Kentucky coach Mark Pope shares his thoughts on Virginia coach Tony Bennett’s retirement

The college basketball world was shocked last week when Virginia coach Tony Bennett decided to retire. The real shock of this announcement came from the fact that the season is less than two weeks away from starting.

In his retirement press conference, Coach Bennett talked about how the NIL and the transfer portal played a big role in his decision to step away from college basketball. Coach Bennett had this to say about why he is stepping aside in a recent press conference: “The game and college athletics are not in a healthy place and there needs to be change. I guess I was prepared to do the job here the old-fashioned way. This is who I am, and this is how it happened. My team pushed me to get to this point, but there needs to be change.”

After the Blue-White game, Kentucky head coach Mark Pope was asked his opinion on coach Bennett’s retirement. Coach Pope had this to say about Bennet’s retirement: “I think he’s one of the most iconic figures in college sports. He’ll be there for this game, for sure.”

It will be strange to see Virginia take the floor with Coach Bennett, not head coach, but it’s clear the former coach believes college basketball is not in a good place with all the changes.

It will be interesting to see if this starts to happen more often with some of the college coaching legends who have been in the game for a long time.