By SAM LANCE
Tony Bennett shocked the college basketball world this past Thursday, announcing his retirement as the head coach of Virginia at age 55. In his retirement press conference, Bennett gave a number of reasons why he’s hanging it up, including the changing landscape with NIL and the transfer portal.
“The hardest thing to say is when I looked at myself and I realized I’m no longer the best coach to lead this program in this current environment,” Bennett said at his news conference. “If you’re going to do it, you gotta be all-in. If you do it halfhearted, it’s not fair to the university and those young men. So in looking at it, that’s what made me step down.”
With this news, a question was posed to Bill Self after KU’s Late Night in the Phog event on Friday. What does he think of the new landscape as one of the elders in the college hoops coaching sphere? Is he still happy in his seat with all of new changes?
“I’m still having fun,” Self responded. “It beats work. I think there’s some things about it that [Bennett’s] right on point with a lot of that stuff. I didn’t hear him say anything that wasn’t on point. But I do think it will balance out. I do think there’s going to be going to be a balance at some point in time. Now, I don’t know if that’s a year or two years down the road that looks different than it does today. But right now, to me, and my administration is basically responsible for this — to me coaching right now today isn’t any different than it was five years ago. Today, through the end of the season.
Self continued:
“It’s the recruiting, it’s the others things of the guys that aren’t here yet. But the guys that are here, we won’t have any issues with that. So the issue will be jealousy in the locker room and stuff like that. But from my vantage point, it’s still just coaching guys.”
At 62, Self is now one of the most tenured coaches in college basketball, along with Mark Few, Tom Izzo, Leonard Hamilton, and Greg Kampe to name a few. Despite the ever-evolving landscape, Self seems unbothered and believes he can continue leading Kansas successfully. And as long as he’s happy, I’m sure the Jayhawk faithful is too.
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