Virginia’s Tony Bennett is retiring before the start of basketball season

Virginia men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett will announce his immediate resignation Friday, the school announced.

Bennett, 55, was set to begin his 16th season with the Cavaliers in less than three weeks, with the program opening the campaign against Campbell on Nov. 6.

As of Thursday afternoon, the school had not named an interim representative. The most likely option is associate head coach Ron Sanchez, who spent five seasons as head coach at Charlotte before returning to Charlottesville before last season. Assistant head coach Jason Williford also stood by Bennett throughout his tenure at Virginia.

Bennett is a two-time national coach of the year and led Virginia to the national championship in 2019. He won six ACC regular season titles and two ACC tournament titles.

The Cavaliers made 10 NCAA Tournament appearances under Bennett but had not won a tournament game since the national title race in 2019. They were ranked fifth in the ACC preseason poll released Wednesday.

Bennett signed a two-year contract extension in June until the end of the 2029/30 season.

Although Bennett led the program to unprecedented success during his time in Charlottesville, he also lamented the direction of college athletics.

During an interview with ESPN at ACC Media Day last week, he was asked why people felt he could be the next Jay Wright and suddenly retire while still in his prime.

“I’ll have to call Jay Wright and see what he says, right?” Bennett said. “I’ve always said: If you do that, in this job, whether you agree with it or not, you have to be true to yourself and really look and say: Who am I? “Can I.” I work the way I want to, and can it be successful enough? And you can decide whether you want to be a part of it or not.

“And when you feel like it’s time, like Jay did, like Coach K, maybe Saban, it’s their decision. And you can sit here and complain and complain. Or you have to make a decision. Either you try it your way,” or you have to make that decision. I think it will be better if it lasts another three to five years. These are decisions every man has to make when it’s his time.”

Before taking over at Virginia in 2009, Bennett led Washington State to two NCAA Tournament appearances in his three seasons as head coach there. The Cougars had two 26-win seasons in 2007 and 2008 and reached the Sweet 16 in 2008.

He spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach at Washington State after spending four seasons at Wisconsin coaching under his father, Dick Bennett, and Bo Ryan.

Bennett played for his father in Green Bay and finished his career as the Mid-Continent Conference’s leading career scorer and the NCAA’s leading 3-point shooter. He was selected by the Charlotte Hornets in the 1992 NBA draft and spent three seasons with the franchise.