Tony Bennett officially announced his retirement from college basketball after 15 years as the head coach at Virginia on Friday morning. The Cavaliers will begin the 2024/25 season in 19 days.
Although this move comes out of absolutely nowhere with seemingly poor timing, it is not necessarily a huge surprise.
Bennett has been one of the most vocal coaches against the current state of collegiate athletics in recent years. He does not like the lack of regulation by the NCAA. He is against what NIL has become. The transfer portal is out of control. Head coaches are essentially forced to handle the role of general manager and financial advisor in addition to the Xs and Os.
Those frustrations, among other things, were the primary catalyst to Bennett’s decision.
The 55-year-old revealed the reason for his early retirement long before it became real. His press conference confirmed that college basketball in its present-day form is no longer something that excites him.
The cons outweigh the pros.
The game and college athletics are not in a healthy spot. I think I was equipped to do the job the old way.
— Tony Bennett
All of these concerns are fair! However, the way Bennett handled his uneasiness is drawing criticism.
He signed a lucrative contract extension during the offseason, added five high-profile players through the transfer portal and coached them throughout the entire preseason. Virginia saw its winningest coach in program history step down with less than three weeks before its first game.
I looked at myself and I realized I’m no longer the best coach to lead this program in this current environment. If you’re gonna do it, you’ve gotta be all-in […]
If you do it half-hearted, it’s not fair to the university and those young men […]
That’s what made me step down.
— Tony Bennett
Bennett claims that his decision to retire only became real last week.
I thought about stepping away after last season, but then we signed a transfer class I was excited about. Then I signed a contract extension, which I didn’t know if I would finish, but I was excited. It wasn’t until our Fall Break until I decided this.
— Tony Bennett
On one end of this discussion, there is an underlying belief that the team might’ve been aware of the inevitable retirement long before the surprising news on Thursday. Ron Sanchez will serve as the interim head coach of the Cavaliers during the 2024/25 season. It is a classic old-school move for a head coach to suddenly step down at the last-possible moment so the school cannot open up a coaching search and must give the job to his “guy.” Maybe this was all part of thee plan.
At the same time, this timing is unfortunate.
Tony Bennett choosing to retire could leave the program in a really tough spot. Especially if some of the players take advantage of the 30-day window to transfer. If he decided to retire because he is not all-in, it would’ve been better to come to that realization before he started coaching for the 2024/25 season.
The post Tony Bennett Draws Criticism For How He Handled His Sudden Retirement From College Basketball appeared first on BroBible.
Tony Bennett Draws Criticism For How He Handled His Sudden Retirement From College Basketball
Pinoy Human Rights
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