Virginia men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett is retiring effective immediately, a stunning, abrupt departure on the eve of the season.
The program said Thursday the 55-year-old Bennett will announce his retirement Friday at an 11 a.m. EDT news conference. No reasons were given for his decision, which comes months after signing a contract extension to keep him in the job through at least 2030.
Virginia opens the season Nov. 6 at home against Campbell.
Bennett led the Cavaliers to the national title in 2019. In his 15 seasons as the coach in Charlottesville, he made 10 NCAA Tournament appearances.
He went 364-136 at Virginia, a tenure that included two ACC Tournament titles and six regular-season conference championships. He was voted national coach of the year three times.
Bennett left Washington State to take over at Virginia before the 2009-10 season, charged with resurrecting a program that had reached just one NCAA Tournament in eight seasons. He got the Cavaliers back to March Madness by his third season as he installed a defensive-oriented system with a slow-tempo offense that led to plenty of low scores and had Virginia fans roaring in approval at forced shot-clock violations.
The peak came in a run of six straight NCAA Tournament bids from 2014-19, with four of those coming as a No. 1 seed. Yet that time also included an incredible one-year span of a crushing on-court humiliation, followed by the highest of highs.
In 2018, the Cavaliers were the top overall seed in the tournament, then became the first No. 1 seed to lose to a 16 seed, shocked by Maryland-Baltimore County. Awkwardly, he was named Associated Press national men’s coach of the year weeks later, an honor secured primarily on regular-season success.
But Bennett handled it with a deft, steady and reassuring touch, telling his players that they had a chance to write their own ending to that terrible moment and that everyone — family, friends and critics — was waiting to see how they would respond.
The next year the Cavaliers held off Texas Tech in overtime to win the program’s lone NCAA championship in an all-time redemptive moment in tournament history, coming amid multiple white-knuckle moments.
Bennett savored that finish in Minneapolis, emphatically slapping the sticker bearing Virginia’s name on the champion line of the bracket during the trophy presentation. After players cut down the nets and danced amid confetti, they gathered on stage to gaze at video boards high above them as the “One Shining Moment” highlight montage began to play.
Fittingly, the humble Bennett took in the scene from the background, leaning against a railing at the stage’s edge while holding one of the nets.
That proved to be the apex of Bennett’s time at Virginia. He got the Cavaliers back to the NCAA Tournament in three of his final four seasons, but they never won another tournament game. Along the way, questions grew as to whether his methodical playing philosophy could work as well in a time of veteran players moving freely between schools through the transfer portal.
In March, the Cavaliers scored only 42 points in a 25-point loss to Colorado State in the First Four. But Bennett was back at the ACC’s preseason media days last week in Charlotte, N.C., not far from the site of the UMBC upset, talking about plans for the upcoming season.
