The shocking and abrupt departure of the only ACC men’s basketball coach with a national championship to his name reached Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes sometime between landing in Alabama and checking into a hotel on Thursday evening.
Tony Bennett’s retirement was a shock, sure — but it also came with understanding from Wake’s coach entering his fifth season with the Deacons.
“I’m surprised that he walked away,” Forbes told Deacons Illustrated on Monday. “Somebody that’s as accomplished as him, has a lot left in the tank, stepped away from something that I know he loves to do.
“But I understand his reasons.”
Bennett’s retirement from Virginia sent shockwaves through the ACC and college basketball. At 55 years old, Bennett stepped away from a program where he won a national championship (2019), six ACC regular-season titles, two tournament championships, and reached the NCAA tournament 10 times in 15 years.
Wake Forest split meetings with Virginia last season, both winning at home. The Deacons won in Charlottesville, Va., in early 2022, and the Cavaliers repaid the favor by winning in Winston-Salem in 2023.
Virginia was picked to finish fifth in the ACC by the league’s preseason media poll. The Cavaliers have played in nine of the last 10 NCAA tournaments.
The baton has been passed to Ron Sanchez, who will lead Virginia on an interim basis this season. The expectation is that if he does well, he’ll have the job fulltime; if not, athletics director Carla Williams will be hitting the reset button on a program that has been as stable a winner as any non-blueblood program in the ACC has been.
In last week’s news conference, Bennett said things like:
- “When I looked at myself, I realized I’m no longer the best coach to lead this program in this current environment.”
- “There’s still a way in this environment. … But it’s complicated. And to admit honestly that I’m not equipped to do this, is humbling. I’m a square peg in a round hole.”
- “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.”
This is where Forbes’ understanding comes in.
College sports — hardly just a basketball discussion — have undergone rapid change in recent years. The combustion of the transfer portal, immediate eligibility for transfers of any type, name-image-likeness payments through endorsements and collectives, pending revenue sharing between schools and athletes — you get the point.
“I really think these become personal choices,” Forbes said. “You know, do you want to coach in this environment or don’t you? And (Bennett) obviously chose to not because it doesn’t fit who he is and what he believes in, and I respect that.”
Elaborating on that was a quote from Forbes’ Twitter account on Monday:
