Another men’s basketball coaching legend stepped away from the ACC on Thursday night.
According to Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman, longtime Virginia head coach Tony Bennett will retire effective immediately ahead of the 2024-25 season.
Bennett spent the past 15 seasons at the helm of the Cavaliers, winning six regular-season conference titles and building a reputation for slow, defensive basketball.
His program reached the summit in 2019 with a national championship victory over the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Discounting the shortened 2020-21 schedule, Virginia won at least 21 games in its past 12 seasons with four 30-win campaigns.
True to form, last season’s Cavaliers finished with a 23-11 record with KenPom’s seventh-best adjusted defensive efficiency rating while ranking 362nd in tempo.
Multiple reports, including one from Goodman, confirmed that Bennett’s retirement did not have to do with a sudden health scare or any health concerns at all.
Bennett’s Virginia tenure comes to a close with a 364-136 overall record and an 189-82 record in conference play.