The Mayor of Hooville Bids Adieu

Fighting back tears as best he could, University of Virginia’s head basketball coach, Tony Bennett, quoted the late Christian missionary Jim Elliot during a Friday press conference to formally announce his resignation.

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose,” said Bennett. “I’ve been here 15 years as the head coach and I thought it would be a little longer to be honest but that’s been on loan. It wasn’t mine to keep. It’s time for me to give it back.” 

Bennett then turned to his family.

“I love Laurel with all my heart,” Bennett said of his wife. “To be a better dad to my daughter Anna and my son Eli. My parents are both 81 years old, and I don’t want to live with any regrets. Just to be around them, to be a better friend, to be a better brother.”

Bennett’s retirement comes only months after he signed a contract extension that would have seen him remain the Cavs coach through 2030. Among college basketball’s sordid landscape of success, Bennett is oft regarded as one of the good guys, a deep-believing man of faith who eloquently expressed his faith in the Lord without coming across as dogmatic. 

His sincerity, deep faith, and leadership blissfully shone through during his meeting with the Blue Ridge press on Friday. Bennett credited the “unique way” in which UVA has built a non-traditional powerhouse. In the era of one-and-done, Bennett was an old-school ball coach who valued four-year players and prized low-scoring, defensive battles drawn out through his vaunted pack line defense.

They say defense wins championships, and for Bennett especially, no axiom serves a more fitting description of his first-rate tenure as the head hoops coach for the Cavaliers. Bennett’s 15-year run as leader of the Wahoos was sparkling. A two-time Naismith and AP coach of the year and one time NCAA tournament champion, Bennett leaves Charlottesville the most decorated hoops coach in the university’s history. 

Many college basketball fans despised his defensive scheme. As commentators and casual fans complained about the protracted nature of Bennett’s basketball, those who watched the two decades of flashy but streaky Cavaliers teams that proceeded Bennett came to appreciate the Merrimack vs. Monitor-esque slogs that more often than not resulted in a W over the last 15 seasons.

In his decade and a half at the helm, Bennett’s teams won 364 games while earning six regular season ACC titles, two ACC tournament championships, and 10 NCAA tournament appearances. His win percentage of 72.8 percent ranks him just below Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and UNC’s Dean Smith, two other ACC coaches who rose to the top of the college basketball coaching world. 

The year before Bennett led his team to its sole, miraculous championship, the Hoos experienced one of the most devastating defeats in the history of the game. The Cavaliers, who had earned a #1 seed in the 2018 edition of March Madness, inexplicably lost to #16-seed UMBC. It was the first time in the history of the tournament that a #1 lost to a #16. Such an embarrassing defeat would’ve sunk other coaches or at least caused them to strike out at their team in absence of an explanation for such an embarrassing loss. Not Bennett.

He and the Cavaliers, led by senior guards Ty Jerome and Kyle Guy, used the loss as fuel for what would become one of the most sensational and enchanting runs in the history of the game. After dispatching Gardner Webb, Oklahoma, and Oregon in the first three rounds of the tournament, Virginia beat #3 Purdue and #5 Auburn with back-to-back, breathtaking buzzer-beater finishes that propelled the Cavs into the finals where they forever etched their name into March Madness lore. 

Virginia’s Gov. Glenn Youngkin, reacting to the news on Thursday, said his “heart broke” upon hearing the news. “Tony Bennett is one of the greatest coaches that college basketball will ever see, and he’s also a great man. I was heartbroken to see he was stepping down. We’re going to miss him.” 

The legendary college coach Rick Pitino also took the time to note Bennett’s contributions to the sport and its community. “College basketball just lost a man with incredible class, humility, and dignity. Tony Bennett is an awesome teacher of our game.”

Bennett’s success began with his belief in the “five pillars” of humility, passion, unity, servanthood, and thankfulness. In the age of big-money recruiting and off-court scandals, his players represented UVA, Charlottesville, and the greater Commonwealth with grace and professionalism. From top to bottom, Bennett built the program into something to admire and be proud of. 

At his introductory press conference in 2009, Bennett spoke earnestly: “I came here to build a great team. But, more importantly, I came here to build a program that lasts.” Whoever inherits the Hoos next, and for this season it will likely be his associate head coach Ron Sanchez, Bennett has achieved the goal of building a program unlike anything we’ve seen in college hoops.

So long, Tony. You will be long missed but never forgotten.

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