What Tony Bennett’s retirement means for Virginia, college basketball

In an emotional information convention asserting his retirement on Friday, former Virginia Cavaliers head coach Tony Bennett did not mince phrases on his causes for retiring from faculty basketball, simply three weeks earlier than the season was set to tip.

“I am now not one of the best coach to steer this program on this present atmosphere,” Bennett, 55, stated.

In a vacuum, his announcement Thursday wasn’t completely a shock. Rumors had swirled for years that he may step down sooner than his age and degree of success would point out. The timing, nonetheless, was a shock.

And he’ll go away a void at Virginia and within the faculty basketball universe. That is, in spite of everything, the coach who led the Cavaliers to their first and solely nationwide title in 2019, a 12 months after shedding to 16-seed UMBC within the best upset in faculty basketball historical past. He hadn’t gained an NCAA event sport since that nationwide title, but he was thought to be one of many high coaches within the sport.

Simply final week, he spoke at ACC media day concerning the upcoming season and the advantages of including Kyle Man, a starter on the 2019 nationwide title crew, to the employees. He’d additionally mentioned his uncertainty with the brand new realities of the game, realities he didn’t appear to get pleasure from.

“I all the time have stated, once you’re doing this … you must be true to your self and actually have a look at it and say, who am I? Can I function how I would like and might it’s profitable sufficient? And also you get to decide on if you wish to be part of it or not,” he instructed ESPN. “And once you really feel it is time, like Jay did, like Coach Okay, possibly Saban, it is their alternative. And you’ll sit right here and complain and gripe. Or you could have a choice to make. Both you attempt to do it in your manner otherwise you get to make that call.”

Every week later, Bennett stated he had determined he might now not serve the Virginia program in the best way he needed.

“I feel it is proper for student-athletes to obtain income. Please do not mistake me,” Bennett stated Friday. “The sport and faculty athletics shouldn’t be in a wholesome spot. It is not. And there must be change and it is not going to return. I feel I used to be geared up to do the job right here the outdated manner. That is who I’m.”

As the sport quickly shifted, it grew to become clear groups corresponding to Bennett’s Virginia — constructed on the event of younger expertise who would keep on campus for 3 or 4 years and provides this system a steady set of veteran anchors — must shift their mindsets to win large. Within the period of NIL compensation and elevated switch portal motion, profitable persistently is tougher now than it was when three returning gamers (Ty Jerome, Kyle Man and De’Andre Hunter) fueled a run to the 2019 nationwide championship.

Bennett stated he did not really feel the need to be taught to teach a unique manner. He additionally stated Friday that he needed to go away this system to somebody he trusted: Ron Sanchez, who was a part of Bennett’s staffs at Washington State and Virginia, with a profitable stint as head coach at Charlotte from 2018 to 2023..

“They’ve carried me by means of this transition — the best way they assume, how they relate, the best way their minds are on this panorama, is what’s wanted,” Bennett stated of Sanchez and fellow affiliate coach Jason Williford. “And so I am so grateful. And I simply need it to go so nicely for these guys.”

As a brand new period begins for the Cavaliers, ESPN’s Myron Medcalf and Jeff Borzello break down what’s subsequent for the college, its gamers and the game.

What legacy does Bennett go away behind?

Medcalf: He gained Virginia’s lone nationwide title, and that is important for any coach. That nationwide title run not solely gave Virginia a contemporary slate on the basketball court docket, it modified the notion of your complete college. The Cavs grew to become greater than the 1-seed that misplaced to 16-seed UMBC in 2018.

There are a number of coaches on this sport with lengthy careers who gained a single nationwide title (Tom Izzo, Jim Boeheim, John Calipari) that elevated their legacies. Bennett will equally go down as a legend, and it is not a wild idea to examine Virginia memorializing his contributions with a statue or one other gesture. He is that vital to this system’s historical past.

Borzello: In addition to the nationwide championship, Bennett will likely be most remembered for his fashion of play — and his unflinching loyalty to that fashion of play. Throughout Bennett’s tenure, Virginia performed a number of the slowest, most deliberate basketball within the nation, by no means rating larger than No. 316 nationally in tempo (and that got here in his first season in Charlottesville). Up to now 4 seasons, they have been Nos. 357, 357, 360 and 362, respectively.

They have been actually elite defensively, too. From 2012-2020, Virginia ranked exterior the top-10 in adjusted defensive effectivity at KenPom simply as soon as — after they completed twenty fifth. Bennett recruited to that fashion, he discovered gamers he thought might match what he needed to do on the court docket, after which he developed them. After a few early NCAA event exits, and the UMBC loss, there was widespread criticism that Virginia could not win large in March with that fashion of play. Did Bennett change? Nope. He doubled down and gained the nationwide championship.

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What would be the first order of enterprise for Sanchez?

Borzello: Preserve the roster collectively. NCAA guidelines state gamers have 30 days following a training change to enter the switch portal. Virginia’s gamers seemingly would want a waiver to be eligible at their subsequent college (or on the very least wait till the semester ends), however they might additionally go away and redshirt this season at a unique college, whatever the waiver course of. Virginia was picked fifth within the ACC preseason ballot launched on Wednesday; loads of high-major colleges would have curiosity within the Cavaliers’ gamers, have been they to enter the portal.

Medcalf: Contemplating the season begins in three weeks, there isn’t a time for Sanchez to go off-script — and it will not be obligatory. Sanchez spent prolonged stretches on Bennett’s staffs at Washington State and Virginia, so there will likely be continuity and familiarity … so long as the gamers resolve to remain. That’s no assure, however the bonds on Bennett’s employees ought to assist this system keep away from the chaos most groups would endure if their longtime head coach had determined to retire lower than three weeks earlier than the beginning of the season.

I feel Sanchez’s first information convention will likely be impactful. He is recognized inside the Virginia neighborhood, however not essentially to the bigger faculty basketball neighborhood, regardless of a five-year head-coaching stint at Charlotte that ended with a CBI championship in 2023. Sanchez is near Bennett and I am certain feels a specific loyalty to him due to the impression he has had on Sanchez’s profession. However I additionally assume it is vital for Sanchez to convey that this system is in good palms.

He will need to steadiness his respect for Bennett and the acknowledgement of a brand new period — one which has to incorporate Virginia accepting the calls for of NIL and switch portal chaos. There isn’t a different technique to compete on this present panorama. Sanchez has to make that clear when he is formally launched because the interim head coach.

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What’s the largest problem for Virginia with out Bennett on the helm?

Borzello: Though the Cavaliers have not been a Remaining 4 or title contender over the previous few seasons, these are nonetheless pretty sizable sneakers to fill. Bennett led them to a nationwide championship and 6 ACC regular-season titles — together with in two of these latest “down” seasons. These are the requirements Bennett set.

Stylistically, Sanchez is prone to proceed Bennett’s slower, extra defensive fashion. Throughout his time at Charlotte, the 49ers have been persistently towards the underside of the league in possessions per sport, rating next-to-last nationally in tempo in his ultimate season — slower than even Virginia. The roster was constructed with that fashion in thoughts, so it should not be a difficulty for this season.

Coaches across the ACC have additionally stated Bennett was one of many higher head-coach recruiters within the league; as soon as he grew to become concerned in a recruitment, he was troublesome to beat. Will Sanchez have the identical impression on the recruiting path? And if the college opts to rent another person because the everlasting head coach within the spring, there seemingly must be a roster overhaul.

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Why are extra coaches exiting the game amid the large adjustments which have altered the sport?

Medcalf: Not way back, I talked to a coach who instructed me that he is now not a head coach, only a normal supervisor. The obligations on the shoulders of faculty basketball coaches have multiplied in recent times. It is not nearly athletes’ new freedom of motion or advantages out there to them, both. These adjustments have additionally elevated the vitality it takes to each recruit and retain a crew. Coaches have all the time had a hand in fundraising, however these efforts are nonstop now. The fixed turnover through the portal is an unimaginable problem, too.

Teaching in 2024 is a tiring, arduous expertise in methods it wasn’t simply 5 years in the past. It simply looks like fewer coaches — particularly those that’ve made seven figures for a very long time — will keep previous 65 or 70 contemplating the grind this job now calls for.