bobinator said:

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Everyone is free to do what they want, nobody is saying there should be rules against this, but it's still a lame move.

There's also an obvious difference. If a coach is retiring he doesn't give a **** if this potentially looks bad because he's not trying to get hired somewhere.

Players are free to do it, but I imagine coaches are going to be hesitant to recruit someone who quits midseason.

Again, free to do it, doesn't mean it's a good thing to do.

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You obviously don't understand the new world that we're in.

bobinator said:

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When did he say he was going to up and retire three weeks before the season starts? I imagine him being more like one of other coaches that wait until the season ends and then just go out on a random Tuesday with no warning.

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It was in one of his Ag radio shows or podcast interviews. I'll try to dig around and see if I can find it. He said once he has grandkids OR if anyone on the basketball team could out bench/squat/deadlift him he would hang it up, but wouldn't announce retirement until weeks before the season so his assistant would be handed the job.

I guess that wouldn't surprise me all that much. He's sort of built a cult of people around him so it wouldn't be that shocking if he tried to get one of them into the job, but i doubt it would work unless we had just a really incredible season.

Enlighten me, oh wise one. You think coaches won't have any hangups about recruiting a guy who quit on his last team in the middle of the year? They might still do it, but I bet they're going to look into them a lot more than players who played the season out.

Also obviously a different situation if the coach in question is the one who got them to quit in the first place.

A player doing this vs a coaching doing this is different. Lame still yes, I agree with you there, but it's apples to oranges.

But we're also talking about Tony Bennett Virginia coach who has been a coach there for 15 years. We're not talking about just any coach. We're talking about a coach who has won a national championship so you're inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt when he's been a great coach with no off-court issues.

Isn't that what I'm saying? Obviously there are huge differences, that's why I didn't get what he was saying.

I've seen this happen a few times lately where someone - usually near retirement age at least - reaches that point where they realize they are ready to step away. In some cases they can give a 6-months notice or something but college basketball isn't really one of those situations. You'd be expected to recruit and plan for the future and give 110%. Ideally he would have realized he was out in March, but he didn't until now. I get that. I've seen that.

Better to retire now and have an interim than be a lame duck that is collecting a paycheck for half-effort. IMO.

I think he is finally getting his thoughts together:

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/41868376/uva-tony-bennett-cites-state-game-retirement

bobinator said:

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St Hedwig Aggie said:

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Guess lots of old coaches will be doing this who want nothing to do with nil.

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I kinda think it's less this and more a generation of coaches who don't want to just live and breathe basketball all the time. It's definitely a time of major changes in the model for college coaches, and I think you're seeing some of them that were on the edge of retirement age just go ahead and pull the trigger.

But I also think you're going to see a little more of this in general as the "work/life balance" crowd ages up as opposed to the coach-until-I-can't generation.

"NIL" has become a catch-all term for a lot of things, but I think the thing that's actually frustrating basketball coaches is the free transfers. Having to keep in mind that players on your roster can just up and leave without penalty is, BY FAR, the biggest change in the basketball world.

I don't really think NIL has changed things all that much in basketball other than programs just needing more cash. But the best programs are still getting the best players. Because all of the best basketball players were already getting paid and because basketball already kind of had the infrastructure for paying players in place I don't think the actual NIL stuff has made that big of a difference compared to other sports.

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Agree that the free for all player movement just becoming a hard pill to swallow from many coaches.

NIL will work itself out at this level, but the wild west of player movement changes are coming too slow for many coaches. Too many people w/ too many opinions to settle it soon enough for his taste.

Could see losing a player or two that way hurting worse than the losses. And losses crush these guys.

He might do more for the game as an advocate now. .

Tito

MarcAg said:

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Tony Bennett says he knew it was time to step down because he couldn't do it anymore and did it now instead of at the end of the season because "I've always wanted this to be taken over by one of my staff members."

— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) October 18, 2024

I have a problem with this. The basketball program doesn't belong to Tony Bennett, It belongs to the University of Virginia. . If you step down in April and the university wants your input on replacements that's one thing. But doing it to force their hand and hire one of your assistants is crappy. I know you can't say anything negative about the super nice Tony Bennett, but this is crap move by him

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This, if he's moving on it should not be his decision. Don't like the move either, feels selfish.

Interested to hear the full story on the why.

StinkyPinky said:

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MarcAg said:

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Tony Bennett says he knew it was time to step down because he couldn't do it anymore and did it now instead of at the end of the season because "I've always wanted this to be taken over by one of my staff members."

— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) October 18, 2024

I have a problem with this. The basketball program doesn't belong to Tony Bennett, It belongs to the University of Virginia. . If you step down in April and the university wants your input on replacements that's one thing. But doing it to force their hand and hire one of your assistants is crappy. I know you can't say anything negative about the super nice Tony Bennett, but this is crap move by him

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This, if he's moving on it should not be his decision. Don't like the move either, feels selfish.

Interested to hear the full story on the why.

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Seems like a good boss to me.

LawHall88 said:

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Maybe he decided to retire when he figured out his team sucks.

Source: VCU over Virginia 71-49 in a Secret Scrimmage.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) October 19, 2024

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Interesting.

My thoughts on why he would quit now are:

1) Wanted to make sure assistant would get at least one year on the job. Quitting now guarantees that.

2) Health / Scandal

3) Wanted to end on a high note ( If note above is true, did not want to leave on a bad season)
I didn't really think about this one earlier, but makes a lot of sense.

Think about Gary Blair having a poor season and then retiring. It just kinda makes everyone think you over-stayed.

Same thing with Women's Soccer Coach. Been here 20+ years, probably should have retired before getting canned (this year or next, would be my guess) - Now most under-performing coach on campus. As it will tarnish his legacy.

Peace!

Yan2110 said:

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Peace!

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scammer