UVA’s Bennett mentions state of game for retirement

• Jeff Borzello, ESPN

  • Staff WriterOct 18, 2024, 12:37 PM ET Close Basketball recruiting insider.
  • Joined ESPN in 2014.
  • Graduate of University of Delaware.Former Virginia males’s basketball coach Tony Bennett, who officially announced his retirement Friday morning, indicated the”current environment”in college sports as one of the driving forces behind his abrupt decision to step down with the Cavaliers.”The hardest thing to state is when I took a look at myself and I

  realized I’m no longer the very best coach to lead this program in this present environment,”Bennett said at his retirement press conference.” If you’re going to do it, you got ta be all-in. If you do it halfhearted, it’s unfair to the university and those boys. So in taking a look at it, that’s what made me step down.”Editor’s Picks

Bennett, 55, has actually long bemoaned the instructions of college sports and increased emphasis on the transfer portal and name, image and likeness.

“I think it’s right for student-athletes to get earnings. Please don’t mistake me,” he said Friday. “The game and college athletics is not in a healthy area. It’s not. And there requires to be change, and it’s not going to return. I think I was equipped to do the task here the old method. That’s who I am.

“It’s going to be closer to an expert model. There’s got to be cumulative bargaining. There needs to be a restriction on the salary swimming pool. There has to be transfer guideline constraints. There has to be some limits on the agent participation to these young guys. … And I worry a lot about the mental health of the student-athletes as all this stuff boils down.”

Bennett stated he initially thought about stepping away at the end of the 2023-24 season, but he and his staff immediately started the restoring procedure and he signed a contract extension in June that would have kept him in Charlottesville until 2030.

Last weekend, nevertheless, when the university had its fall break and Bennett and his spouse, Laurel, disappeared, the retirement thoughts solidified.

“Just kind of processed about what the future would be,” Bennett said. “Which’s where I sort of came to the awareness that I can’t do this. It’s not fair to these guys and to this organization that I enjoy so much to continue on when you know you’re not the right guy for the job.”

Associate head coach Ron Sanchez will take control of the program for the season. Sanchez was on Bennett’s personnel from 2009 to 2018 before leaving to become the head coach at Charlotte for five seasons. In June 2023, Sanchez suddenly stepped down as the 49ers head coach to return to Virginia and become Bennett’s associate head coach.Totals D-I Rank PPG

in an excellent location.” In Bennett’s 15 seasons in charge, he directed the Cavaliers to extraordinary and constant success. He is a two-time coach of the year who led Virginia to the national championship in 2019, also winning six ACC regular-season titles and 2 league tournament titles.”I want I could have gone longer. I really do,” Bennett stated.” But it was time, and I wouldn’t have actually done it if I didn’t believe we had the best group of young men and the best staff to lead them forward in this way. I believe I ‘d have more remorses remaining longer and not being able to be all-in and not sure in offering everything to these guys than stepping away with maybe a bit more energy in the tank. That would be the bigger remorse I ‘d have.”Though Virginia found itself in the national conversation usually under Bennett, the Cavaliers hadn’t won an NCAA tournament game considering that their nationwide title run in 2019. They were picked fifth in the ACC preseason poll launched Wednesday.”I understand you get to a point sometimes when winning is a relief more than an event and losing stick to you, and it’s a discomfort,” Bennett stated. “That things has started to take ahold.” Before taking control of at Virginia in 2009, Bennett led Washington State to two NCAA tournament appearances in his 3 seasons as the coach in Pullman. The Cougars had back-to-back 26-win seasons in 2006-07 and 2007-08, reaching the Sugary food 16 in 2008. He had spent the previous 3 seasons as an assistant coach at Washington State after 4 seasons at Wisconsin coaching under his dad, Penis Bennett, and Bo Ryan.Bennett bet his daddy at Green Bay, completing his profession as the Mid-Continent Conference’s leading profession scorer and the NCAA’s leading career 3-point shooter. He was chosen by the Charlotte Hornets in the 1992 NBA draft and invested three seasons with the

franchise.Bennett’s retirement follows a similar pattern to two of his coaches. Bennett’s dad retired from Wisconsin three games into the 2000-01 season, replaced on an

interim basis by assistant coach Brad Soderberg, who had actually been on Bennett’s personnel at Virginia. Wisconsin ultimately hired Ryan rather of providing Soderberg the job. When Ryan retired from the Badgers, he did it 12 games into the 2015-16 campaign.During Friday’s news conference, Bennett said he might look to be a supporter for student-athletes and coaches in today’s ever-changing college sports landscape.”I changed some,”Bennett said. “However you can’t fight against yourself.”