Virginia coach Tony Bennett leaves as a 2019 National Champion and the winningest coach in program history. ~ Photo courtesy Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics Media Relations
Virginia men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett will officially announce his retirement on Friday. He leaves an unparalleled legacy at the school and across college basketball with his decision.
The school announced the retirement press conference for 11 a.m. on Friday at the John Paul Jones Arena. Bennett ends his UVA tenure with a 364-136 record and as the program’s all-time winningest coach. He surpassed Terry Holland, who posted 326 victories with the Cavaliers. Counting his time at Washington State, Bennett compiled a 433-169 career record with 12 NCAA Tournament appearances.
Bennett led Virginia to the 2019 National Championship, two ACC Tournament titles in 2014 and 2018, and 10 total NCAA Tournament bids. The Cavaliers won six ACC Regular Season Championships as well. Bennett received the ACC Coach of the Year Award four times at Virginia, the third most in league history, and the Pac-10 Coach of the Year Award once at Washington State. He has been a six-time Regional Coach of the Year and three-time National Coach of the Year.
Beloved by UVA fans for not only that success on the court, but his character and wisdom off of it, Bennett leaves a legacy with far-reaching impact. The program’s five pillars, shared by Tony’s father Dick Bennett and buried under the floor of the John Paul Jones Arena, provide one obvious example. Many fans and people have adopted those phrases of humility, passion, unity, servanthood, and thankfulness during the past 15 years.
Following the program’s 2019 National Championship, Tony Bennett turned down a raise with a new contract extension. Instead, he asked that money be redirected to his assistants and to program needs. At the same time in a joint donation with his wife Laurel, the Bennetts also pledged $500,000 toward a career-development program for current and former UVA men’s basketball players.
Prior to one of sports’ greatest redemption stories when Virginia became the first No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament, Bennett’s grace in defeat and in leadership throughout the next year also shone brightly. In the immediate CBS interview following the UMBC loss, Bennett said: “This is life, it can’t define you. You enjoy the good times and you’ve got to be able to take the bad times.” After that in the months that followed and through the historic redemption story, Bennett borrowed from a Ted Talk by Donald Davis and said: “If you learn to use the adversity right, it will buy you a ticket to a place you couldn’t have gone any other way.”
Those two seasons captured the highest of highest and the lowest of lows when it comes to the results. As Bennett prepares to make his retirement press conference at the same place his tenure started, Virginia fans mostly will remember his tenure fondly and with true gratitude. Two thoughts from that introductory media setting ring true all these years later.
First from then Virginia President John T. Casteen III: “Tony both believes in and lives the values that are important to us here at the University of Virginia. He’s known for integrity, for excellence, for respect, for civility, for fair play, and for an extraordinary worth ethic, all of which we admire enormously.”
And from Bennett himself in his first official words as UVA’s coach: “I came here to build a great team, but more importantly I came here to build a program that lasts. And I think the way you go about that is you have great integrity and you have great passion.”
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