Virginia associate head coach Ron Sanchez has been named head coach at Charlotte

Updated 7:38 p.m.

With the Virginia Cavaliers basketball season officially completed, longtime Tony Bennett assistant Ron Sanchez will be leaving Charlottesville to become the new head coach of the Charlotte 49ers out of Conference USA. He’ll be formally introduced at a press conference next week.

Charlotte had fired former NBA All-Star Mark Price as its head coach in December 2017. Assistant Coach Houston Fancher was named interim head coach for the 49ers, who finished 6-23 overall and 2-16 in CUSA play.

Sanchez came to UVA with Bennett from Washington State, where he had been since 2003. He was promoted to associate head coach at Virginia for the 2015-16 season.

It’s a well-deserved promotion for Sanchez and the beginning of a growing coaching tree for the young Tony Bennett. Former assistant Ritchie McKay had left Virginia at the end of the 2015 season to become the head coach of Liberty. McKay had originally left Liberty in 2009 to coach under Bennett.