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

Tony Bennett, the longtime coach of the Virginia men’s basketball team, is retiring before the start of the season, the school announced Thursday. The news, which was first reported by Jeff Goodman of the Field of 68, was shortly confirmed by the Cavaliers.

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.

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

Bennett, one of the most respected college coaches in the country, coached Virginia for 15 seasons, leading the Cavaliers to an NCAA championship in 2019 — one year after his team became the first No. 1 seed to lose in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The 55-year-old coach also led Virginia to six regular season ACC titles, two ACC tournament titles and 10 NCAA Tournament appearances. He is a two-time Naismith Coach of the Year. He went 364-136 at Virginia, had just one losing season with the Cavaliers (his first) and leaves as the winningest coach in school history.

Jay Wright, who coached at Villanova for 21 years before launching an unexpected retirement announcement of his own in 2022, commended Bennett in a post on X.

“Tony is one of the most talented and toughest coaches we ever competed against. We always respected him and his teams at the highest level,” Wright wrote.

Under NCAA guidelines, UVA players will have 30 days to enter the transfer portal, starting Friday. Virginia’s first game of the season, a home game against Campbell, is set to take place on November 6.