Virginia head coach Tony Bennett is retiring immediately, as confirmed by Virginia basketball on Thursday.
Jeff Goodman was first on the story.
In June 2024, Bennett signed a contract extension that secured his position through April 2030.
Read more on the extension here.
Bennett has been the head coach at Virginia since the 2009-10 season. He has led the Cavaliers to ten NCAA Tournaments in his tenure, and won the 2019 NCAA Championship. Bennett led his 2019 team to the national title one year after becoming the first NCAA tournament No. 1 seed to fall to a 16-seed (UMBC).
This past season, Bennett’s Cavaliers finished 23-11 and made the First Four of the NCAA Tournament. They lost in that first game to Colorado State by a lopsided score of 67-42.
The Cavaliers were recently picked as the No. 5 team in the ACC Preseason Poll.
Here is the full poll.
1. Duke
2. North Carolina
3. Wake Forest
4. Clemson
5. Virginia
6. Miami
7. Pitt
8. NC State
9. Louisville
10. Notre Dame
11. Syracuse
12. Georgia Tech
13. SMU
14. Virginia Tech
15. Florida State
16. Cal
17. Stanford
18. Boston College
Virginia was the No. 13 team in Ken Pomeroy’s preseason rankings recently.
Pomeroy’s ratings are almost always a topic of conversation throughout the basketball season along with the NCAA’s NET rankings.
Pitt came in at No. 38 in the country and No. 4 in the ACC.
This is how the ACC stacks up in his rankings.
1. Duke (No. 2 overall)
2. North Carolina (No. 14 overall)
3. Clemson (No. 24 overall)
4. Pitt (No. 38 overall)
5. Wake Forest (No. 44 overall)
6. NC State (No. 52 overall)
7. Miami (No. 55 overall)
8. Louisville (No. 64 overall)
9. Syracuse (No. 68 overall)
10. Notre Dame (No. 69 overall)
11. Georgia Tech (No. 70 overall)
12. SMU (No. 74 overall)
13. Virginia (No. 78 overall)
14. Florida State (No. 90 overall)
15. Virginia Tech (No. 92 overall)
16. Stanford (No. 99 overall)
17. Boston College (No. 113 overall)
18. Cal (No. 135 overall)
Pomeroy’s system has Pitt’s offensive rating ranked No. 32 overall and its defensive rating No. 50 overall.
See Pomeroy’s full rankings here.
Im just going to speculate here and hoping that it has nothing to do with health.I’m going to say one of the inmates(since they are running the asylum that is college athletics now),came in and demanded more money or something along those lines and Tony said the F with this.Im done..
Congratulations on a great career. Best of luck in your future.