Cal Sports Report

How Does Tony Bennett's Surprising Retirement Affect Cal?

When one of the top collegiate basketball coaches calls it quits it benefits every other team in the ACC

Jake Curtis

Virginia head coach Tony Bennett
Virginia head coach Tony Bennett / Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images
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Thursday’s announcement that Virginia head basketball coach Tony Bennett is retiring, effective immediately, took everyone by surprise and changes the landscape in the ACC.

That includes Cal, which is entering its first season in the ACC and is beginning its second season under coach Mark Madsen.

It's difficult to say how much Cal will benefit from Bennett's departure, but it certainly will make things easier. Bennett's retirement along with the recent retirements of Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim and Roy Williams leave the ACC without a superstar head coach.

The opportuntiy is there to make headway in the ACC, which, until the past few years, was considered the best basketball conference in the country.

Bennett will formally announce retirement at a press conference on Friday, but his departure removes the best head coach in the conference.  The effect may not be noticeable in the 2024-25 season, but it will certainly be noticed over the next several years. Bennett squeezed nationally ranked teams out of marginal talent in both the Pac-10 at Washington State and in the ACC at Virginia.

Bennett won 26 games in two of his three seasons as the Cougars head coach, and won 30 games or more four times at Virginia and finished five seasons ranked in the top six in the country.  The Cavaliers were the 2019 national champions.

Before Bennett arrived, Virginia had a winning conference record in just three of the previous 14 seasons.

Virginia was picked to finish fifth in the ACC this year in the preseason poll.

Bennett’s absence opens the door for other ACC teams to step in over the coming years.  That includes Cal, which was picked to finish 16th in the 18-team ACC this season.  The Bears improved to 9-11 in conference play in its final season in the Pac-12 last year, but Madsen will take virtually an entirely new roster into this season.  Every starter this season is expected to be a player Cal obtained through the transfer portal in the offseason.

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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