Virginia Honoring Tony Bennett During Georgia Tech Game on February 8th

Matt Newton | Jan 14, 2025

Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

Virginia will honor former men's basketball head coach Tony Bennett with a series of tributes and a banner raising at halftime of the game against Georgia Tech on Saturday, February 8th at 5:30pm ET at John Paul Jones Arena, as announced by UVA on Tuesday afternoon (January 14).

According to the press release from Virginia Athletics, "UVA will recognize Bennett with tributes throughout the game and raise a banner in JPJ during a special ceremony at halftime." Additionally, every fan in attendance at the game will receiver a commemorative replica banner.

This celebration will take place in conjunction with UVA Men's Basketball Alumni Day, with many former players, managers, and staff expected to be in attendance at John Paul Jones Arena. The press release also mentions "future plans to be announced", the meaning of which we can only speculate on, but it could mean a statue or the naming of the court at JPJ in honor of Tony Bennett.

This season was to be Bennett's 16th at the helm of the Virginia men's basketball program, but he announced his sudden and immediate retirement on Friday, October 18th, leaving Ron Sanchez to serve as the interim head coach for UVA in the 2024-2025 season. In 15 seasons, Bennett amassed a 364-136 overall record, making him the winningest head coach in program history, and led the Cavaliers to six ACC regular season titles, two ACC Tournament titles, 10 NCAA Tournament appearances, and the 2019 NCAA National Championship. Bennett was named the ACC Coach of the Year four times (2014, 2015, 2018, 2019) and the National Coach of the Year three times (2007, 2015, 2018).

In his retirement press conference on October 18th, Bennett emphasized that it was time for him to prioritize his family over his coaching career and elaborated by saying that he felt he was "no longer the best coach to lead this program in this current environment." Continuing, Bennett said, "And if you're going to do it, you've got to be all in. You've got to have everything. If you do it halfhearted, it's not fair to the university and those young men. In looking at it, that's what made me step down."

Of course, the "current environment" Bennett was referring to is the landscape of college basketball and its unprecedented challenges regarding Name, Image, and Likeness and the transfer portal. Ultimately, Bennett concluded that changes need to be made to better regulate NIL in college sports as well as the recruiting calendar with the transfer portal. But with those changes nowhere in sight, he does not feel he is fit to be the head coach of this program.

"This game, I think it's right for players, student-athletes to receive revenue. Please don't mistake me, I do. I think it is. But the game and college athletics is not in a healthy spot. It's not, and there needs to be change. It's not going to go back -- I think I was equipped to do the job here the old way. That's who I am, and that's how it was. My staff has buoyed me along to get to this point, but there needs to be change. It's going to be closer to a professional model, Coach Carlisle, I think it is, where there's got to be collective bargaining. There has to be a restriction on the salary pool that teams can spend. There has to be transfer regulation restrictions. There has to be some limits on the agent involvement to these young guys. And there are good agents, and there are bad agents, and they're driving some of this stuff that we're in."

Watch Tony Bennett's retirement press conference in its entirety here:

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