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 known as a member of the press searching for credit score or to suss out a buzzy behind-the-scenes rumor. Bennett, typically to the frustration of the media, is usually humble to a fault. Predictably, that humility was on show once more Friday, maybe for one final time.
“The College of Virginia is an incredible place due to individuals like Tony,” athletic director Carla Williams mentioned 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 vitality of a kid who would not know what to do with their physique when everyone is singing the joyful birthday track to them. In the event that they’d have let Bennett retire with out nothing greater than a paragraph’s value of a press launch, he in all probability would have taken it.
What a surreal scene it was, although. One of many sport’s best coaches is strolling away, on this odd day of the 18th of October, practically 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 surroundings of school 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 resolution to now not coach basketball.
“I believed it could be a bit longer, to be sincere, however it’s been on mortgage and it is time for me to offer it again,” Bennett mentioned 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 supplied solutions.
After his information convention, he took much more questions in a one-on-one interview with CBS Sports activities, moving 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 typically you nearly speak your self into issues as you are doing it. Like, I can do that. I’m outfitted. We will regulate. And also you type of inform your self sure stuff and also you begin believing. Yep, I can. However while you type 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 every thing, can we construct a program on this manner, or is it, is my far more designed for the previous mannequin?”
However to know Bennett’s resolution — earlier than digging into the large shifts within the faculty basketball panorama which have pushed out different legendary coaches as properly — you want to return to how his unplanned voyage started. Earlier than the 433 wins and the last word redemption of that Homeric 2019 national championship. Earlier than the eight mixed ACC titles, the nationwide coach of the yr 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 discovered from — and was typically bewildered by — the life and vocation his father took. The incandescent Dick Bennett gained 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 manner 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 manner 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 attempt, faculty 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 successful 69 video games in his first three seasons and guiding the Cougars to their solely back-to-back NCAA Event appearances in class historical past. After doing the near-unthinkable with Wazzu, he was the clear alternative practically 2,500 miles away at Virginia in 2009, when former athletic director Craig Littlepage made the rent that will consequently alter faculty basketball for the following 10-plus years.
Virginia the most effective of what is round underneath Bennett
Lower than three weeks after Bennett obtained the job in 2009, he was in John Paul Jones Area — the place the staff’s places of work are — working late on the weekend. Hometown heroes Dave Matthews Band have been again on the town and enjoying a few reveals, one among them that night time. Because it obtained 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 previous 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 bear in mind considering, man, sometime if we are able to construct this program, it’ll seem like this for basketball video games,” Bennett mentioned Friday.
Bennett’s band would certainly break by means of. By 2014, he’d gained his first ACC title. Quickly sufficient, he was filling JPJ similar to DMB.
Below Bennett, Virginia skilled its most sustained success in class historical past. He stubbornly minimize towards the grain of tactical tendencies and new-age Xs-and-Os. His groups did not a lot play within the mud as they lived in it, frequently logging final in adjusted tempo at KenPom.com.
“We did it in a novel manner,” Bennett mentioned. “That was my imaginative and prescient, our imaginative and prescient as a workers. Can we construct this program that perhaps is a bit totally different than the best way you do it? That is the fantastic thing about this sport. You get to decide on the way you do it, with who you do it, within the type 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 plain. Bennett gained 70% of his ACC video games, his success over Duke and North Carolina unmatched by every 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, in actual fact, the No. 1 total seed in that match.) Bennett, drawing on his father’s instincts, refused to desert his rules. Placing his belief in his religion, he believed he was speculated to expertise such humiliation in an effort to discover greater floor. One yr later, the Cavaliers rebounded to most reclamation and hit the mountaintop by successful the nationwide title, doing so with some of the dramatic runs of close-call video games in NCAA historical past. They could properly play faculty 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.
Up to now yr, Bennett mentioned, his assistants successfully needed to proceed to tug him nearer to the brand new mannequin, the brand new manner of school 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 document in April — however earlier than he might actually permit himself to push by means of on that, recruiting within the portal pulled him into the following section 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 fact. He mentioned it hit him in a manner that was inescapable.
“We misplaced loads of gamers that I believe we would not have misplaced [before NIL regulations],” Bennett mentioned. “And that is OK as a result of it is a new mannequin. And so you have to determine, 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 proper gamers to compete, the hole might develop,” Bennett added. “I felt I used to be the one holding them again.”
Bennett known as Williams to ship the information Tuesday. She requested him to sleep on it and determine for certain after going by means of Wednesday’s observe. Bennett instructed me he went into that observe open-minded and prepared to perhaps double-back on his resolution, simply in case he wanted to be nudged again onto his course.
“In observe, I attempted,” he instructed me. “I felt the issues that will 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 observe, after 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 mentioned: “He’s no idiot who provides what he can’t maintain to realize 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 daily concerning the state of a basketball roster, how a lot a participant within the switch portal will price, how a lot cash Virginia has to lift 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’re within the match, the second it ends you are straight away 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 status is as a coach, a father and a person, the timing of it has understandably come underneath some criticism. After Bennett went as far as to attend ACC Tipoff per week in the past to fulfill with the media, the transfer comes off as calculated. To go up and give up on this system whereas overseeing a staff 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 essentially 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 obtained this set and I deliberate this date,” Bennett mentioned. “If you happen to’re battling issues and you are not all in and have the fervour to offer. You need to know who you’re, and it’s a must to be all in with every thing. If you are preventing your self on this — since you’re nonetheless recruiting, you are still concerned with stuff — you are gonna need to maintain constructing, and also you’re all the time 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 perhaps I have been battling and training a few of my perspective. Generally, , my anger — and other people say, ‘Oh, you do not get offended’ — however I felt myself turning into a bit extra transactional in mindset. At occasions. 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 outfitted for this.”
It is truthful 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 fact and assured within the subsequent section of Virginia’s program. If he wasn’t, he would have seemingly pushed by means of for one closing season.
Bennett signed a contract in June, tricking himself into considering he was prepared. However the laws 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 career. 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 wished to get into teaching discovered himself trying round and questioning what career he was in. It definitely wasn’t the one he volunteered for in Madison 25 years in the past.
“When you will have 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 could possibly be. As a result of it is a tremendous line right here,” Bennett mentioned. “We do not have all of the issues the others have by way of five-stars — we have good gamers — however it’s a manner that it’s a must to construct them. If I am 70%, 80%, that is not truthful to the gamers. You recognize what? This workers, they’re those which are considering they will deal with this mannequin higher than I can. And till it modifications, nobody will be capable of deal with it absolutely, however that is what led to it at the moment.
“You do need to be all in, and I do not know precisely what that appears like,” he mentioned. “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 stability. With out it, he is aware of extra accelerated retirements are assured within the subsequent few years. He desires to be an agent for constructive developments in faculty athletics. Making an allowance for the cash that is now flowing throughout high-profile faculty sports activities, Bennett sees a serious psychological well being disaster coming for school 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 fogeys. Dick and Anne Bennett are 81 years previous. He is solely gotten to see them a couple of times a yr in recent times. I bear in mind Bennett calling me on an August morning in 2023 for our Candid Coaches collection 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 reside with regrets,” he mentioned Friday.
And so, this appears to be it. I requested if he was retired for good from all of basketball teaching, not simply faculty.
“Proper now, I believe it is finished,” Bennett mentioned. “I would like a break. That was even one thing Carla talked about. Possibly 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 simply get a break. I believe when it is your time, and I hope I can affect in no matter manner it’s, whether or not it is across the sport in several methods, or one thing else, that is too quickly to know.”
Laurel Bennett instructed me the one stipulation of this resolution was that there have been no extra huge selections coming quickly thereafter. No plans for subsequent week, subsequent month, subsequent yr.
He’s no idiot who provides what he can’t maintain to realize what he can’t lose.
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As for his position across the staff, do not anticipate him to pop up at loads of video games within the season forward. Bennett mentioned he would not plan on being a continuing public presence round official Virginia basketball occasions; he is aware of he wants to supply a ways to greatest assist the transition course of.
“This was by no means mine, and it was time to offer it again,” Bennett mentioned. “And that is the peace that I’ve.”
About an hour after he instructed me these phrases, after the Bennetts quietly made their manner off campus to go take pleasure in a very stress-free weekend and entered the following stage of their lives, the sounds of the inevitable season manifested as they do. A bouncing basketball could possibly 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 toes. It learn: “THANK YOU COACH TONY BENNETT.”
One after the other, increasingly more, all of them popped into the sector. Gamers, coaches, managers. Most of them have been there due to one man: Tony Bennett. Observe was quickly to start. The music over the PA audio system obtained louder. Shortly earlier than 2 p.m., Sanchez walked out, a folded observe plan in his left hand. Indiana Pacers coach/Virginia alum Rick Carlisle spoke to the staff 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 all the time there as default: a emblem 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 sector.
