongside the best way, questions grew as as to if his methodical taking part in philosophy may work as effectively in a time of veteran gamers shifting freely between faculties by means of the switch portal.
In March, the Cavaliers managed solely 42 factors in a 25-point loss to Colorado State within the First 4. However Bennett was again on the ACC’s preseason media days like regular in Charlotte, not removed from the positioning of the UMBC upset, speaking about plans for an upcoming season that had the Cavaliers picked to complete fifth within the expanded 18-team league.
“I believe it’s important to have a look at your mannequin and regulate it just a little bit,” Bennett mentioned then, providing no indication of what was to come back Thursday.
As a substitute, Bennett — who was the ACC’s lone lively coach with an NCAA title — grew to become the most recent high-profile league coach to name it a profession of late, following Corridor of Famers like North Carolina’s Roy Williams in 2021, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski in 2022 and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim in 2023 out the door.
“Tony Bennett embodies the whole lot a high-quality basketball coach needs to be,” Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton mentioned in an announcement. “He constructed robust relationships along with his gamers, labored seamlessly along with his administration, and earned deep respect nationwide — not simply as a basketball coach, however as an individual of nice character and sophistication. His presence will likely be deeply missed.”
Bennett’s first head-coaching tenure was a three-year stint with Washington State, the place he gained 69 video games and twice reached the NCAAs, together with a Candy 16 look in 2008. Earlier than that, the son of former school coach Dick Bennett was on his father’s workers at Washington State and Wisconsin.
He coached eventual NBA All-Star and four-time world champion Klay Thompson in his ultimate season at Washington State, then coached quite a few future NBA gamers like Joe Harris, Malcolm Brogdon, DeAndre Hunter and Ty Jerome.
Bennett performed in school for his father at Wisconsin-Inexperienced Bay, then was a second-round choose of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets in 1992 and spent three seasons with the workforce.
Initially Printed:
