The timestamp on the email from the UVA Basketball SID announcing that the school was cutting ties with Ron Sanchez was 5:00 p.m. ET on the dot.
#TeamAFP’s Scott German noted that the FlightAware flight-tracking app had the team in the air over the Virginia-North Carolina border as the email was going out.
Sanchez didn’t learn his fate by email in the air or when the plane landed in Charlottesville, in case you were wondering.
Our contacts down in Charlotte described the scene after Virginia’s 66-60 loss to Georgia Tech that bounced the ‘Hoos from the ACC Tournament and ended the 2024-2025 season.
From what we were told, Sanchez was ushered into a room ahead of his postgame presser for a quick meeting.
We don’t know who else was in the room, but we can presume it was the athletics director, Carla Williams.
Sanchez was later than usual to the presser, and from a look at the video on YouTube, and a read of the transcript, he knew what was up.
A reporter asked him, at the end of the presser, if he felt he’d “had the opportunity to sit with Carla and her advisors to make (his) case and present (his) vision for UVA Basketball?”
His answer:
“I believe that I’ve had four months to do that. I think that Carla and her advisors gave me the opportunity to interview every day, and my job now is done. My interview is over. Whatever they decide will be what’s best for the University of Virginia, and Ron is going to be very supportive of whatever Carla and her advisors decide.
“I love this place. I want it to be successful. No matter what happens with their decision, Virginia has my respect, my love, and I will continue to appreciate this place for all that it’s done for me throughout the years.”
How the quick dismissal might play
There was concern expressed by one member of the search committee that the quick bloodletting could backfire in terms of how it plays to potential candidates.
The general sentiment there: it’s unlikely that we’re going to be able to announce the next coach until next week at the absolute earliest, so, why not wait a day or two, or even just skip pushing him aside entirely, until you’re ready to announce the new guy?
The flip side of that, to me, would be, waiting a day or two, or going the extreme route of making no announcement at all, might signal to the pool of candidates that Williams is wavering on what to do.
Just me, I like the clean break.
It does also signal that Sanchez isn’t a fallback choice, in case the school isn’t able to land its first or second choice.
The Tony Bennett Era is officially over.
The latest on Ryan Odom
Our spies down in Charlotte said there was a lot of talk backstage about NC State being all-in on Ryan Odom, who has emerged as the top target for the UVA job.
I’d already noted this as a possible roadblock in a column on Sunday in the hours after State parted ways with Kevin Keatts, highlighting the mutual UVA ties between Odom, the son of former UVA Basketball assistant Dave Odom, and Boo Corrigan, the son of former UVA Athletics Director Gene Corrigan.
To me, this is why your search committee doesn’t get stuck on one guy.
You want a guy who wants to be your guy.
UVA will be able to offer more money – Bennett’s last contract was paying him $4.1 million a year; Keatts was making $3.1 million a year at State.
Virginia has significantly more to offer its next coach in terms of NIL budget.
The disadvantage that we have: Virginia’s admissions relative to the admissions office at NC State.
To me, if a guy decides that easier admissions makes for the better situation, at a lower salary and smaller NIL budget, and working with somebody that you kinda, sorta know because your dads knew each other 40 years ago, then you were probably weren’t the right guy for us in the first place.
I want a guy who thinks the UVA job is the best job in America, which I happen to think it is.
Video: What we know about the UVA Basketball coach search
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Chris Graham
