Tony Bennett's Shocking Retirement: Cites NIL & Transfer Portal as Game-Changers for Virginia Exit

Describing himself as “a square peg in a round hole,” a tearful Tony Bennett said Friday he suddenly retired from coaching at Virginia because he wasn’t suited to navigate the current landscape of college basketball.

Bennett — dressed in his signature suit-minus-tie look — told those gathered at his exit news conference that name, image and likeness money and the transfer portal have brought elements to the job that he’s “not great at.”

“I looked at myself and I realized, I’m no longer the best coach to lead this program,” Bennett said with athletic director Carla Williams seated next to him. “If you’re going to do it, you’ve got to be all in. You’ve got to have everything. And if you do it half-hearted, it’s not fair to the university and those young men. That’s what made me step down.”

Bennett led Virginia to the 2019 national championship a year after the Cavaliers became the first No. 1 seed to lose to a 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

He is the latest — and, at 55 years old, the youngest — high-profile coach to walk away citing a measure of burnout with the modern realities of the profession. That list includes former Villanova coach Jay Wright, who retired two years ago at 60.