At 10:53 a.m. Friday, in a dining hall converted into a press conference room, a mounting hubbub suddenly died. There seemed no outward trigger. It just happened, as if the gravity of the approaching moment somehow struck all the assembled at precisely the same time. Here he comes. You could hear a pin drop.
Tony Bennett arrived to his retirement press conference at 11:03 a.m. He was late, by three minutes. He played at his own pace one final time.
The press conference capped a whirlwind period — 18 and a half hours from press release to press conference — in which shockwaves reverberated through every corner of the college basketball universe and questions crisscrossed on social media.
All the program said in its 4:30 p.m. press release Thursday was that Bennett would announce his immediate retirement the following morning. That was the only detail given about the stunning retirement of one of the game’s most respected and successful figures just 20 days before the Cavaliers were set to face Campbell at home.
The timing, with the season so close, made the news totally flabbergasting. Speculation raced around social media about the reason for his sudden departure. Reports emerged that the cause was not a health reason, that it instead had to do with the sport’s changing landscape, but clarity would have to wait until the morning. Joy, as Bennett has said, comes in the morning.
Bennett choked up multiple times as he delivered a lengthy opening statement and then answered questions at the Friday press conference. His words quickly answered a lot of questions.
Nothing dramatic had occurred, Bennett said. He had simply realized, as have other legendary coaches recently, that his preferred style of running a program did not match the sport’s current landscape. His time had come.
“I realized I’m no longer the best coach to lead this program in this current environment,” Bennett said. “And if you’re going to do it, you’ve got to be all in. You’ve got to have everything.”
He had planned, as recently as last week’s ACC Tipoff, to continue coaching. But a vacation with his wife, Laurel, during the University’s Reading Days last weekend allowed time for decompression, a rare moment away from basketball to think.
He thought about his wife and his kids. He thought about his aging parents, his sister and his other relationships. He thought about how the advent of name, image and likeness had chucked a grueling profession into overdrive, and how he needed to get out while he could still devote time and energy to family.
“That’s where I kind of came to the realization that I can’t do this,” Bennett said. “It’s not fair to these guys and this institution that I love so much to continue on when you know you’re not the right guy for the job.”
The processing still had a long way to go. But Bennett knew, and that was enough.
He fidgeted when he sat down at the podium, all those eyes on him. He ruffled his jacket. His fingers shifted the microphone incrementally. He leaned backward and then forward again. He looked, above all, uncomfortable.
Which is perhaps the point. Bennett had grown uncomfortable in college basketball’s present landscape. His system has always thrived on development, but these days, it is increasingly rare for players to redshirt or spend several years at one school.
“I think I was equipped to do the job here the old way,” Bennett said. “That’s who I am, and that’s how it was.”
Esteemed coaching colleagues Mike Krzyzewski of Duke and Roy Williams of North Carolina have also left their respective institutions within the last three years. So have Jim Boeheim of Syracuse and Jay Wright of Villanova. Bennett mentioned all four names at various points, the names of coaching legends who left largely because of the advent of NIL payments that have demolished the amateur model and created the need for reform.
“There's got to be collective bargaining,” Bennett said. “There has to be a restriction on the salary pool that teams can spend. There has to be transfer regulation restrictions. There has to be some limits on agent involvement with these young guys.”
Bennett, like the coaching lions before him, decided enough was enough. It was all too much. The modern game is basically unrecognizable from what it looked like five years ago — Bennett did not sign up for this.
Players used to have to sit out a year after transferring — not anymore, after the NCAA this year enshrined its COVID-era policy waiving the penalty year. Players used to exist strictly within an amateur model and not receive compensation — not anymore, starting in 2021 when the NCAA adopted NIL. Players used to stay at one school for their entire careers — not anymore, as schools lure transfers with promises of lucrative payments.
Those are just the basic changes, the turmoil on the surface. Beneath, the changes have roiled hierarchies, shifting the power from the coaches to the players and forcing a reevaluation of how to run a program. The job description has changed.
The changes have shunted aside the elder statesmen of the coaching profession, across college basketball but especially in the ACC. None of the remaining coaches in the conference have ever won a national title. That has not been the case since the 1981-82 season.
With their exodus comes a new guard of coaches, accepting of this landscape — unrecognizable just a few years ago — as the status quo.
“I understand how he’s feeling,” Duke Coach Jon Scheyer, still in his 30s, said at a press conference Saturday. “Obviously, any coach, you always want more family time. You always want more stability. But again, for me, it’s the environment we’re in.”
That is the mentality Virginia’s remaining coaches will have to embrace. Associate head coach Ron Sanchez, who returned to Bennett’s staff last season after spending five years as head coach at Charlotte, will take over as interim head coach, piloting the program into its new era alongside longtime assistant coach Jason Williford.
Retiring now allows Bennett to pass the torch to one of his own, something he said he has always wanted. Sanchez will remain interim coach throughout the season, and then things will open up.
Sanchez is a Bennett acolyte, entering his 11th season with the program. Things, therefore, may look similar on the court this season, a continuation of the present regime. Any tweaks will likely be revisions rather than overhauls.
Bennett also leaves behind Kyle Guy, Isaiah Wilkins and Chase Coleman, all former players who serve various roles in the program. He called them rising stars at the press conference. If they remain in the program past this season, they will help shepherd the program forward.
But they found out about the news only just before the public. Thursday’s practice was scheduled for 4 p.m. At 2:45 p.m., Guy said, Bennett entered the office. He then gathered his coaches in the conference room to inform them of his decision. He told it to them straight.
“He didn’t sugarcoat,” Guy said. “Which I appreciated.”
The team canceled practice, but the court remained open for players to get their shots up. Every single player, according to Guy, stayed to work out. They handled it, assistant coach Isaiah Wilkins said, probably as well as they could have.
“We’ve got a good group of guys,” Wilkins said. “And they’re understanding.”
As they stood in a corner of the dining hall Friday morning, the faces of these men remained inscrutable. Some others, though, have not been as understanding.
Sports Illustrated ran a column headlined “Ego-Driven Timing of Tony Bennett’s Retirement Puts Virginia—and His Players—in a Bind.” This has been a common though lesser-voiced sentiment, that Bennett, on the eve of the season, has shafted his team.
The coach, though, earnest to the end, certainly did not see it that way. He only saw himself helping his family by promising to be around more, helping his players by giving them a few weeks before the season to adjust and helping his program by letting someone else take over who could give it everything they had.
Bennett consulted with no coaching colleagues in making his decision. He talked to his father, a beloved Wisconsin coach responsible for much of his son’s style. But really this was between Bennett and his wife, a latent feeling metastasizing on a weekend trip as they talked and assessed his honest feelings.
This, perhaps most interestingly, is not the end for Bennett. He said he will still be around in some capacity to encourage and support the players and coaches. He and Williams have discussed ways he can stay involved and provide assistance, whether in an official role directly with the basketball team or in some other way. He seems, for now, content to watch the program he built flourish.
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