The shocking news was announced on Thursday that Tony Bennett would be retiring, leaving his Virginia Cavaliers in a tough spot just a few weeks away from their opener. Bennett’s retirement is effective immediately, and the 55-year-old coach will speak with the media on Friday about his decision.
But some may have seen Bennett’s retirement coming.
ESPN college basketball reporter Jeff Borzello had asked Bennett last week why so many people thought the Cavs coach could be the next big-name coach to suddenly retire, much like Jay Wright did in 2022.
“I gotta call Jay Wright and see what he says, right? I always have said, when you’re doing this, you’re in this profession, whether you agree how it’s going or not, you have to be true to yourself and really look at it and say, who am I? Can I operate how I want and can it be successful enough? And you get to choose if you wanna be a part of it or not,” Bennett said.
“And when you feel it’s time, like Jay did, like Coach K, maybe Saban, it’s their choice. And you can sit here and complain and gripe. Or you have a decision to make. Either you try to do it in your way or you get to make that decision. So I think Jay Wright probably foresaw the where this is going … It’ll be better whenever there’s regulations. Is that three to five years away? Who knows? But if it’s not — those are decisions that every man has to make when it’s his time.”
Bennett also referenced former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski and former Alabama football coach Nick Saban in his comments. Bennett seemed to have been giving a lot of thought at the time about whether or not he wanted to be a part of college basketball with the way the sport has become. He has obviously made his decision.
Just last week, Bennett had talked during ACC Media Days about all the changes in college sports due to the legalization of students making money through NIL deals.
“It’s a new time,” Bennnett said succintly.
Bennett said that building a roster is difficult and that coaches can really only build in 2-year increments rather than recruit a player and expect to have him for five years. Bennett also talked about how much college sports will be like pro sports soon, with collective bargaining imminent. He also thinks regulations surrounding matters like tampering, salary caps and transfers need to be implemented.
Bennett seems to believe college sports will be in a better position once those regulations are determined and implemented. Until then, he doesn’t want to be a head coach.
