Why Porter Moser and other College basketball coaches can relate to Tony Bennett’s decision to retire

The retirement of Tony Bennett caused seismic shifts to not only the Virginia basketball program, but the entire landscape of college basketball. The future Naismith Hall of famer abruptly retired last Thursday with only a few weeks remaining before the start of the 2024-25 season.

"I thought it would be a little longer, to be honest, but it's been on loan and it's time for me to give it back," Bennett said in a press conference explaining his decision.

"Until there's parameters, I know I can't do it, and that's the whole deal here. Can I give everything, can we build a program in this way, or is my way more designed for the old model?"

That was the main reasoning for why a 55-year-old head coach in his prime is walking away from the game he loves. To put it simply, Bennett does not feel like he can be the same person on and off the court in the current landscape of college basketball. A coach who has won a national championship, along with six ACC regular season champhionships in such a short time is burnt out from the year-round demands that are asked of coaches now.

Bennett’s retirement is in a way a major indictment on the main issues of collegiate athletics right now. Coaches like Roy Williams, Jay Wright, Nick Saban, etc.. have also expressed how the lack of NIL regulations and the “pay-for-play” dynamics in the transfer portal has played a toll on them mentally and physically.

Looking at this from Oklahoma perspective, there haven’t been too many head coaches impacted more by the transfer portal than our own Porter Moser. Oklahoma men’s basketball is currently under an annual case of roster turnover and as a result, the program hasn’t reached the NCAA tournament in Moser’s three seasons with the school.

Coaches like Moser and Bennett got into the business purely for their passion for the game and to develop young men on and off the court. That is an aspect of the game that is blatantly absent and one in which many college basketball fans are yearning to return.

That’s not to say that there isn’t good with the transfer portal or NIL and Bennett echoed that in his press conference when he fully supported players receiving revenue. But again, losing coaches like Tony Bennett is a big blow for the overall well-being of the student-athletes and the game.

As Moser enters his fourth season with the Sooners, there are only two players returning with meaningful minutes from last season: Jalon Moore and Sam Godwin. However, Moser and his staff seem to be going against the grain and have been on a tear in the high school recruiting trail as they’ve secured three top-100 ranked four-stars according to 247 Sports in Jeremiah Fears (reclassified to 2024), Alec Blair, and Kai Rogers.

Maybe these commits can be a start in the right direction for Oklahoma men’s basketball and hopefully they will stick around for more than one season to develop and gel together. Time will tell, but there are other coaches across college basketball that share a similar sentiment as Bennett does and Oklahoma’s head coach is most likely one of them.