CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Tony Bennett doesn’t deal with consideration all that comfortably. He is by no means one to hunt a highlight and, to my thoughts, has by no means referred to as a member of the press searching for credit score or to suss out a buzzy behind-the-scenes rumor. Bennett, generally to the frustration of the media, is usually humble to a fault. Predictably, that humility was on show once more Friday, maybe for one final time.
“The College of Virginia is a tremendous place due to individuals like Tony,” athletic director Carla Williams mentioned throughout her introduction of Bennett’s retirement press convention.
As Williams’ opening remarks led right into a standing ovation for Bennett, the coach predictably donned a sheepish grin, his shoulders slouched as he channeled the vitality of a kid who does not know what to do with their physique when all people is singing the pleased birthday music to them. In the event that they’d have let Bennett retire with out nothing greater than a paragraph’s value of a press launch, he most likely would have taken it.
What a surreal scene it was, although. One of many sport’s best coaches is strolling away, on this odd day of the 18th of October, practically on the eve of the season, turning into the most recent high-profile coach to drag the ripcord. And in doing so, Bennett places that rather more consideration on the unstable surroundings of faculty athletics that has lots of people soul-seeking and scrambling for options to existential issues that go a hell of rather a lot deeper than one man’s resolution to not coach basketball.
“I believed it will be a bit longer, to be sincere, however it’s been on mortgage and it is time for me to present it again,” Bennett mentioned as he held again tears. The scene raised the query of why a 55-year-old was stepping away like this, 18 days earlier than the beginning of the 2024-25 season, and Bennett offered solutions.
After his information convention, he took much more questions in a one-on-one interview with CBS Sports activities, moving into the specifics of his exit.
“Till there’s parameters, I do know I am unable to do it, and that is the entire deal right here,” he informed CBS Sports activities. “I feel generally you virtually discuss your self into issues as you are doing it. Like, I can do that. I’m geared up. We will modify. And also you type of inform your self sure stuff and also you begin believing. Yep, I can. However if you type of step again and look. Can I be as efficient as I must be? Am I totally aligned with the way it needs to be for this college, for these younger males? Can I give all the things, can we construct a program on this means, or is it, is my far more designed for the outdated mannequin?”
However to know Bennett’s resolution — earlier than digging into the large shifts within the faculty basketball panorama which have pushed out different legendary coaches as effectively — it is advisable to return to how his unplanned voyage started. Earlier than the 433 wins and the last word redemption of that Homeric 2019 nationwide championship. Earlier than the eight mixed ACC titles, the nationwide coach of the yr awards and the more-than-you-realized variety of NBA picks he developed in Charlottesville.
All of Bennett’s success and ACC domination over the previous decade has obscured the truth that, for a lot of the primary half of his life, he was not eager on teaching. Initially, he resisted it. He simply might have by no means chosen this path. Bennett noticed and discovered from — and was generally bewildered by — the life and vocation his father took. The incandescent Dick Bennett received 489 video games of his personal throughout three many years. He’s a legend in his personal proper, however his competitiveness tortured him. In 1999, standing on the doorstep of 30 along with his enjoying days behind him, Tony tiptoed towards the teaching sideline the one means he knew how: by providing himself as a servant for others. Greater than that: He primarily did it as a favor to his father. Dick knew having Tony on his employees was the one means he might spend extra time along with his son. So, a Corridor of Fame-worthy profession started as a volunteer assistant for the Wisconsin Badgers.
If Dick does not ask Tony to present it a strive, faculty basketball and the College of Virginia’s program are rather a lot completely different due to it.
Tony was shortly promoted to an assistant’s put up, a spot he quietly held for seven years, first at Wisconsin after which at Washington State, till Dick retired following the 2005-06 season. Tony took over within the dim and distant outpost of Pullman, Washington, and proceeded to virtually break the legal guidelines of basketball physics by successful 69 video games in his first three seasons and guiding the Cougars to their solely back-to-back NCAA Event appearances at school historical past. After doing the near-unthinkable with Wazzu, he was the clear selection practically 2,500 miles away at Virginia in 2009, when former athletic director Craig Littlepage made the rent that might consequently alter faculty basketball for the subsequent 10-plus years.
Virginia one of the best of what is round below Bennett
Lower than three weeks after Bennett acquired the job in 2009, he was in John Paul Jones Area — the place the crew’s workplaces are — working late on the weekend. Hometown heroes Dave Matthews Band had been again on the town and enjoying a few exhibits that evening. Because it acquired nearer to showtime, Bennett pulled again one of many curtains to peek on the scene. The place was bought out. JPJ Area wasn’t even three years outdated at that time, and ‘Hoos hoops wasn’t pulling in crowds like these. Not even shut. As he took within the view, Bennett felt a jolt.
“I keep in mind considering, man, sometime if we will construct this program, it may seem like this for basketball video games,” Bennett mentioned Friday.
Bennett’s band would certainly break by means of. By 2014, he’d received his first ACC title. Quickly sufficient, he was filling JPJ identical to DMB.
Beneath Bennett, Virginia skilled its most sustained success at school historical past. He stubbornly reduce towards the grain of tactical tendencies and new-age Xs-and-Os. His groups did not a lot play within the mud as they lived in it, frequently logging final in adjusted tempo at KenPom.com.
“We did it in a singular means,” Bennett mentioned. “That was my imaginative and prescient, our imaginative and prescient as a employees. Can we construct this program that perhaps is a bit completely different than the best way you do it? That is the great thing about this sport. You get to decide on the way you do it, with who you do it, within the fashion you do it.”
“Embrace the Tempo” turned a cheeky mantra for this system, buoyed by Bennett’s signature pack-line protection. Virginia was a scouting nightmare to scheme towards. Even when Bennett’s groups did not win each time, his tempo would. There was no rushing up towards Wahoos. He was criticized for the cosmetics however the outcomes had been plain. Bennett received 70% of his ACC video games, his success over Duke and North Carolina unmatched by every other program within the convention throughout his tenure. He is one of many best coaches in ACC historical past.
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The 74-54 flameout vs. UMBC within the first spherical of the 2018 NCAAs marked a historic blast. By no means earlier than had a No. 16 seed toppled a No. 1. (Virginia was, in reality, the No. 1 total seed in that event.) Bennett, drawing on his father’s instincts, refused to desert his ideas. Placing his belief in his religion, he believed he was imagined to expertise such humiliation with the intention to discover larger floor. One yr later, the Cavaliers rebounded to most reclamation and hit the mountaintop by successful the nationwide title, doing so with some of the dramatic runs of close-call video games in NCAA historical past. They might effectively play faculty basketball for a millennium to come back on this planet, and nonetheless the human race won’t see a year-over-year redemption story prefer it once more.
That was the excessive level. Now, the sober actuality.
Previously yr, Bennett mentioned, his assistants successfully needed to proceed to drag him nearer to the brand new mannequin, the brand new means of faculty teaching. He gave retirement severe thought within the days following Virginia’s 67-42 loss to Colorado State within the First 4 — I can now share that Bennett talked about this with me off the document in April — however earlier than he might actually permit himself to push by means of on that, recruiting within the portal pulled him into the subsequent section of the job, after which the subsequent. He did not need to be pulled any extra.
This week, he broke free.
Bennett might have had one other decade of good-to-great teaching in him if he felt it. However that feeling sapped from him in current months, and in simply the previous week, the epiphany hit. With three days to get away, Tony and his spouse, Laurel, headed out of city to Tides Inn, on the Rappahannock River. Over the course of 48 hours, he confronted his reality. He mentioned it hit him in a means that was inescapable.
“We misplaced a number of gamers that I feel we would not have misplaced [before NIL regulations],” Bennett mentioned. “And that is OK as a result of it is a new mannequin. And so you have to determine, the place’s the road, how far can we go? … It is complicated. I will be sincere, it is complicated.
“I spotted if we will not have the suitable gamers to compete, the hole might develop,” Bennett added. “I felt I used to be the one holding them again.”
Bennett referred to as Williams to ship the information Tuesday. She requested him to sleep on it and determine for certain after going by means of Wednesday’s apply. Bennett informed me he went into that apply open-minded and prepared to perhaps double-back on his resolution, simply in case he wanted to be nudged again onto his course.
“In apply, I attempted,” he informed me. “I felt the issues that might most likely take a few of my potential to speak with them and the enjoyment that is wanted for them to play together with the depth and the aim. I felt that, even in that apply, once I knew most likely what I used to be doing and it was virtually confirmed.”
One among Bennett’s favourite quotes, for many years, purportedly comes from a missionary named Jim Elliott, who mentioned: “He’s no idiot who provides what he can’t hold to realize what he can’t lose.” Bennett used the quote in his press convention on Friday.
The factor he can’t lose is what he finds himself wanting most now: time along with his household, time spent on these closest with him, time not wasted by worrying day by day concerning the state of a basketball roster, how a lot a participant within the switch portal will price, how a lot cash Virginia has to boost to ensure it does not fall a tier or two down within the hierarchy of the ACC. These issues have picked and peeled away at a job that may be very a lot not what it was in 2019, not to mention in 2009.
“Now that I am not in it, I can say this. It is an excessive amount of,” Bennett informed me. “You go from the second the season ends, you are making an attempt to fill your roster and also you’re in there and also you gotta go, go, go. You gotta be on campus. And the season’s lengthy sufficient, whether or not you’re within the event, the second it ends you are instantly making an attempt to rebuild your roster, and also you’re in there, and it was two months of insane work. You are simply going, going, going.”
For as pure as Bennett’s fame is as a coach, a father and a person, the timing of it has understandably come below some criticism. After Bennett went as far as to attend ACC Tipoff every week in the past to satisfy with the media, the transfer comes off as calculated. To go up and give up on this system whereas overseeing a crew peppered with unproven gamers was to place Virginia in a really tight spot. And in doing so, it compelled the hand of Williams, who tapped longtime Bennett lieutenant Ron Sanchez as interim head coach for the season.
Determination to retire could not wait
I requested Bennett about why retiring now was applicable. The offseason is over. The time coaches cherish essentially the most — the precise video games — is upon us. He might have privately determined to retire come March 2025 and saved to himself.
“It wasn’t like I acquired this set and I deliberate this date,” Bennett mentioned. “When you’re battling issues and you are not all in and have the fervour to present. You need to know who you’re, and you need to be all in with all the things. If you recognize you are combating your self on this — since you’re nonetheless recruiting, you are still concerned with stuff — you are gonna must hold constructing, and also you’re all the time worrying about what’s subsequent. And I felt, even within the fall, I felt issues I have never felt for a very long time, or perhaps I have been battling and training a few of my perspective. Typically, you recognize, my anger — and other people say, ‘Oh, you do not get offended’ — however I felt myself turning into a bit extra transactional in mindset. At instances. After which I might catch myself, however I felt that battle being waged inside, and I by no means need to be like that. That is why I am not geared up for this.”
It is truthful to criticize the timing of the transfer, however not the explanations behind it. Bennett is not dismissing the skeptics, however to listen to him on Friday was to listen to a person snug in his reality and assured within the subsequent section of Virginia’s program. If he wasn’t, he would have doubtless pushed by means of for one ultimate season.
Bennett signed a contract in June, tricking himself into considering he was prepared. However the laws and guardrails he hopes come to the game for the steadiness of everybody concerned had been by no means within the near-future. Faculty sports activities is evolving at a tempo that’s pushing championship-winning coaches out of the occupation. First it was Roy Williams in 2021. Then Mike Krzyzewski and Jay Wright in 2022. However Bennett is 55, simply the youngest of all of them. A man who by no means initially needed to get into teaching discovered himself trying round and questioning what occupation he was in. It actually wasn’t the one he volunteered for in Madison 25 years in the past.
“When you have got that battle, in the event you’re not all in and locked … I did not need to have the remorse of being 80% of what I might be. As a result of it is a nice line right here,” Bennett mentioned. “We do not have all of the issues the others have when it comes to five-stars — we have got good gamers — however it’s a means that you need to construct them. If I am 70%, 80%, that is not truthful to the gamers. You already know what? This employees, they’re those which are considering they’ll deal with this mannequin higher than I can. And till it adjustments, nobody will be capable of deal with it totally, however that is what led to it at the moment.
“You do must be all in, and I do not know precisely what that appears like,” he mentioned. “There’s good issues about this new stuff. I discussed that [in my press conference], and I imply it. However there’s rather a lot that is not wholesome and never good, and it is spinning uncontrolled. There needs to be change.”
He’ll foyer for a real shutdown interval within the offseason — if not two — the place coaches are mandated to not have any contact with recruits, to allow extra steadiness. With out it, he is aware of extra accelerated retirements are assured within the subsequent few years. He needs to be an agent for constructive developments in faculty athletics. Taking into consideration the cash that is now flowing throughout high-profile faculty sports activities, Bennett sees a significant psychological well being disaster coming for faculty athletes if extra protections aren’t put round them ASAP.
For as a lot as he has concern there, he additionally needs to present himself to his household greater than he ever has — spouse, kids and oldsters. Dick and Anne Bennett are 81 years outdated. He is solely gotten to see them a couple of times a yr lately. I keep in mind Bennett calling me on an August morning in 2023 for our Candid Coaches sequence as he sipped espresso outdoors subsequent to his mom. He was as chatty then as I’ve ever heard him.
“I do not need to dwell with regrets,” he mentioned Friday.
And so, this appears to be it. I requested if he was retired for good from all of basketball teaching, not simply faculty.
“Proper now, I feel it is executed,” Bennett mentioned. “I want a break. That was even one thing Carla talked about. Perhaps you want a sabbatical, or one thing like that. However on this panorama, I do not foresee myself getting again. I actually do not. That wasn’t the intention in any respect of this, to only get a break. I feel you recognize when it is your time, and I hope I can influence in no matter means it’s, whether or not it is across the sport in numerous methods, or one thing else, that is too quickly to know.”
Laurel Bennett informed me the one stipulation of this resolution was that there have been no extra massive choices coming quickly thereafter. No plans for subsequent week, subsequent month, subsequent yr.
He’s no idiot who provides what he can’t hold to realize what he can’t lose.
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As for his position across the crew, do not count on him to pop up at a number of video games within the season forward. Bennett mentioned he does not plan on being a continuing public presence round official Virginia basketball occasions; he is aware of he wants to offer a ways to greatest assist the transition course of.
“This was by no means mine, and it was time to present it again,” Bennett mentioned. “And that is the peace that I’ve.”
About an hour after he informed me these phrases, after the Bennetts quietly made their means off campus to go get pleasure from a really stress-free weekend and entered the subsequent stage of their lives, the sounds of the inevitable season manifested as they do. A bouncing basketball might be heard inside John Paul Jones Area from one of many gamers who was out early to rise up photographs. The video board displayed a graphic with a number of pictures of the best coach in Virginia basketball historical past, full with championship trophies at his ft. It learn: “THANK YOU COACH TONY BENNETT.”
One after the other, an increasing number of, all of them popped into the sector. Gamers, coaches, managers. Most of them had been there due to one man: Tony Bennett. Observe was quickly to start. The music over the PA audio system acquired louder. Shortly earlier than 2 p.m., Sanchez walked out, a folded apply plan in his left hand. Indiana Pacers coach/Virginia alum Rick Carlisle spoke to the crew in a circle at mid-court.
At 2 p.m., the video board flickered. The graphic with Bennett’s photos swapped, changed by what’s virtually all the time there as default: a brand for Virginia basketball.
In Charlottesville, a brand new period begins. And in that second, the fact hit arduous in additional methods than one.
Tony Bennett has left the sector.