Tony Bennett, the now-former head coach of the Virginia Cavaliers men’s basketball program, addressed his sudden retirement in a press conference at John Paul Jones Arena on Friday morning. Although viewers may walk away wondering about the what ifs of a longer Bennett tenure, his words offered some sort of closure since the initial late-afternoon announcement on Thursday.
He explained that the decision to retire was made particularly through conversation with his wife, Laurel, on a brief academic fall break this past Monday and Tuesday. Bennett pondered the idea back in the spring, but the recruiting and transfer portal schedule gave him little time to step back and think.