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Virginia’s 2019 National Championship-winning head coach Tony Bennett retires, effective immediately

Sam Federman

By Sam Federman

Photo by Virginia Athletics

This morning, college basketball had seven active coaches with a national championship, now there are only six.


Virginia head coach Tony Bennett will announce his immediate retirement on Friday, the Cavaliers confirmed on Twitter after Jeff Goodman’s initial report.


This comes at a peculiar time, just a few weeks before what would’ve been his 16th season at the helm. He won 364 games, including 69.7% of his ACC contests while the head coach at Virginia. He broke up the duopoly held by Duke and North Carolina, by winning the ACC’s regular season title six times.


In 2019, he led Virginia to its first-ever national championship, just a year after losing as the top overall seed to 16th-seeded UMBC.

 

Bennett will be remembered for his tenacious pack line defense, which finished top 5 in the country seven times in his tenure, including taking the top spot in 2018 and 2020. This was the driver of his Hall of Fame-caliber resume, which includes two AP National Coach of the Year Awards, three Henry Iba Awards, and 4 ACC Coach of the Year Awards.


Recently, he has come under criticism for failing to modernize his blocker-mover offense, leading to the Cavaliers’ 200th-ranked offense in 2024, and dismal showing in the 2024 First Four.


Before his time at Virginia, he spent three years as the head coach at Washington State, winning 69 games and making back-to-back NCAA Tournaments.

He was an assistant for his father at both Washington State and Wisconsin before taking his first head job in 2006.


Bennett, just 55 years old, caught the college basketball world by surprise with this news.


An interim coach has not been announced yet, but Jason Williford and Ron Sanchez are expected to be the main candidates.

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