Virginia men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett is retiring effective immediately

Virginia men’s basketball Coach Tony Bennett has never been in the spotlight. This included his surprising and abrupt decision to resign with immediate effect, which he announced on the eve of the start of the season.

The show said Thursday that Bennett, 55, would announce his resignation at a news conference Friday at 11 a.m. EDT. No reasons were given for his decision, which was revealed in an online post by the program just months after he signed a contract extension to keep him in the job at least until 2030.

It came a week after Bennett appeared at the Atlantic Coast Conference’s preseason media days and the Cavaliers’ home opener against Campbell on Nov. 6.

Bennett led the Cavaliers to the national title in 2019. In his 15 seasons as coach in Charlottesville, he made 10 NCAA Tournament appearances.

At Virginia, he posted a 364-136 record, a tenure that included two ACC tournament titles and six regular-season conference championships. He was named AP National Coach of the Year twice, once at Washington State in 2007 and at Virginia in 2018.

Bennett left Pullman for Charlottesville before the 2009-10 season in a cross-country move and was tasked with revitalizing a program that had been a regular winner in the 1980s under 7-foot-1 Ralph Sampson, but in eight He had only reached one NCAA Tournament in two seasons. In his third season, he brought the Cavaliers back to March Madness by implementing a defense-oriented system that featured slow-paced offenses that resulted in numerous low scores and had Virginia fans cheering in approval at forced shot clock violations.

The culmination came in a series of six consecutive tournament bids from 2014 to 2019, four of which were as a No. 1 seed. But that period also included an incredible year-long period of crushing humiliation on the pitch, followed by the highest of heights.

In 2018, the Cavaliers were the tournament’s top seed, then them became the first No. 1 seed ever to lose to a 16 seed, shocked by UMBC. Embarrassingly, weeks later he was named AP Men’s National Coach of the Year, an honor bestowed largely on regular-season success.

But Bennett handled it with a deft, safe and reassuring touch grounded in his faith, telling his wounded players who even heard death threats They had the chance to write their own ending to this terrible moment, and everyone – family, friends and critics – were waiting to see how they would react. The following year, the Cavaliers beat Texas Tech in overtime to win the program’s only NCAA championship – an all-time cathartic moment in tournament history that was accompanied by several nerve-wracking moments.

Bennett relished this finish in Minneapolis and emphatically placed the sticker with Virginia’s name on the bracket’s champion line during the trophy presentation. After the players cut down the nets and danced amid confetti, everyone gathered on stage to look at the video boards high above them as the “One Shining Moment” highlight montage began to play, a tournament-closing tradition is.

Appropriately, the unassuming Bennett watched the scene from the background, leaning against a railing at the edge of the stage and holding one of the nets.

Four years later, when Purdue became the second team to fail in a 16-to-1 loss, Bennett texted Boilermakers coach Matt Painter.

“Matt is one of the best coaches we have in college, he’s a man of character,” Bennett told the AP in February. “And not many but me can say: I felt that pain. … So I just wanted to tell him, ‘If you ever want to talk, I’m here.'” I think the world of you and hopefully your story is the same as ours.'”

It was almost like that. Purdue made it to the NCAA title game before falling short in UConn’s final push toward a repeat title.

Still, the 2019 crown proved to be the highlight of Bennett’s time in Virginia. He took the Cavaliers back to the NCAAs in three of his final four seasons, but the Cavaliers never won another tournament game. Over time, questions grew as to whether his methodical playing philosophy could work in an era when experienced players can move freely between schools via the transfer portal.

In March, the Cavaliers only managed 42 points a 25-point loss to Colorado State in the first four. But Bennett was back, as usual, at the ACC preseason media days in Charlotte, not far from the site of the UMBC surprise, talking about plans for an upcoming season in which the Cavaliers have been selected to compete in the expanded 18-team league to take fifth place.

“I think you need to look at your model and adjust it a little bit,” Bennett said then, giving no indication of what was to come Thursday.

Instead, Bennett — who was the ACC’s only active coach with an NCAA title — became the league’s youngest recent high-profile coach, following Hall of Famers such as North Carolina’s Roy Williams in 2021, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski in 2022 and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim is coming up in 2023.

Bennett’s first stint as head coach was three years at Washington State, where he won 69 games and reached the NCAAs twice, including a Sweet 16 appearance in 2008. Before that, the son of former college coach Dick Bennett worked under his father Employees in Washington State and Wisconsin.

In his final season at Washington State, he coached future NBA All-Star and four-time world champion Klay Thompson and then numerous future NBA players such as Joe Harris, Malcolm Brogdon, DeAndre Hunter and Ty Jerome.

Bennett played in college for his father at Wisconsin-Green Bay, then was selected in the second round by the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets in 1992 and spent three seasons with the team.

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