Tony Bennett Announced Thursday He Is Retiring As The Head Coach Of Virginia

As the Head Coach Of Virginia Tony Bennett was known for his deliberate pace on the offensive end as well as the defensive end of the court.

On Thursday Tony Bennett announced he is retiring as the Head Coach of Virginia by saying "I got to call Jay Wright and see what he says, right?" Bennett said. "I always have said, when you're doing this, you're in this profession, whether you agree how it's going or not, you have to be true to yourself and really look at it and say, who am I? Can I operate how I want, and can it be successful enough? And you get to choose if you want to be a part of it or not.

"And when you feel it's time, like Jay did, like Coach K, maybe [Nick] Saban, it's their choice. And you can sit here and complain and gripe. Or you have a decision to make. Either you try to do it in your way or you get to make that decision. So I think Jay Wright probably foresaw where this is going. ... It'll be better whenever there's regulations. Is that three to five years away? Who knows? But if it's not -- those are decisions that every man has to make when it's his time."

The hardest thing to say is when I looked at myself and I realized I'm no longer the best coach to lead this program in this current environment," Bennett said at his retirement press conference. "If you're gonna do it, you gotta be all-in. If you do it half-hearted, it's not fair to the university and those young men. So, in looking at it, that's what made me step down."

On Friday Tony Bennett during his press conference about why he is retiring as the Head Coach Of Virginia I think it's right for student-athletes to receive revenue. Please don't mistake me," he said on Friday. "The game and college athletics is not in a healthy spot. It's not. And there needs to be change and it's not gonna go back. I think I was equipped to do the job here the old way. That's who I am."

"It's gonna be closer to a professional model," "There's gotta be collective bargaining. There has to be a restriction on the salary pool. There has to be transfer regulation restrictions. There has to be some limits on the agent involvement to these young guys ... And I worry a lot about the mental health of the student-athletes as all this stuff comes down."

Just kind of processed about what the future would be,""And that's where I kind of came to the realization that I can't do this. It's not fair to these guys and to this institution that I love so much to continue on when you know you're not the right guy for the job."

Associate head coach Ron Sanchez will take over the program for the season. Sanchez was on Bennett's staff from 2009-18, 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 to become Bennett's associate head coach.

According to Jeff Borzello espn articles https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/41852970/virginia-tony-bennett-retiring-ahead-basketball-seasonhttps://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/41868376/uva-tony-bennett-cites-state-game-retirement