When Tony Bennett retired last week, a wave of shock shot through the world of college basketball. There was confusion over the timing of the decision. There were conspiracies about what could possibly be the reason for it. There was a slew of former players, fellow coaches and unbelieving fans lining up to sing Bennett’s praises. But most importantly, there was one consensus question being asked — where do we go from here?
The answer may not be one that Cavalier fans want to hear. Because for all the winning Bennett did in Charlottesville over the last 15 years, it is likely that Virginia’s most successful period of the 21st century has already passed. The program still has the resources to hang around the middle of the ACC, but the days of its conference dominance and national prominence will be nearly impossible to replicate without its former cornerstone at the helm.
Cavalier fans have heard, seen and read plenty about Bennett’s coaching resume since he retired — 364 wins, six first-place ACC finishes, two ACC Tournament titles and a national championship. But beyond the trophies and the banners, perhaps his greatest achievement at Virginia was getting the program a seat at the table with North Carolina and Duke.
With Bennett in charge, beating the Tar Heels and competing with the Blue Devils became norms for the Cavaliers. Virginia is 13-8 in its last 21 games against North Carolina and has four wins over Duke since 2018. Bennett’s crew finished above the Tar Heels in the ACC standings six times in his final 11 seasons. They finished above the Blue Devils seven times in the same period.
That outstanding level of success makes the last four years look like a step back for the program, even though the Cavaliers went 53-24 in the ACC. They also made three NCAA Tournament appearances during that stretch. If a previous, Bennett-less version of Virginia played to that caliber, fans would have been lining up to root for it.
Now, as the Cavaliers enter a Bennett-less future, expectations need to be adjusted. Virginia’s time at or near the top of the college basketball world is over, and the thought that they can return there anytime soon is far-fetched. Bennett buoyed Virginia in a way that legendary coaches of other programs did not.
It might be promising for some fans to look at the models of Duke and North Carolina, a pair of ACC schools who recently lost all-time great coaches and held onto their positions at the apex of college basketball’s best conference. The Blue Devils won the ACC Tournament the year after Mike Krzyzewski retired and have earned a top-5 seed in the NCAA Tournament twice with his successor, Jon Scheyer. Under Hubert Davis, the Tar Heels were a No. 1 seed last year, only three seasons after Roy Williams’ departure. Virginia is not going to be able to do the same.
Historically, this program is not in the same blueblood tier as North Carolina or Duke. As both of those schools transitioned away from their longtime coaches, their heirs were put in an easy position to win due to the historic prestige associated with each program.
The difference between Williams and Davis or Krzyzewski and Scheyer did not matter that much to the top-level recruits, who continued committing to both schools in waves despite the coaching changes. Because most of what matters for those incoming players is donning the storied Duke or North Carolina uniforms and receiving the large spotlight that comes with it.
That appeal is not there at Virginia. In contrast, Cavalier recruits were sold on the program because of Bennett in particular. He was renowned for his ability to bring in lesser-touted players and turn them into professional prospects, evidenced by the fact that Virginia currently has the most players in the NBA who were not top-25 recruits in their high school class.
The Cavaliers never signed a five-star recruit out of high school when Bennett was at the helm. Without him, the program is not going to have nearly as much success by filling the roster with mid-level transfers and lower-ranked high school players in the hopes of developing them like Bennett did. Do not expect a strategy like that to carry over seamlessly from coach to coach, even if interim head coach Ron Sanchez — a longtime Bennett assistant with brief head coaching experience at Charlotte — shows similar recruiting prowess as the program’s leader.
Virginia’s player development philosophy is also outdated and appears to be much of why Bennett stepped away in the first place. In the new world of college athletics — one dominated by a free-flowing transfer portal and Name, Image and Likeness — student-athletes are transferring more than ever and often prioritizing financial opportunities when deciding on a school.
That change in landscape has devalued Virginia’s standard multi-year development pitch and left the program scrambling to reshape most of its core personnel every season. Schools like Duke were already doing that before NIL and the transfer portal took over, but Virginia is new to the game and has thus struggled in recent years to keep up with the ACC’s best.
Clearly, the Cavaliers’ transition away from their greatest-ever coach will not be as smooth as those of Duke and North Carolina were. However, there is another prominent program that also recently lost its longtime coach — Villanova, which endured a more similar transition to the one Virginia is going through right now.
Longtime coach Jay Wright surprisingly retired from his role with the Wildcats after the 2022 season — a campaign in which they went 30-8 and reached the Final Four. After two national titles and a slew of Big East championships under Wright, the next man up was Coach Kyle Neptune, a longtime Wright assistant who had brief experience in the head coaching role at Fordham — sound familiar?
Last year, in Neptune’s first season in the driver’s seat, Villanova went 17-17 in a pedestrian campaign that landed them sixth in the Big East Conference. Under Wright, the Wildcats had not finished worse than second in their conference since 2012-13.
Though Wright tended to bring in higher-level recruits at Villanova than Bennett did at Virginia, the coaches were alike in their emphasis on player development. Their model sold recruits not on the grand spotlight or fast-tracking it to the NBA, but on a long-term process and on the coach that made that process happen. That system can not easily survive a drastic coaching change.
Thus, basing this season’s expectations on a similar track to that of the Wildcats is a good bet. Virginia will certainly not be an ACC bottomfeeder, but the days of finishing inside the top three during the regular season are in the rearview mirror for now. In looking at the 2024-25 season, even making the NCAA Tournament would be a commendable accomplishment.
This season is essentially an extended audition for the entire program. Sanchez will get his fair chance to prove himself as a potential long-term coaching option for the Cavaliers, and many on this new-look roster will seek to assert themselves as the select stars for Virginia.
After that, the future gets even more clouded. Perhaps a gargantuan wave of transfers will enter or depart, a new coach will be brought in or the evolution of NIL will throw another joker into the voluminous deck of cards Virginia could play.
For now, though, the Cavaliers will prepare for their rapidly approaching season opener against Campbell Nov. 6. In the aftermath of the absolute whirlwind that Virginia men’s basketball endured over the past week, only two things are for certain — there is a Bennett-sized hole in this program’s heart, and the path forward will be a trying, lengthy journey.
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