Tony Bennett, longtime Virginia men’s basketball coach, unexpectedly retires before start of the season

Longtime Virginia men’s basketball coach and 2019 national champion coach Tony Bennett is retiring before the start of the season, the school announced Thursday.

Bennett, who has coached the Cavaliers since 2009, will retire effective immediately. He and Virginia will host a press conference Friday morning to discuss the sudden move. The school did not immediately announce an interim coach or a succession plan.

Per multiple reports, Bennett is not retiring because of health-related reasons.

Bennett is responsible for one of the best runs in NCAA tournament history just a year after the biggest upset ever. In 2018, Virginia entered the NCAA tournament as a No. 1 seed and became the first top seed to lose in the first round to a No. 16 seed when the Cavaliers lost 74-54 to the University of Maryland Baltimore County. To this day, no other No. 1 seed has lost in the first round.

Virginia many key players from that team ahead of the 2018-19 season like Kyle Guy, De’Andre Hunter and Ty Jerome. The Cavaliers went on to win the ACC regular-season title once again, and this time, went 6-0 in the NCAA tournament.

The Cavaliers beat Oregon by four in the Sweet 16 and then Purdue by five in the Elite Eight. Virginia then knocked off Auburn 63-62 in the Final Four when Guy made three free throws with 0.6 seconds to go after he was fouled on a potential game-winning 3-pointer.

Two days later, Virginia took down Texas Tech 85-77 in the national title game.

Bennett came to Virginia ahead of the 2009-2010 season after three years at Washington State. After one trip to the NCAA tournament in his first four seasons in Charlottesville, Virginia became a staple atop the ACC in 2014. The Cavaliers won four regular-season ACC titles in six years before winning the regular-season titles in 2021 and in 2023.

In a post on X, former Villanova coach Jay Wright — who surprisingly retired in 2022 — said that Bennett was “one of the most talented and toughest coaches we ever competed against.”

Virginia’s playing style under Bennett was effective, especially in the regular season. And it was very distinguishable. The Cavaliers have consistently played at one of the slowest tempos in the country under his watch and have played stingy defense. Virginia was 210th in the country in points per game the season it won the national title and gave up the fewest points per game of any team in college basketball at 56.1.

But while Virginia had consistent regular-season success in Bennett’s tenure, NCAA tournament success was much harder to come by. The 2019 tournament is the only time Virginia made the Final Four in his tenure. Since that title, Virginia is 0-3 in its tournament appearances and failed to make it past the first weekend of the tournament in all but three of its 10 appearances under Bennett. Last season, Virginia lost in the First Four by 25 to Colorado State.

By rule, player’s on Virginia’s roster will have 30 days to enter the transfer portal following Bennett’s retirement. However, they likely don’t have many options. Most teams’ rosters are set with the season so quickly approaching. Virginia’s first game of the 2024-25 season is against Campbell.