Legendary University of Virginia head coach Tony Bennett announced sudden retirement from college basketball with less than three weeks until the start of the 2024-25 season. His now-former team got absolutely smacked by a mid-major program in its first game since the unexpected resignation.
The ugly result raises some questions about the timing of Bennett’s decision to step away form the program.
Although the 55-year-old was long considered a prime candidate to retire early, he signed a lucrative contract extension during the offseason and added five high-profile players to his roster through the transfer portal. By all accounts, the Cavaliers went through their entire offseason and preseason training camp with the expectation that their coach would still be their coach come Nov. 6 when they tipoff at home against Campbell to begin what would’ve been his 16th year in Charlottesville.
That is obviously not the case. Bennett quit retired on Friday after supposedly coming to a decision during just last week. Ron Sanchez was tapped as the interim.
Why did Tony Bennett retire?
Bennett explained that his departure stems from the current state of college athletics. NIL, the transfer portal, and a lack of regulation became too much to handle. He wasn’t “all-in” and previously hinted at the reason for an early retirement during the University of Virginia’s fall break.
It feels like Bennett should’ve come to this conclusion over the summer — or at any time before right now — or stayed with the Hoos through this season. It feels like he quit on his players right before their first game, even if people around the program claim they don’t see it that way.
Virginia played a secret scrimmage against VCU on Saturday, which marked the first opportunity to see how this team will handle adversity. According to Jon Rothstein, the Rams won by 22. The Cavaliers scored less than 49 points, total, which was only seven points better than their historically bad 42-point performance against Colorado State in the First Four of the NCAA Tournament in March.
Source: VCU over Virginia 71-49 in a Secret Scrimmage.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) October 19, 2024
Did Tony Bennett decide to retire because he knew this year’s squad was not going to be very good? Some are saying… Maybe he saw his team play and decided it wasn’t worth the headache….