Virginia men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett is retiring effective immediately, a stunning, abrupt departure on the eve of the start of the season.
The program said Thursday the 55-year-old Bennett will announce his retirement at a news conference on Friday at 11 a.m. EDT. 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 on 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 ahead of 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 that included 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 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 they became the first-ever No. 1 seed to lose to a 16 seed, shocked by UMBC. Awkwardly, he was named The 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 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. That next year, the Cavaliers went on to hold 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 had cut down the nets and danced amid confetti, they all gathered on stage to gaze at videoboards high above them as the “One Shining Moment” highlight montage that is a tournament-capping tradition 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 NCAAs in three of his final four seasons, but the Cavaliers 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 managed 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, not far from the site of the UMBC upset, talking about plans for the upcoming season.
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