Guest columnist David Teel writes that Bennett’s retirement leaves the ACC without a national-championship head coach for the first time since the 1981-82 season, when North Carolina won the first

Less than three weeks away from starting his 16th season as Virginia men's basketball coach, Tony Bennett is retiring, according to the school.

Virginia men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett is retiring, the school announced on Thursday. Bennett, a three-time national coach of the year who went 433-169 in his 18-year career and 364-136 in 15 seasons with the Cavaliers, will address the public in a news conference on Friday morning.

Virginia men's basketball coach Tony Bennett is retiring effective immediately. The program said Thursday that Bennett will announce his retirement at a news conference Friday.

Tony Bennett’s retirement from coaching was a major loss for the University of Virginia. It was an equally damaging loss for all of college basketball. In an era when it seems as if nothing is certain in the sport, Bennett represented everything good — a class act in every way, and a Hall of Fame coach as a bonus.

We never truly knew how lucky we were to have Tony Bennett at the helm. In only a few years time, Virginia men’s basketball shifted from an afterthought to a juggernaut. Bennett consistently dominated the ACC,