A few days ago, I wrote about how legendary UVA Basketball coach Tony Bennett didn’t do his longtime friend Ron Sanchez any favors when he stepped down just weeks before the 2024-2025 season began.
ICYMI
I’m still of the opinion that Bennett’s timing in stepping away from the program wasn’t the greatest, but Bennett, and UVA Athletics, didn’t have a lot of options.
The bad news is, it doesn’t appear to be working out. Virginia, with Sanchez as the interim coach, is 8-8, 1-4 in the ACC, with seven losses by double-digits, four by 20+.
There’s plenty of time for this to get turned around, sure, but the handwriting is on the wall.
Bennett brought Sanchez back before the 2023-2024 season, after his long-time right-hand man spent five years as the head coach at Charlotte, and it was clear at the time – and became more clear when we got a look at the contracts for everybody involved – that there was more to things than met the eye.
Sanchez was brought back to be the successor, whenever that would be.
The timetable for “whenever” sped up with the fade at the end of the 2023-2024 season that ended with a thud in the First Four in that ugly 67-42 loss to Colorado State.
After the Dayton Debacle, Bennett had to be thinking that his coaching style and the landscape of college basketball were not blending well.
He could have just as quickly walked away from the job then.
But if he had, what would have happened?
Obviously, Sanchez and the rest of his staff would have been out of jobs, as the AD, Carla Williams, would have had ample time to search for Bennett’s replacement.
Maybe this wasn’t what Bennett wanted.
ICYMI
By hanging up the whistle just a few weeks from the season, Bennett provided Sanchez and the rest of his staff an opportunity they would not have had back in the spring.
If the season did jump the tracks, which it has, and Sanchez was not the right person, then the next coach would not be the coach to succeed Bennett.
And remember, you don’t want to be the man that replaces the man.
And, as far as we know, the current AD is a lame duck, having yet to sign a contract extension.
A staff member inside the program reminded me recently that “Tony’s not going anywhere.”
So, when you look at the whole situation, maybe Tony Bennett not only did Ron Sanchez a favor by walking away when he did, but he also gave Virginia Basketball an even greater gift.
At least for the time being, Bennett took the decision off the lame-duck AD’s desk.
Even if it amounts to nothing more than kicking the can down the road, it gives UVA Athletics a chance to get things right going forward.
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